A jolt of jealously zinged through me. I swallowed it down. Gideon and I would be together again, eventually. I had to believe it.
“Neither do I,” I said. “Option two is to give in to their demands, which I’m not willing to do.” Unless things get really desperate. Dear gods, please don’t let things get that desperate.
“Is there an option three?” Niffin asked.
“I think so.” I squirmed farther back on my bed, folding my legs crisscross before me. “Le Poing Fermé wants Jackie released from the Council of Magic. As much as it sickens me, I’d be willing to give them that much of what they wanted.” My mind spun as pieces of a plan started falling together. “They think of me as their pawn, but what if I turn their plan on its head?”
Niffin’s brow furrowed. Malita leaned forward, her expression curious and intent.
“What if, instead of agreeing to be Jackie’s pawn, I make him into mine?”
“How can you control a Magician as strong as Jackie Faercourt?” Niffin asked.
I folded my fingers together under my chin and grinned. “By finding a Magician who is stronger than him.”
We strategized until Malita could no longer keep her eyes open and Niffin yawned more than he talked. Formulating a plan eased my dread enough that, when my friends turned out the lights and tiptoed out of my room, I didn’t bother changing out of my clothes. I rolled up in the bed quilt, closed my eyes, and finally, blessedly, went to sleep.
***
Only Brahm was waiting to meet the three of us at breakfast the next morning. His hair was damp, his suit simple but elegant, his expression grim. Yet he welcomed my companions and me with a smile that seemed genuine. Hannah was either too hungover or too busy pouting to join us. Either way, I felt relieved. Brahm was much easier to talk to than his sister. If my plan was going to work, I would have to make some sort of deal with the Schulzes, and I preferred negotiating with Brahm. Perhaps he was as devious and calculating as his sister, but at least he could hold a civil conversation.
Servants had laid out breakfast in a buffet style on the side table. We filled our plates with bread, sausages, and eggs. I took a seat at the table, and a footman poured coffee. “How’d you sleep?” I asked.
Brahm folded his newspaper and set it aside. “Like the dead. And you?”
“The house could have burned down around me and I wouldn’t have known.”
Malita, wearing her freshly laundered day dress, pulled out the chair across from me and sat. Niffin sat beside her, his plate piled high.
“Did you two sleep well?” I asked.
Niffin waggled his eyebrows. “Very.”
“That’s good, because I’m afraid today is going to be long and tedious.”
“Oh?” Brahm blinked at me curiously. “You already have plans?”
“Well...” I poked a sausage, pushing it around my plate. “That mostly depends on you.”
He arched a single eyebrow.
“We’ve decided to accept Le Poing Fermé’s terms.”
His second eyebrow rose, joining the first. “So quick to give in, are you? Why don’t I believe that?”
Sipping my coffee, I fluttered my lashes at him. “You know me so well?”
“A woman who climbs to the roof of a speeding train and fights angry bandits on the railway is not one who easily surrenders. I suppose I could be wrong.” His brow furrowed. “Though that seems unlikely. I’m almost never wrong.”
Malita snorted. When Brahm glanced at her, she shrugged and stuffed a slice of bread in her mouth.
“I do plan on surrendering,” I said, “but with several conditions. Conditions I don’t plan on sharing with Le Poing Fermé.”
“I assume you’ll be sharing them with me, though.” Brahm set his elbow on the table, resting his chin in his upturned palm. “I’m dying to know.”
“You want me as an ally.”
He nodded.
“But the money you and your sister have already provided isn’t enough to buy my allegiance.”
He shook his head. “I certainly hope you wouldn’t be that cheap.”
“I’ll give you what you want, but on my terms.”
His smile widened. “Now we’re getting to it.”
“I need you to hire a Magician for me. A good one. The more powerful, the better. Someone up to Le Poing Fermé’s standards, if possible.”
Brahm grunted as though I’d punched him. He rocked back, eyes wide like a startled owl’s. “You don’t ask for much, do you? A Magician of that quality won’t be easy to find. And certainly won’t be cheap.”
I raised a finger. “But wait, there’s more. Our allegiance only works if the Magician can do all the things I ask of him or her. If not, our agreement is off.”
“But if he or she can...?”
“Then I’ll be your ally. But if and when you call on me to be of assistance, I reserve the right to refuse any requests I find morally objectionable.”
Brahm’s expression soured. “I’m not sure those are favorable terms. You’ve left yourself several large loopholes to wriggle through.”
