“Does Rose know?”
“She knows that I have been making myself necessary. She’d be stupid not to, and your counterpart isn’t stupid.”
I struggled, but in this medium, I wasn’t quite sure how.
Stupid, to get cornered like this, but what choice had I had? I’d tried negotiating, and backing down or cowering would only have made Conquest worse. I’d had to bluff my way into it.
Had to hope I could find power and leverage it.
But I might as well have been a one year old, this setting and form were so new to me.
“Ah,” Conquest said, still forcing me to look away. Her voice had changed. Harder, a little more crisp, a different person’s voice. “I was expecting this.”
Outside, in the real world, Rose stopped walking. She allowed herself to clutch Alister’s arm just a little tighter, before releasing it.
“Shit,” Alister said.
Rose was silent. Most of the others, including the others who had escaped the Abyss, the High Priest, the Knights, Tiff, and Ty, had stopped, collected as a loose group.
Ms. Lewis stood a distance away. Facing all of them.
“I was expecting this,” Rose said, echoing Conquest.
As she spoke, she drew on Conquest for presence, power, and courage.
Conquest, gripping me by the throat, squeezed tighter. Hurt me.
Rose turned her head sharply to one side, as if listening for something.
“What?” Alister asked.
“Blake,” she said.
“He has atrocious timing,” Alister observed.
Not wrong.
“It’s not that. He’s hurting.”
She eased up, letting go of Conquest, and the grip on my throat relaxed a fraction. Still painfully tight.
“Not good,” Rose said. “I’m disarmed, and we need every edge we can get, here.”
“You have us,” Alister said.
“I’m not sure that’s good enough.”
I looked down at Conquest, who wore Grandmother’s body, her expression cold.
Because, I had to assume, when I’d dealt with a dragon, fought multiple demons ranging from mote to nightmare, when I’d been in and out of the Abyss three times, befriended monsters who flayed people alive, and fought off the hordes of Toronto, my ignoble end had to be rubbed in by it being at the hands of an old lady.
“Rose,” Ms. Lewis said. “Your husband-to-be, hello, Alister.”
“Hello.”
“And Mr. Thorburn, who isn’t in a position to respond.”
“No, he isn’t,” Rose said.
Rose’s heart was pounding, and I was keenly aware of it. A sensation I’d missed. Her mouth was dry, and she wanted to tap Conquest, very, very badly.
“We’re displeased,” Ms. Lewis said. “I don’t imagine that’s a great shock.”
“No,” Rose said.
“We were to obtain the house, but the property isn’t in a state we can benefit from. Which leaves us at a crossroads.”
“Crossroads,” Peter said, from the midst of the collected group, as if trying on the word, barely aware he’d spoken.
“This can be resolved without conflict, if you would agree to sign on with the firm.”
Several people in the group between Ms. Lewis and Rose moved uncomfortably. Hands were on weapons.
“That’s good to know,” Rose said, very carefully. “Can I have some time to get my affairs in order?”
“We would need an explicit affirmative on the offer of a position,” Ms. Lewis said. “Are you giving it?”
Rose was silent. Seconds passed.
Conquest tightened her grip on my throat.
“I’ll take that as a no,” Ms. Lewis said.
“It would be making me everything I’ve promised myself I wouldn’t be,” Rose said, “And I made other promises. To Alister, and to the Abyss.”
Lewis didn’t look surprised in the slightest.
“Conflict it is, then,” she said. “I’m sorry to have to do this, but I have orders.”
Rose nodded, but she didn’t speak. She didn’t trust herself to.
“Sorry, Blake,” she thought, communicating to me. “But if you could endure, I’d really appreciate it. And if you could help, that’d be even better, because I have a dozen ideas, and zero faith they’re going to work.”
That thought expressed, she started to feed into Conquest.
15.06