“Then go.”
“We’ve orders,” Red Face gasped.
“Which I’m overruling. Jonas needs you more than I do—and I’ll clear it with him in a moment, when we talk. Go.”
The two men looked at each other.
“Now. Or I’ll send you myself.”
It was an empty threat, but they didn’t know that. And it didn’t look like they cared. They went.
“Damn straight,” Pink Hair said, and I rounded on her.
“I appreciate the covens sending you,” I said, trying for diplomacy. “However—”
“However?”
“—Tami is right. There are some ground rules.”
The tattooed witch had fought her way back to her feet and retrieved her wand, although I noticed she tucked it away. All while eyeing up Tami, as if she’d never before realized what a null could do, if you were dumb enough to let one actually touch you. Tami could pull magic from across a room, but it was harder, and she wouldn’t get as much.
But skin on skin?
Yeah, you were fucked.
But the experience didn’t seem to have softened the woman’s attitude any. “She doesn’t want us,” she told the others. “I told you.”
“She hasn’t said that,” Pink Hair replied, but her eyes were on me.
/> “I didn’t say that because I didn’t mean that,” I said. “You helped this morning, in a big way. I appreciate it—”
“But now you’d like us to kindly fuck off,” the tough chick interrupted.
“What I’d like you to do is stop finishing my sentences,” I said, sharper than usual, because my nerves were shot.
She looked surprised, like she wasn’t used to being challenged. And I didn’t give her time to recover. “As I was saying, I appreciate the covens’ help this morning, and welcome it now. But there are rules—”
“Like what?”
“Like everyone gets along,” I said, watching her. Because I was pretty sure that had been deliberate.
The mages weren’t the only ones who didn’t like babysitting duty.
“If you don’t want to be here, then don’t be here,” I said, my eyes taking in the whole group. “But if you stay, then you accept that this is a family. Not a job, not a burden—a family. If you can’t handle joining one that’s made up of people you don’t approve of, then you know what to do.”
Nobody moved.
“I’ll fix it with the covens for you,” I added. “I don’t have as much pull with them as the Circle, but I’ll do my best—”
“We’re not leaving,” Tough Chick said, crossing her arms.
It sounded final.
“Then you agree to the rules?”
There was a long, silent moment, and then more silence. But I finally got a nod. And not just from her. The other three witches followed her lead, and so did Jug Ears, who I was surprised to see still taking up space over by what had been a bar before somebody made off with it.
“And where the hell’s my court?” I asked Tami, who rolled her eyes.