Page 10 of Winter Unleashed
I got through half my lunch before I felt a change in the atmosphere. Something was in the room with me. Something familiar yet different. I spun my chair around to see a woman standing in the middle of the room.
“Celeste, I presume?”
Her light green eyes twinkled when she smiled. “Hello Ember,” she said in a pleasant almost calming voice.
“What brings you here?”
Celeste strolled around the room like she owned the place. “I wanted to speak with you alone.”
“Why?”
“As I said, I wanted to speak with you alone. I had to wait a while. You’re never alone these days.”
I scoffed. “You mean I’m never without Liam. Cybil was also too scared to face my mate. What is it you want from me?”
My wolf nudged me to let me know she was there. Celeste hadn’t blocked my power like she had whenever I was with Cybil. I was sure she hadn’t forgotten to do it. It was probably more that she figured I was too weak to hurt her.
“Let’s make one thing clear. I am not afraid of your Vinur. Liam and I have a long, sordid history. He knows his power is nothing compared to mine.”
I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms. “Cybil said something similar, but what neither of you have explained is why you keep fucking with me but will never speak with him. I will not help you rule the world. I won’t talk Liam into helping you. If you’re so powerful, leave me the fuck alone and try ascending to power on your own.”
She smiled at me. “That was Cybil’s plan. She overstepped and forgot the real purpose of our mission. There’s only one being in this world I want power over, and you and your Liam can help me get to her.”
I studied her for a while. “None of this shit makes sense, Celeste,” I said. “First, Stella had zoos where she forced shifters to shift for wealthy humans. Which ended up being Cybil’s doing. Have I got it right so far?” Celeste nodded. “Then we got Stella out from under Cybil’s control and Cybil tried to convince me to join some crazy scheme to rule over all the beings in the world. Now, there’s whatever shit you want. Did I miss anything?”
“Nope. You hit all the bullet points.”
“If you’re the ringleader and your goal is to get to this mystery being, what’s with all the veering off onto other ventures?”
“Cybil has always had a mind of her own, and let’s just say it’s not a stable mind.”
I clucked my tongue. “All that power and you still can’t keep your people in line.”
Her lips pulled into a small smile, and I shivered. She made Philip look like a teddy bear. “I haven’t figured you out yet, Ember. You’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid. Regardless, you should watch how you speak to me. I can skin you alive with the blink of my eye.”
“Great, thanks for that imagery.”
I knew she wasn’t exaggerating. Aside from Astrid, she was the most powerful being I’d ever met. But I still didn’t know what my own power could do. The Alpha power I’d inherited when my dad died was stronger than anyone could have imagined, and I’d yet to try out my Vinura power. Well, more like I’d yet to even feel my Vinura power. If I had that, it was possible I could take the older-than-time-itself fairy.
She let out a soft laugh. “I see you’re not scared of me which goes back to my question about your courage or lack of intelligence. I’m leaning toward the latter. Either way, let’s try this on for size, shall we? If you don’t learn to respect me, I’ll bring Liam here and show you just how little he frightens me.”
My anger rose to a breaking point and a whip of fire lashed out at her. She calmly raised her hand to extinguish the fire before it could touch her.Fuck,I thought. My Alpha power wouldn’t be enough against her, and I didn’t know how to call upon my Vinura power.
Liam had said I would know when I needed to. That the power was like its own entity, and the Fae kind of designed it to be there when Ireallyneeded it. Anything related to the Fae was so convoluted there was no telling what the hell that meant.
“Ember, I’m shocked. All that power and no control over it. How have you made it this far without accidentally killing someone?” Her tone was mocking, and it aggravated me even more.
“It’s still early,” I muttered while reining in the next lash of power, but she was right. If I got angry enough, there wasn’t a lot I could do to stop it from taking over. “You said you want to talk, so talk. Why are you bothering me?”
“I want you to request a meeting with Astrid.”
“What?” My eyes widened. That was the last thing I’d expected to hear from her. “Why?”
“You don’t need to know why. I just need you to request the meeting. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“She’s the being you want to overpower?” I asked, but Celeste didn’t respond. I nibbled my lip as I thought her request through. “It’s not Astrid you really want. It’s Artemis. You want to be queen.” She still didn’t respond. “Not happening. No.”
“No?” Her face twisted with disgust as though no one had ever said that one syllable to her.