60. Chapter Sixty
Chapter Sixty
Empusa The Devourer
The Headmaster invites a small group of us to dinner.
This dinner is a facade for them to pretend they’re normal and flaunt their money in one go.
The room is warm, filled with overhead lights that look like they could set fire to the place at any second, and under-seasoned food.
I believe they call them waiters? I sit beside him on a red stool, close enough for my knee to brush his.
He’s old, clever, and far too proud of the position he clings to.
He speaks as if every word is worth framing.
I let him finish his rambling before I lean in. “You trust me, don’t you?”
His pupils dilate as his breath slows. It’s almost disappointing how quickly he falls under. Men crumble so easily. Even vampires with big dick titles. “Yes,” he says.
“Good boy.” I touch his wrist lightly, tracing over his watch.
“Tell me about the Council.” He does. Every detail.
Every rule. Every surname that matters and every feud that doesn’t.
He speaks of the old ones, the founding bloodlines, the rites that keep them tethered to their power.
And then the piece he shouldn’t share with me at all.
But why not? Kalevala’s body is the perfect ploy for my mission.
“Every five hundred years,” he whispers, “we choose a new ruler. Consider it a fresh set of eyes, a reset of power, if you will. I don’t need to think of mine for a little while longer.
I still have seventy odd years to ponder.
You really start to narrow down your options in the last five or ten years. ”
Five hundred years. A delicious cycle. The lights flicker as he keeps talking and I let satisfaction curl through me like smoke.
When the time comes, I’ll return. It’ll be so easy.
A little smile here, a little charm there, and this same man will hand me the crown.
I can already taste it. “Perfect.” I lower my voice to a whisper and tell him everything I need him to do when it comes.
I talk of Beau and the name he knows me by.
I tell him how fast, smart, beautiful, and cunning Beau Drewitt is.
How when the time comes to ponder options, he will stop at nothing to track him down.
“Now, do me a favor, baby. Pay for my dinner and don’t remember me or my sweet name. Don’t dare let it cross your lips again until it’s time.”
“Of course.” Queen. The word slides warmly through my thoughts.
It fits me. It fits better than anything Hecate ever wanted for me.
I sit back in my chair, watching the headmaster blink at me with lost adoration.
The world could break around us and he wouldn’t notice unless I told him to. So simple. So perfect. So easy.
“Yes,” I whisper. “When the time comes, I’ll take what’s mine.” And I will.