Rachel hadn’t said a word since our conversation outside the house, and she didn’t react to our looks now, staring out of the window at the cars flashing past on the road. Without her mask she was a very different person; less forceful, more withdrawn. There was no more violence in the futures, and the deadly menace to her manner was gone. I could tell that Anne sensed it too, or she wouldn’t have been talking as she was.
“Where does she like to go to eat?” Anne asked once it was clear that Rachel wasn’t going to answer.
“Fancy places,” Cinder said.
“Like where?” I asked.
Rachel spoke without looking at me. “How long are you idiots going to keep talking about food?”
I looked at Cinder and raised my eyebrows. Cinder looked back at me without expression.
I was saved from having to answer the question by the waitress, who came with our trays, set them down on the table with a clatter, and walked away. It’s unusual for a McDonald’s to have table service. Maybe that was why Cinder liked this one in particular.
I’d been hoping Cinder would break the ice and give me something to work with, but it seemed as though he was expecting me to do it myself. “So,” I said to Rachel. “I’m getting the impression you’re not happy.”
Rachel gave me a look which I’d become quite familiar with from the times over the past few years where we’d had a peaceful conversation, which come to think of it could probably be counted on the fingers of one hand. The look said that if I was going to say something this stupid, she wasn’t going to bother answering.
“Want to talk about it?” I asked.
“No.”
“Going to be kind of hard to work this out if you’re just going to stare at me.”
Rachel raised her eyes to meet mine, and there was a flat, emotionless look to them. “You want to work this out?” she said. “Fine. I kill you. I get to shut you up, and you get your way out. That was what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
“That’s not really my ideal solution.”
“I don’t care.” Rachel looked at Cinder. “This is a waste of time.”
I paused. Anne was staying quiet, presumably figuring that anything she said to Rachel would only make things worse. She was probably right, and right now, and what I was doing wasn’t working either. I remembered a conversation I’d had with Morden long ago. “What do you want?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Rachel said.
“You work for Richard,” I said. “And now, apparently, for Morden. I’m guessing it’s not because you don’t have anything better to do with your time.”
Rachel looked coldly at me.
“So why do you do it?”
Rachel turned to Cinder. Cinder shrugged, as if to say it was a fair question. “I mean, with us, it’s not exactly complicated,” I said. “We’re under duress. Given the choice, we’d be as far away from all of you as we possibly could.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“Thanks,” I said. “You, on the other hand? You’re a volunteer. I mean, how long did you guard that mansion for? Maintaining the alarms, watching to see when they were triggered. Then when they pinged, you’d gate over to kill every living thing you could find. You kept that up for how long, nine years?”
“Ten.”
“Ten,” I said. “That’s serious dedication.”
Rachel stared at me.
“Seems to me you’d need some pretty powerful motivation to stick it out that long.”
“So?”
“So why’d you do it?”
“Because I’m Richard’s Chosen,” Rachel said. “Something you wouldn’t understand.”
“For how long?”
“What?”
“How long are you going to stay his Chosen?”
“None of your business.”
“Most new Dark mages leave their masters within three, maybe four years,” I said. “Some leave as soon as they have their name. But you? You’ve been Richard’s Chosen for twelve and a half years. There are mages out there who’d train three Chosen in that time. So I have to wonder. What is it you’re getting that’s worth so much that you’re willing to spend your entire adult life doing nothing else?”
Rachel was silent. “I mean, there’s power,” I said. “Influence. Respect. You get all that from Richard, no question there. But here’s the thing. It seems to me that you’re pretty powerful on your own.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “You think Richard’s going to be running the country in a few years, and he’ll reward you for your loyalty. That about right?”
Rachel looked at me, sharp and suspicious. “It’s not exactly a secret,” I said.
“And who’s going to stop him?” Rachel said. “You?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “But let’s say he does win. Let’s say he becomes the new dark lord of Britain, with the power of life and death over everyone in the country, and he has to choose someone to stand one step below him and rule in his name. Why would he choose you?”
“I’m his Chosen,” Rachel said, a little too quickly.
“Except when he came back, the one he chose for his partner was Morden.”
“That’s different,” Rachel said. “Anyway, Morden has influence on the Council. It’s politics.”
“And Vihaela?” I said.
Rachel had no answer to that. While Rachel, Morden, and I had all known Richard for a very long time, Vihaela, relatively speaking, was the new kid on the block. I didn’t know much about Vihaela’s relationship with Richard and I didn’t know how he’d convinced her to work for him, but I did know that it had been Vihaela who’d been brought into Richard’s inner circle while Rachel had stayed where she was. “And now there’s us,” I continued. “Anne and me, working for Morden, just like you. Kind of sounds like we’re on the same level, doesn’t it?”
“For now.”
“Until what?” I said harshly. “Until you kill me? For once in your life, stop trying to murder your way out of problems and think. If you’d managed to get me today, what do you think would have happened next? Richard wasn’t happy with that shot you took at me back in January, was he? He made it pretty clear that his plans involved us alive. How do you think he’s going to react when he finds out that the diviner he went to all the trouble to press-gang is a pile of dust?”
“He doesn’t need you!” Rachel snapped.
“And you think he couldn’t find a dozen Dark mages to take your place?”
“I was the one who waited for him,” Rachel said. “I was the one he trusted to guard the mansion.”
“Great, so you’re his housekeeper.”
Rachel’s eyes flared and for a moment I was afraid I’d pushed her too far, but I finally had her listening to me and I couldn’t afford to play it safe. “You want to know why Richard picked Morden and Vihaela and not you?” I said. “Because they’ve got self-control. Richard’s playing in the big leagues now. He needs people he can trust not to do stupid shit like assassinating someone he’s explicitly ordered to be kept alive. You think killing me will make your problems go away?”
“Maybe it’d be worth it.” Rachel’s voice was savage. “Just to not have to look at your smirking face.”
I could sense violence very close now, and I tensed. Rachel was only a few feet away, staring at me over the table and her untouched meal. If she struck, I’d have to react very fast. I could sense Anne at my side, sitting very still, and I knew she’d read Rachel’s body language.
Then Cinder’s big hand closed over Rachel’s. “Del,” Cinder said. He’d been silent while Rachel and I had talked, but now he was turned towards her.