Maybe. Maybe not. “He’s thinking of it as an insurance policy,” I said, sipping the warm, fizzy juice. “If there’s no baby, then Mace doesn’t worry about a new generation of non-air elves taking over. If there’s no baby, that’s one less thing the vampires could use as leverage to sway your support over to them, or force you to betray the Elders. Or the Fae. Zrakovi thinks the baby makes you vulnerable to blackmail.”
Rand’s glow settled back to normal. He seemed to be calm and thinking. Yay for apple stuff. “Then I shall kill Zrakovi.”
I mentally pulled out a few hanks of hair, both mine and his. So much for clear thinking. “No, you will not kill Zrakovi. I don’t know who would move into his spot, but it might be someone worse. We just have to outsmart him for tomorrow’s meeting. We’re intelligent people; we can do that.”
The trick would be to thwart Zrakovi’s plans without him realizing he’d been manipulated.
“I could touch him somehow, maybe help him off with his coat,” Rand said. “If I could touch him, I could suggest a counter-notion.”
I nodded. “Like how the baby would actually be valuable in bringing our people together. Your son would strengthen the elven-wizard alliance.”
He shot a cagey look my way. “Because you and I would be raising it together in an elven-wizard household?”
“If that helps you get through the day, you can make that mental suggestion to Zrakovi.”
He smiled, the arrogant oaf. “You’ll come around.”
Not before the child reached the age of consent, whatever that was in Elfheim. I wasn’t sure where my relationship with Alex was headed, or if we’d even have one after tomorrow, depending on how things went and how suspicious he was feeling. But whether or not I stayed with Alex had no bearing on my relationship with Quince Randolph. We could coexist but we would never, ever, ever cohabit.
“Okay, that’s Plan A. Can you influence Zrakovi’s thoughts without Mace Banyan realizing it?” Otherwise, there was no point.
Rand chewed on his lower lip as he thought. “Probably not. His magic is strong, so I’d need some distance from him.”
I doubted the attic conference room of Hebert Hall was anywhere near the size of the district court building fourth floor. “You might not be able to get that far away from him, so let’s come up with some other options.”
We sat in silence for a long time, staring at the fire popping and crackling in Rand’s fireplace. The last time I’d been up here, on the second floor of the Plantasy Island nursery, I’d been half crazed and trying to escape the undead Axeman of New Orleans. It had been a dark and bloody business during which Rand’s mother had been killed.
I stayed so annoyed with him most of the time, I’d been as insensitive and self-absorbed as I accused him of being. “How are you doing?” I asked him. “I’m sure you miss Vervain.”
His eyes widened in surprise, then crinkled as he gave me the real smile. The sweet one I’d seen when he first felt of Eugenie’s tummy and realized he had a son. “I do miss her.” He stared into the fire. “It’s one of the reasons I decided to stay here in New Orleans despite the weather, instead of going back to Elfheim. The house is full of memories of my father and of her.”
I knew how that felt. It was why, even though Alex and Jake had worked hard to make Gerry’s house in Lakeview habitable except for the lack of heat, I had trouble staying there. The bones of the house remained the same. The quality of the air. The ghosts of memory were always around.
“Why don’t you build yourself a new house in Elfheim? One that’s just yours alone? You can make new memories. I mean, it would be a place for your son to build his memories as he’s growing up.” I didn’t know that the kid would live in Elfheim; maybe he would, or maybe not. That was for Rand and Eugenie to work out, with me as referee if necessary. But he’d certainly need a home there.
The smile again. “That’s a great idea. I’ve been so focused on making sure Eugenie didn’t do anything stupid, I haven’t made plans.”
I shrugged. “There’s plenty of time for that.”
Rand gave me a sidelong glance. “You’re being awfully nice, Dru. Are you up to something?”
I laughed. “Nothing I haven’t shared with you. It’s just that you’re actually listening to me and I’m listening to you. It’s called a conversation. We need to try it more often.”
He sighed. “Yeah, after we figure out Plans B and C.”
CHAPTER 21
I looked at my bloodshot eyes in the mirror of Rand’s bathroom. We’d strategized until almost dawn, and had come up with a Plan B so beautiful in its simplicity that it had supplanted Plan A. No point in tipping off Mace Banyan and risk Rand getting caught doing secret mental manipulation on the man who’d probably become the permanent First Elder.
The downside? With this plan, Zrakovi would know he’d been played. The plan was to make Rand the player, not me, and the elf had promised to keep me out of it. If he didn’t, I was so angry over Eugenie’s intended treatment that I was almost beyond caring.