“This meal? No,” Donovan said, his smile stretching across his face. “The next one? Probably.” He started laughing again.

“We have a few mediocre surveillance devices,” Henry said, setting his laptop down in the corner. “For now, I’ve simply hacked into their system and disabled their audio. Like most of the older Demigods, she hasn’t gotten with the times technologically. Tomorrow, I’ll have Amber do it remotely. They’ll know we’re messing with their systems, but given we’ll only affect the surveillance spying on us directly, there isn’t much she can say about our interference.”

“And if she tries, we’ll just have Lexi deal with it,” Bria said, pulling out a chair on the other side of the table. The guys all laughed.

Kieran pulled out a chair for me and motioned for me to sit down. “She won’t poison our meals because in inviting us here and offering us a place to stay, she is putting us under her protection.” He toggled his hand back and forth. “For the most part. Something ‘beyond her control’ might befall us if we were to leave the compound, but a Demigod in her standing cannot afford to have something happen to us here. She’d look incompetent. It would lower her status.”

“Well…except you don’t officially have any status, so you’re in a bit of a gray area,” Bria said, looking over the food options.

“I doubt she’d risk attacking another Demigod, especially one with an actual territory, even if that position hasn’t yet been sanctioned by the Magical Summit.” Kieran shook his head. “Not unless she had help and an elaborate plan.”

Shivers slid across my skin. Magnus would be plenty helpful, not to mention great at coming up with an elaborate plan. I didn’t voice that thought, though. I knew Kieran had already pondered it.

“You are safe, but not all of us are safe, especially those without a blood oath.” Bria picked up a cube of cheese and popped it into her mouth. “Most Demigods don’t care about their people as much as you do. The replaceable ones, I mean.”

“It would be in bad form,” Kieran replied, taking his seat. “Like I said, she will be concerned about her status. It would be easy for me to turn any hiccup here into a reason why she cannot be trusted by other leaders.”

“You’d need to come out of the Magical Summit with a good status of your own to make that stick,” Zorn said.

“I will.” Kieran’s confidence left no room for argument.

I sank into the bright red velvet chair, weariness settling into my bones. Traveling by private jet was a luxury I’d probably never get used to, but it had been a long flight and my body was feeling it. Kieran sat beside me and everyone else filled in around us, all of us in a cluster at the top of the table.

I told them what had happened with the spirits arrayed in the corridor, my explanation cut short when servants streamed into the room with colorful jackets, white wigs to match their gloves, and important expressions.

“I don’t know that I’ve seen one woman working here,” I whispered to Kieran as the staff positioned themselves around us.

“I noticed the same thing,” he replied. “I wonder why.”

“First the chairs, and now this getup?” Daisy was looking at the servants. “It’s like the leftovers of a circus.”

Boman started chuckling, hiding his smile behind his hand.

When we’d been given drinks and our plates were loaded up, Kieran excused the servants.

“Alexis was tested first thing, and I assume that’s just the beginning. Tomorrow, we will be split up. I’ll talk politics and my plans for San Francisco with Lydia while Alexis gets to wander the grounds with her wards and ‘experience the delights of the palace.’ Lydia’s words, not mine. Given Lydia will be entertaining me, it will be up to her people to test you, Alexis. Go ahead and give as good as you get. Remember what I said about staying on the grounds—Lydia will not allow herself to look incompetent, so no”—he did quotation marks with his fingers—“‘freak accidents’ will happen if you stick close. Bria, guide Alexis in protocol. Let’s not pour salt in any wounds. Okay?” Kieran squeezed my thigh. “I will be shortening our trip by a couple of days. Urgent business will call me away. We got this. On the other side of this meeting, I have every reason to believe we’ll have a Hades Demigod in our court.”

I smiled with him, willing myself to believe his positive outlook. But all I could think about was that hall filled with hungry, eager spirits, groping for energy. Their mistress had known I could see them, but she’d given them free rein.

I wasn’t sure Kieran was reading Lydia right. I wondered who else she would allow free rein. What other horrors awaited me in this place?

26

Alexis

The next morning I sat in what I could only call the living room in Kieran’s and my elaborate suite, the place nearly the size of our entire bottom floor in San Francisco. Breakfast had been served in the suite’s dining room, the table large enough to fit six, and I’d been waited on by Lydia’s very colorfully dressed service staff. Daisy didn’t have enough terrible things to say.

I’d dressed in what Aubri had chosen for the day and tried to do my makeup and hair like she would’ve, but her written instructions were crazy and I’d lost interest halfway through.

Now it was ten o’clock and I could think of nothing else to keep me in the suite. With me were Jerry, Bria, Red, and the kids, my crew for the day.

“It doesn’t make sense,” I whined, strapping a knife to my inner thigh so it wouldn’t make a bulge in the side of the loose, flowing dress. I had a pair of kick pants on under the dress in case I had to grapple with someone, and a tiny tank top in case I had to rip the dress off altogether. The shoes were the only problem. The heels were three inches of impractical and the straps would be a time waster to undo. “Kieran is here to talk politics. He’s doing that with Lydia. Fantastic. Why do I have to wander around and pretend to have a good time when we all know that’s not what’s happening? Why can’t I just stay in the room and read until Kieran is done?”

Bria adjusted the throwing knives hugging her hips. She and Red hadn’t even pretended to hide their dangerousness. Given the state of my makeup and hair, they weren’t pretending to be my fashion consultants, either.

“This is how things are done,” Bria said. “I wouldn’t even hide in my room. I’d wander around, staring at people and checking out the wealth on display. That’s what’s expected when you’re in a place like this. You’re paying homage to Demigod Lydia. The fact that you’ve been hiding in your room until now sends a clear enough message. We don’t want to push it.”

“What message is that?” I asked, adjusting my cleavage and the knife tucked within it.

“You do not give a shit about Lydia’s wealth or her furnishings,” Red said, waiting by the door. “Not like your constant grimace last night didn’t make that message clear. Or the mutterings of your wards.”

“But, like…it’s gaudy,” Daisy said. “It’s super gross. All this money, and this is what she does with it?”