“Thank you. I’m sorry about your place.”
“Me, too.”
I hung up. That was the second civil conversation we’d had since we’d known each other. Too bad there was no champagne handy to celebrate the occasion.
“He’s let it go. Satisfied?”
Andrea frowned. “The Beast Lord just asked you for a favor?”
“Yes, he did.”
“Were Aunt B and Jennifer there?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t think to ask.”
“I bet they were there.” Andrea squinted at me. “Curran doesn’t ask for favors. He doesn’t bother. And he just let this whole thing go without an argument. That kind of influence is something only a mate would have . . . You slept together.”
I gave her a blank look.
“You slept with Curran and you didn’t tell me? I’m your best friend.”
“It didn’t come up.”
“How disappointing for you.”
Ha-ha. “That’s not what I meant.”
She pulled up a client chair and sat down on it. “Details. Now.”
“We had a fight, screamed at each other for a while, I kicked him in the head, and then he stayed the night.”
“That’s it? That’s all?”
“That’s it.”
She waved her arms in the air. “How was it?”
Like fireworks, only better. “It was good.”
“Getting information out of you is like pulling teeth. Does Aunt B know?”
I nodded.
“That explains their collective panic attack. So did the two of you trash your apartment?”
“No.”
“What happened?”
That wasn’t a question I could answer with Mauro down the hall. I took a piece of paper from the drawer, wrote “My Aunt Erra” on it, and showed it to her.
Andrea paled.
I tore the paper to pieces and threw into the trash can. “The good news is I know who the Steel Mary is. Her name is Erra. The bad news is I know what she can do.”
I gave her the rundown on Erra, her history, and her powers, keeping our family connection out of it in case anyone was listening. “She’s completely amoral. She has absolutely no connection to any other human being except Roland. For Erra, the world breaks down into family and not-family. Not-family is fair game. And just because you were born to the family doesn’t keep you safe. If she decides that you’re not up to snuff, she’ll fix the mistake of your existence. Her words, not mine.”
“She has a high opinion of herself,” Andrea said.
“Oh yes. When she gets into a car, her ego has to ride shotgun.”
She tapped her fingers on my desk. “Are you thinking direct challenge?”
“Exactly. Issue a challenge, throw a couple of insults, use me as bait, since she hates me, and she won’t be able to resist. If we do this somewhere outside of town, where she can’t screw with the crowd, and throw every female knight the Order can scrape together at her, we may have a chance.”
“I’ve asked Ted to let me assist you with this twice,” Andrea said. “The second time in writing. It was denied.”
“Ted went behind my back,” I said.
“What do you mean?”
I sketched it out for her. Midway through it, she got up and started pacing across my floor again. Faint outlines of spots ghosted under her skin.
When I was done, she unclenched her teeth. “What he did was against the code of knighthood. But you have no recourse. There is nothing in the Charter that protects your rights. You aren’t a knight.”
“I don’t want recourse.”
She spun to me. “Are you leaving the Order?”
Magic flooded the world. My heart skipped a beat. I chose my words carefully. “I have a problem with dedicating myself to an organization who considers my friends nonhuman.”
“Ted Moynohan isn’t the entirety of the Order.”
“You’ve gone through the Academy. You know he isn’t the only one.” I leaned forward. “It’s a deeply ingrained organization-wide prejudice. I understand why it’s there, but I don’t agree with it. Nonhumanity is a dangerous label. If someone is nonhuman, they have no rights, Andrea. No protection.”
She stopped pacing and looked at me. “That’s why you have to stay and fight. If people like you leave, the Order will never change. The change has to come from within to be effective.”
I sighed. “It’s not my fight, Andrea. Nor am I in a position to change anything. You said it yourself, I’m not a knight. I’m not part of the fraternity. I’m a barely tolerated outsider and I can be fired at any time. My voice doesn’t matter and it won’t be heard no matter how loud I scream.”
“So you’re just going to quit?”
“Probably. I can’t compromise on this and I can’t fight the entire Order. It’s a losing battle. Some losing battles are worth fighting anyway, but this isn’t one of them. Beating my head against this wall is a waste of time and effort. I can’t alter the Order, but I can make sure it no longer benefits from my services.”
Grendel dashed into the room, hurled himself past me and into the corner. A ragged snarl ripped from his mouth. He bit the air, barked once, and froze on rigid feet.
Something was scaring him half to death. I grabbed Slayer. Both of Andrea’s hands had SIG-Sauers in them.
A loud boom rang through the building, resonating through my head. Someone had just tested the strength of the Order’s ward.
“What the hell?” Andrea sprinted into the hallway.
I cleared the distance to the window in a single breath.
The ward blanketed the building like an outer invisible shell. The Order’s protective spell was strong enough to hold off an entire squad of MSDU mages, but whatever hit it had left a dent.
A solid wall of fire surged up over my window. Pale blue flashed as the invisible barrier of the protective spell strained under the press of the flames.
The fire died. A female voice rolled through the building. “Where are you, miserable rodent? I’ve come to burn down your tree!”
My aunt had arrived.