Blood Politics (Blood Destiny 4) (35 page)

I stared at her.
 I couldn’t believe she was pulling that card.  “Fuck off,” I said rudely.  “Whenever I’m involved, that’s exactly what happens.” I leaned in towards her, bloodfire lighting up along the lines of my veins.  “I get people killed.  You need someone else.”

“There is no-one else,” she stated implacably, ignoring my aggressive stance.
  “You know there’s no-one else whom everyone will be able to respect.”

“She’s right, dragonlette,” Solus quietly said.

I looked away.  Fuck the pair of them.  I didn’t want to be anyone’s leader.  I certainly didn’t want to be the leader of these idiots who could barely agree on the fact that sky was sodding blue.

The Summer Queen was watching me carefully.
 “What alternatives are there, Mackenzie?”

Damn it.
 There were none and she knew it.  The shifters would never accept a faerie or a mage.  The faeries and the mages would be the same.  There was Balud, but I was pretty sure that his main motive lay with his profit margin.

“What about Aubrey?”

They both just looked at me, unblinkingly.

I sighed.
 “Okay, fine.  Whatever.  I’ll do it.  But not for long, alright?  Only until we get rid of Endor.  And only if every single person in that room agrees.”

The Summer Queen permitted herself a small smile.
 There was a tentative knock on the door, and the Arch-Mage’s head curved round.

“Well?” he asked.

“She agreed.”

He exhaled loudly.
 “Great.  Did you…?”

The Summer Queen shook her head.
 “Not yet.”

I stared at them suspiciously.
 “What?”

“You need to be impartial, Mackenzie.”

Well, duh.  “I think I can manage that.”

“If you’re not impartial,” chimed in the Arch-Mage, “then the council will fall apart before it even starts.”

“Okay.  I’ll be fair.  I can’t think why you’d believe I wouldn’t be.”  As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realised what they were getting at.  My mouth dropped open.  “No.”

“You know that we need you to head the council if we’re going to have any chance of beating Endor.”

“You can’t make me do this.”

“You grew up with the shifters, Mackenzie.
 Even with your other alliances there will be concerns that your loyalties will lie with them.”

“I left them,” I said desperately.
 “Of my own free will.  I don’t have ties to them any more.  Not like that.  I’ll be fair.  I’ll be impartial.  You can’t force me to do this.”

“We’re not forcing you.
 It’s ultimately your decision.”

“But unless you give him up, you can’t be the unbiased leader of a mixed council.”

“And without a mixed council, without that collaborative power, there’s little chance we’ll be able to beat Endor.”

I could feel my whole body sagging in response to their tag-team approach.

“You can’t be in a relationship with the Lord Alpha, dragonlette.”

I stared at Solus, angry flickers of fire sparking up all over my body.

“You have to be seen to be above reproach,” the Summer Queen stated simply.  

The Arch-Mage’s expression was pure stone.
“And you need to rise up beyond such things and think rationally.  You will have plenty of opportunity once this whole nasty business is done and dusted to make it up to him.   But for now the split needs to be real.  You have to have a purely business relationship with Corrigan from this point on.”  

“Let’s face it,” the Queen added, “it’s not as if you’re already in a long term relationship with him.
 It’s been what, less than twenty-four hours since you both…”

I glared at her.
 She fell silent.  I threw Solus a dirty look for passing on idle gossip.  He was staring unhappily down at the tiled floor.  Screw him then.

I kicked angrily at the wall.
 There was no choice.  Yet again.  What was the point in having free will if you were constantly being painted into a corner?

“Fuck!” I shouted aloud, my cry echoing around the room.
 “Fuck!”

“Thank you, Mackenzie.”
 The Summer Queen bowed her head.  She knew that inside I’d already agreed.  “It’s for the greater good.”

“I’ll call the
others back in,” said the Arch-Mage.  “You’re doing the right thing, you know.”

Hot tears pricked at the back of my throat.
 How could this be the right thing when it felt so wrong?  

Both the head of the mages and the ruler of the Seelie Fae turned and left.
 Solus and I were alone.

“I’m sorry, dragonlette,” he said miserably.
 “I didn’t…”

“Shut up.
 Just shut up.”  I brushed past him, my heart aching.  Sorry just wasn’t going to cut it.

Chapter Twenty Five

I wanted to talk to Corrigan on my own.
 He deserved to hear from me personally, without any of the others nearby.  I needed to explain what was happening.  By the time I’d exited from the bathroom, however, he was nowhere to be seen.

I pushed out my Voice.
 
Corrigan?  Where are you?

Back in the boardroom.
 Apparently we’ve been summoned to return.  
There was a touch of sardonic amusement in his reply.  My heart sank.

I need to talk to you.

“Mackenzie, we need you inside now.”  The Summer Queen was holding open the door and gesturing me inside.

“I want to talk to Corrigan first.”

“There’s no time.  We need to wrap this up now before things degenerate further.”

I opened my mouth to refuse, but I was interrupted by the
sounds of a scuffle from within Alcazon’s private boardroom.  Heart sinking, I walked inside.  Beltran had cornered one of the other mages and the pair of them were shouting at each other.  I yanked at the corner of his shirt and pulled him backwards.

“Get it together, you idiot,” I hissed, despair that his petty altercation was preventing me from getting hold of Corrigan raging through me.

“Why don’t you sit down, Mackenzie?” invited the Fae Queen, her tone all sweetness and light. 

It took almost everything I had not to turn around and slap her but with the weight of everyone’s eyes suddenly on me this
wasn’t the time to make my real feelings clear.  Unfortunately it was neither appropriate to demand a little alone time with the Lord Alpha – not any longer.  Instead, I took my seat.  I could feel Corrigan looking at me, but somehow I couldn’t turn round and meet his gaze.  Everything was going all so very wrong.

Mack?
 What’s wrong?

I swallowed.
 
Corrigan, I…

“We’ve had a little meeting just now,” declared the Arch-Mage.
 “And I’m pleased to say that I think we have a solution to our problems.”

“Indeed,” said the Summer Queen.
 “We are all agreed that we need to work together if we are to defeat Endor.  He has already proven himself too powerful and, while we do not yet know what his end game really is, we must acknowledge that he is to be stopped before he even comes close.”

There were mutterings of agreement.
  I was really rather hoping that Endor would take this very moment to appear and prevent her from saying anything more.  No such luck, however.

She continued. 
“Therefore, we have decided that the most appropriate course of action is to appoint Mackenzie Smith as head of the council that will deal with his demise.”

I could see Corrigan stiffening in the chair opposite me.
 I closed my eyes briefly as everyone swivelled back round to face me.

“As neither Fae nor mage nor shifter, she will be able to bring everyone together.”

There was a moment of pure silence.

Mack?
The wary doubt in Corrigan’s Voice was clear.

“Hold on,” said Beltran.
 “I don’t deny that she’s powerful.  And that she has the makings of an effective leader, but isn’t she kind of a shifter?”

“No.
 She’s a Draco Wyr.  It’s different,” stated Lucy firmly.  “I think it’s a brilliant idea.”

What exactly is going here, Mack?

“Yeah, but, her and him,” Larkin jerked his head towards Corrigan, “don’t they kind of have of a thing?  She’ll be looking out for his interests.  Not ours.”

Oh, Larkin, I thought sadly.
 Please shut up.  Please, please, shut the hell up.

“I’ll let Miss Mackenzie answer that one,” said the Arch-Mage.

Don’t make me do this here, I pleaded silently.  It’s not fair.

“Mackenzie?”
 The Summer Queen arched her eyebrows at me.

Blast it all
. Surely there had to be another way?  I looked round at all the faces turned expectantly towards me.  Most were displaying open hope.  Corrigan’s expression was blank, his eyes cold chipped jade.

I’m sorry, Corrigan.

He didn’t answer.  I took a deep breath.  “The Lord Alpha and I will maintain a purely platonic relationship.  There is nothing more between us.  Not any longer.”

Lucy was st
aring at me, shock in her gaze, while Staines had a vaguely unsurprised expression.  Corrigan didn’t move a muscle.

“How do we know that’s true?”

“Because I give you my word,” I said quietly.  I felt sick to my stomach.

“Excellent!”
 The Summer Queen clapped her hands.  “Now can I suggest that we reconvene in, say, three days’ time?  You’ll set up the Divination spells at the Ministry?”  The Arch-Mage nodded.  “And Balud, you’ll begin research on a weapon.”  The troll grunted.  “Miss Mackenzie, I’ll leave to you to decide who to contact amongst the shifters to get some help with your transformations.”  She stood back up.  “Ladies, gentlemen.  I think that’s what you call a success.”

It had all happened so quickly.  Clearly, the Seelie Queen could be lethal when she needed to be. 
I watched from my chair as she walked out, the other Faes trailing in her wake.  Solus didn’t look at me.  The Arch- Mage and his minions followed, along with Balud and Aubrey, then Lucy and Staines both got up.  They seemed reluctant to leave, but Corrigan flicked his wrist, and they both gave short bows and disappeared.

“Corrigan, I’m sorry.
 I didn’t want to do things this way.  You have to believe me.”

I stared at him searchingly, waiting for him to give me something, anything in return.
 Eventually he lifted his eyes.  The look in them was so cold and so hard that I recoiled.

“Corrigan…”

He stood up, pushing his chair backwards.  It slammed hard against the wall, making me jump.  “Who’s the power hungry maniac now, kitten?”

I clenched my teeth, unhappiness seeping through every bone of my body.
 I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out.  What the fuck could I say?

“I don’t ever want to see you again.
 Do you hear me?”

I nodded miserably.

“If you want help transforming then you can damn well contact Staines or Lucy or Tom.  Leave me out of it.”  His tone was quiet and even, but the tension and anger he felt were visible.  His hands shook as he gripped the edge of the table.

“Have you got that?”

I nodded again.

“I said have you fucking got that?” he snarled.

“Yes,” I answered in a small voice.  “I’ve got that.”

“Good.”
 He pivoted on his heel and stalked out without so much as a single backwards glance.

*

I got back home via the tube.  Everyone else had already left.  Even Aubrey seemed to have disappeared somewhere, realising that now was not the time to be getting in my way.  My shiny red door gleamed as I approached, as if it were mocking me.  I fumbled with my keys, finally managing to fit them into the lock and get it open.  Then I carefully shut the door behind me and leaned my back against it.  The pain in my chest was unbearable.  Had it really only been a couple of hours since Corrigan and I had stood here holding each other?  I’d hurt him so badly.  I didn’t blame him for never wanting to have anything to do with me again.  I’d effectively just completely humiliated him in front of the mages, the Fae, and even his own shifters.

I walked into my little kitchen, shoulders sagging.
 The broken china, dribbles of coffee and collection of dead flowers still lay where I’d thrown them.  I sighed and bent down to pick them all back up and dump them in the bin.  Then I opened up the window to let in some fresh air and get rid of the faint smell of rotting garbage.  A gust of wind sneaked in, ruffling my hair.  A single tear dropped slowly down my cheek, and I wiped it angrily away.  The papers on the table – the Fae translation of the story of my heritage - caught in the breeze, and several fluttered to the ground.  With a heavy heart, I scooped them back up and attempted to put them into order.