“Yes, something that’s over now,” Annabelle pointed out, and mouthed ‘sorry’ at me as she left. Her two cats immediately followed her out, to be sure not to miss out on any nom noms. Of course, that hardly even put a dent in the chaos. Rico remained frozen halfway through an impressive leap toward Rhea, although not entirely. A slowdown wasn’t the same thing as a time stoppage, because the latter was damned hard and I was already pooped. But it wasn’t far off. Which was why the long tails of Rico’s black silk shirt were fluttering out behind him almost like a cape—or like the best slow-motion capture of a superhero ever, framed against the starry night sky.
A bad boy Superman, I thought, admiring the Mediterranean complexion, well-muscled body and sleek, dark hair. The fangs were a little jarring, as were the currently glowing, golden eyes, but he wore them well. He made an interesting contrast to Rhea’s fresh-faced innocence, but then, opposites do attract . . .
“Lady Cassandra,” Hilde said heavily, bringing me back to earth. “How kind of you to join us. I thought you were ‘sleeping’.”
There were almost visible quotation marks around that last word, because Hilde had been hinting more and more openly that she knew about my little time cheats. She didn’t seem to approve, although she’d never said anything outright, probably because Pythias always did this sort of thing. I didn’t know what the problem was, but it wasn’t the one I was dealing with right now, so I ignored it.
Around here, you picked your battles.
“You mean you hoped I was,” I said, finally walking forward. And having to duck under some gently falling vamps in the process, who Rico had literally thrown off him and who were wafting gently toward earth. “What are you doing to my acolyte?”
“What had to be done,” Hilde said, indicating with a gesture the figure of Rhea, still huddled on the ground with her hands over her head because she couldn’t break free of the spell.
I sighed.
“She’s still learning,” I pointed out.
“On the contrary, that is precisely what she is not doing.”
“Hilde—”
“You have worked with her,” Hilde said, relentless. “I have worked with her. Every acolyte here has worked with her. She is not getting better.”
“She can’t even shift, Lady,” another one said timidly. I didn’t know which, because I was still glaring at Hilde.
“And shocking the shit out of her is going to help?”
“Possibly. It remains to be seen.”
“You are not going to torture my acolyte! That is not how we do things here!”
Hilde looked at the others, who had the grace to appear at least vaguely uncomfortable. Which they damned well should! Seriously, what the hell?
“Leave us,” Hilde said, and they fled, looking relieved.
“What the hell do you call this?” I demanded, reaching for Rhea to pull her out of the time spell.
But Hilde caught my arm. “Tough love.”
“This isn’t going to make her love it, Hilde!” I said, furious. “She already has some kind of mental block against using the Pythian power; you know that. So, your solution is to make her hate it more?”
“My solution is to keep her alive. Mollycoddling isn’t going to do that—”
“And this will?”
“As I said, that remains to be seen. But something must be done. She cannot continue in the position she holds if she cannot manage the simplest of spells.”
“She knows plenty of spells,” I argued. “She can protect herself with conventional magic; you’ve seen that—”
“But can she protect you? For that is her job as your heir, among many others.”
“I don’t need protection!”
“Until one day you do. When the day comes that you need her, and she fails you, how do you think she will feel then, Cassie? How much pain will that cause?”
I started to say something, but then caught sight of Rhea’s face, underneath her protective arms. She looked tragic, probably because it was women that she considered friends who were attacking her. But also defeated; this had been going on all month and the repeated failures had worn her down.
She didn’t smile so much anymore, I thought, remembering the shining eyes of the girl who had come here a couple months ago. Even with Rico, she didn’t. She wore the weight of someone who was out of her depth and didn’t know what to do about it, and it disturbed me that I was the one who had put her there.