The room was circular. Besides that, the room was much less formal than I would have expected. A table wrapped around the other side of the room, taken up by about twenty people. Papers, binders, pencils, and laptops were scattered across the surface.

  My eyes roamed the people, almost surprised. The majority of them had staffs strapped across their backs. The elves and fae had their ears exposed. Shifters looked too large for their seat. Though I didn't see any dusks sitting at the table. My eyebrow lifted slightly.

   One of the members rose to his feet, alarmed. "What is this? We don't have another hearing for ten minutes." The other members of the Council began to realize that something was going on. Eyes peered my direction.

   "I'm afraid this could not wait for your next opening." said the elf. She lifted her chin and pushed her shoulders back. Her jaw sharpened. "These two need to speak with you."

   One of the women looked at us with sharp eyes. Pointed ears dug into her bun. "You're Albers' apprentice." 

   "Yup." I slid my hands into my pockets. 

   A third person criticized the elf, "This is completely out of order. You know this. You are an Enforcer, aren't you?"

   "If you're going to blame someone for my being here," I said over the elf as she tried to speak. "Then blame me. This Enforcer just prevented a lot of drama by letting me in here. You should be thanking her, not blaming her. Besides, I won't take more than five minutes of your time."

   A shifter sat upright. "I could have sworn you just issued a threat, Reilly."

   My lip curled up in a dark smile. "You're not wrong."

   Tate looked back at the elf. She nodded and slipped from the room. Tate returned his focus to the Council. One was studying him with a strange look. "Are you a species shifter or shapeshifter?"

   "Shapeshifter, sir."

   "You wouldn't happen to be the shapeshifter that went missing during Dani Darhk's exile, would you?"

   Tate nodded. "That's me. I'm Tate Leon."

   "Well," muttered a woman with bright yellow eyes, "this just got more interesting. Albers' apprentice and the shapeshifter that was blackmailed by Dani Darhk? What are you two doing here?"

   Tate blanched and his lips parted. I glanced his way, puzzled at his confusion, until he asked, "You knew? You knew that Dani had escaped exile?"

   A different Council member nodded. "We knew the moment that we got the report of a missing shapeshifter trainee that had been present at the sentencing. Our Enforcer Informants had told us that something was amiss, because Darhk had not behaved properly when she was being exiled. The real Darhk would have been smug or uplifted. The Darhk that was exiled was worried. The missing report just confirmed the story."

   "What do you want?" interrupted a fae. "You two are clearly here for something you think is important."

   I leaned onto one foot and blew a strand of hair from my face. It was still tangled with a bit of dried blood and mud. If a shifter's sense of smell was as good that Tate was saying, then I had to smell terrible to every shifter in the room. Meh. "You've got a team investigating Dani's whereabouts. I want in."

   A new man cleared his throat. "That's a brazen way of asking for our permission, Ms. Reilly. How do you know about this team?"

   I shifted my gaze to him and my eyes found caramel ones. My eyebrows furrowed slightly as I realized I recognized him from somewhere. His face . . . I'd seen it before. The way that he held his head up and his calm gaze rang some bells in my head. I had the feeling that I hadn't seen this man in a decade, but I'd seen him before.

   My eyes darted between Tate and the Council member, but I answered the question. "Captain Lugo told us. Suggested the idea, actually."

   The same Council man seemed to sense that I was confused by his presence. His eyebrows went up. "And why would you want to be on this team?"

   "You know exactly why," I snorted. "I want Dani dead. I figured this could be a beneficial arrangement on both sides." I gestured at them before putting my hand back into my pocket. "I join your team, help them find Dani, and lead them to her demise. You get the credit."

   A few murmurs scattered through the room. The same Council member frowned. "I get the idea that's not all you want."

   Tate appeared to come to the same realization I did at the same time. I scrutinized the Council member once I realized that we talked similarly. The way he said his vowels had a very faint tilt. I'd always had the same slight accent, but it was so faint that only really Simone heard it. This man said the words the same way I did.

   Hadn't my dad said there was a Clair on the Council? Because since my father didn't talk this way, it made sense that my mother had. This Council member was a Clair. We were related. 

   "Regardless of true intentions," spoke up someone else. "You are an apprentice, Ms. Reilly. Have you even finished your training?"

   Nope. "Does it matter?"

   Someone snorted with laughter. I shot her skepticism a glare and focused on the previous speaker. He shook his head. "You're a child. I'm sorry. We are not going to send a child to be slaughtered."

   Indignation rose so fast that a spark flew from my hand. Tate blanched slightly. I growled under my breath and jabbed a finger at the Council member that was a Clair. "Can I talk with you privately?"

   He blanched a bit and pointed at himself inquisitively. I nodded. The Enforcer at the door hesitated. "I don't like that idea."

   "I'm not going to do anything," I sighed, starting to get irritated. "If I had ill intentions, you wouldn't be conscious." The Enforcer's eyes narrowed at the disrespect, but the Council member lifted his hand.

   "Don't worry. We can talk for a few minutes." He stood up and set down his papers. He gestured at me to follow him towards a small door to the side. I wiggled my fingers in goodbye to Tate. 

   The room to the side was much smaller. It had a few fridges and tables with boxes of snacks. The disarray made me snicker slightly. So much for a formal and neat Council . . . the mess of cheap snacks said otherwise. 

   The Council member turned around to face me, his eyebrows lifting. "Why did you want to speak with me?"

   I subtly made sure the door was closed before asking, "How do you know Annabel Clair?"

   His eyes narrowed sharply. "How do you know that name?"

   "How do you?" I countered.

   The Council member studied me before answering reluctantly. "She was my cousin. Her father was my father's sibling. But none of us go with that name anymore. So how do you know that name?"

   "Well, did you ever meet her husband?"

   He shook his head. "No. All I know of her husband is that his name was Ronald. They moved to the east briefly before I got news of her death."

   I tipped my head back and forth, contemplating how to say it. I decided it would be easier to put it flatly. "You're about right. His name is Ronald Reilly."

   He realized what I was implying immediately. Instead of disbelief or surprise, he smiled widely. "I knew I recognized that accent. And you have Annabel's hair. You're Annabel's daughter?"

   "Yup."

   His shoulders relaxed and he seemed to be relieved. "I'm glad you turned out alright, then. We feared the worst when we got the news of Annabel's death. How did she die?"

   I grimaced. "She imploded. Wasn't using her magic enough."

   "Ah, I see." He scratched at his hair. "She must've had the family trait. Her sister did, too." He paused. "Do you?"

   I shrugged. "What do you think? From what you've seen?"

   The Council member -- my cousin -- studied me curiously. From his perspective, all he knew about me came from the media. In his eyes, I was an overly-confident mage that had quite literally just threatened an Enforcer. The gears in his head turned. "I would say yes. You fended off Darhk for longer than anyone besides Alexie Albers. You have such a confidence . . . it's almost as if you know that you can best anyone. Am I correct?"

   He was sure I had the overpowered trait. I still didn't know for sure if I did. "With this information, are you more willing to let me onto that team?"

   His expression shifted. "You're still a child."

   My face darkened and I crossed my arms. "I'm going to be quite frank here, cousin. I'm going to kill Dani Darhk. I don't care if I'm on your team or not. This is your only chance to take some of the credit for it. And it's the only chance the Council has to get on my good side."

   "I think you've got it backwards," he said. "You need to be on our good side. We don't need you."

   "Just like you didn't need Alexie during the Cleansing?"

   His eyes narrowed in on me. "That's different."

   "How?"

   "He's . . . he's more dangerous. No one can control Alexie Albers."

   I tilted my head down, eyes boring into his face. "And you think you can control me? His own apprentice?"

   "I wish you'd quit twisting my words," he muttered. "You're making it awfully hard to make a point."

   "I'm not twisting your words," I retorted. "I'm stating the obvious. There's three ways that this can go down, cousin." I ticked off one finger for each. "One, you let me on the team and I die. Oh well. You can say that you had nothing to do with my getting onto the team -- that I forced it, which would be the truth. No harm done. Two, I get on the team and kill Dani. You get the credit. Three, you refuse me and I kill Dani myself. And you'll have ticked me off. Both of the scenarios where I get what I want, there's no damage done to the Council. The one scenario where I don't get it? There's nothing to gain from that decision."

   "The Council is never going to agree," he said firmly. "Even if there is some truth to your statement, they won't. You are a child and an apprentice."

   "I don't need the Council to agree. I just need to location of that team."

   His mouth opened but no sound came out. After a moment, he grunted. "You sound so much like a Clair that it's irritating. Brazen and overly confident."

   "So is that a yes?"

   His jaw worked. "I have a condition if I am to give you their location."

   My haunches raised and I eyed him up. "Yeah?"

   "After this is over, if you survive, you have to come visit your mother's side of the family." His lip twisted up. "Your grandparents would love to finally meet you."

   Taken aback, I found myself surprised. I stared at him. Was he serious? When his expression didn't change, I smiled. "Deal."

   He offered his hand. I shook it firmly. "I'm Mark," he told me. "Mark Clair." I grinned. He released my hand and dug into his pocket for some paper. "Now, we don't actually know where that team is. A member will be coming to town tomorrow to give us an update. Until then, you're stuck. Go to the hotel across the street. Show them this paper--" He scrawled his name. "--And you'll have a room. I'll send them to your room tomorrow once they're done. It should be close to around ten in the morning when we finish. You can hitch a ride with them back to the team."