Read Online Aces Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 5 by Jenn Stark - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Jenn Stark
Ads: Link
brigade at the Bellagio when Gamon came to attack Soo,” I said dryly. “Trust me, I’ve got self-protection covered.”
He shook his head. “You’re missing the key point of my objection. You’re meant for more than House command, Miss Wilde.”
“Yeah? So what color parachute have you picked out for me, then?” I waved off his confused expression. “Cut to the chase, Armaeus. You got that much work lined up that you’re going to put me on retainer?”
Inexplicably, Armaeus’s face lightened. “Retainer…” He pursed his lips.
Whoops, bad idea. “Never mind, it’s not an option. What is it you need me to do?”
His lips flattened again. “It’s not so much a matter of you doing something, it’s you being something. You’re an asset to the Council.”
“And I’m mortal, and the Council isn’t. So forgive me for wanting to ally myself with the home team a bit more.”
“The Council is not arrayed against the Connecteds.”
“You don’t have a stellar track record of protecting them either. I’ve seen what the dark practitioners are doing to those kids, Armaeus. Adults too who’re particularly gifted. If all that magic gets stamped out, you and your precious Council won’t have anything left to balance, remember? So why shouldn’t I get involved?”
“Perhaps because you could be operating at the position of puppet master, versus the doll dangling from a string.”
I rolled my eyes. “Once again, you’re not listening. I don’t want to be a puppet master, Armaeus, I want to be down on the stage with everyone else. These people are my people. The Connecteds have a place in society that is determined by their own sense of what’s right and wrong, even if that sense doesn’t agree with what you think they should be doing. They deserve better than to be used as tools, whether by the dark practitioners or frightened organizations like SANCTUS trying to stamp out magic, or even by the Council. If they want to form an army, great—they can go to war. If most of them prefer to hide in the shadows, to protect themselves or their spouses and children, also great. There will always be those who are willing to fight.”
“And since when are you one of those people?”
Since two wide-eyed Connected girls told me to pick up my sword and save the world . “What I do now or in the future is none of your concern, Armaeus. You can sit back and watch like the rest of the Council, and—”
“No!” Armaeus’s outburst was so violent that the chairs on the stone veranda jumped, though he hadn’t pounded a wall or stamped his feet. Still, the energy in the air turned crystalline, heat glazed by the intensity of his emotion. “ That is where you are wrong, Miss Wilde. You’ve spent so long protesting your right to do whatever you want that you neglect to see what is right before you. The game has changed. I have changed. And I will no longer be satisfied with sitting by and observing, as you so succinctly put it. I have done that quite enough.”
I’d snapped my mouth shut in surprise, but Armaeus didn’t need any encouragement to continue. “Allow me to share with you what I saw in Hell, when I wasn’t trying to keep you and your depraved twin soul from twisting events to your own despicable ends.”
I winced. That was totally unfair, but now didn’t seem the time to cry foul.
Armaeus barreled on. “The woman you saw in that plane was not a mirage or a memory, Miss Wilde. She was the woman I’d pledged my life to love and protect. And then the needs of the Council grew too great, and I did not return one fall as I had intended to. That year, the winter was particularly harsh. Though Mirabel had money and retainers, she could not outrun the sickness that ravaged the land. She came into contact with a stricken man at breakfast and was dead by dinner, as the saying goes. I was told weeks after her body was cold in the ground. Cold! Here I was, the Magician of the Arcana Council, able to
He shook his head. “You’re missing the key point of my objection. You’re meant for more than House command, Miss Wilde.”
“Yeah? So what color parachute have you picked out for me, then?” I waved off his confused expression. “Cut to the chase, Armaeus. You got that much work lined up that you’re going to put me on retainer?”
Inexplicably, Armaeus’s face lightened. “Retainer…” He pursed his lips.
Whoops, bad idea. “Never mind, it’s not an option. What is it you need me to do?”
His lips flattened again. “It’s not so much a matter of you doing something, it’s you being something. You’re an asset to the Council.”
“And I’m mortal, and the Council isn’t. So forgive me for wanting to ally myself with the home team a bit more.”
“The Council is not arrayed against the Connecteds.”
“You don’t have a stellar track record of protecting them either. I’ve seen what the dark practitioners are doing to those kids, Armaeus. Adults too who’re particularly gifted. If all that magic gets stamped out, you and your precious Council won’t have anything left to balance, remember? So why shouldn’t I get involved?”
“Perhaps because you could be operating at the position of puppet master, versus the doll dangling from a string.”
I rolled my eyes. “Once again, you’re not listening. I don’t want to be a puppet master, Armaeus, I want to be down on the stage with everyone else. These people are my people. The Connecteds have a place in society that is determined by their own sense of what’s right and wrong, even if that sense doesn’t agree with what you think they should be doing. They deserve better than to be used as tools, whether by the dark practitioners or frightened organizations like SANCTUS trying to stamp out magic, or even by the Council. If they want to form an army, great—they can go to war. If most of them prefer to hide in the shadows, to protect themselves or their spouses and children, also great. There will always be those who are willing to fight.”
“And since when are you one of those people?”
Since two wide-eyed Connected girls told me to pick up my sword and save the world . “What I do now or in the future is none of your concern, Armaeus. You can sit back and watch like the rest of the Council, and—”
“No!” Armaeus’s outburst was so violent that the chairs on the stone veranda jumped, though he hadn’t pounded a wall or stamped his feet. Still, the energy in the air turned crystalline, heat glazed by the intensity of his emotion. “ That is where you are wrong, Miss Wilde. You’ve spent so long protesting your right to do whatever you want that you neglect to see what is right before you. The game has changed. I have changed. And I will no longer be satisfied with sitting by and observing, as you so succinctly put it. I have done that quite enough.”
I’d snapped my mouth shut in surprise, but Armaeus didn’t need any encouragement to continue. “Allow me to share with you what I saw in Hell, when I wasn’t trying to keep you and your depraved twin soul from twisting events to your own despicable ends.”
I winced. That was totally unfair, but now didn’t seem the time to cry foul.
Armaeus barreled on. “The woman you saw in that plane was not a mirage or a memory, Miss Wilde. She was the woman I’d pledged my life to love and protect. And then the needs of the Council grew too great, and I did not return one fall as I had intended to. That year, the winter was particularly harsh. Though Mirabel had money and retainers, she could not outrun the sickness that ravaged the land. She came into contact with a stricken man at breakfast and was dead by dinner, as the saying goes. I was told weeks after her body was cold in the ground. Cold! Here I was, the Magician of the Arcana Council, able to
Similar Books
