“Madeleine. Thanks for stopping by,” Forsyth said. “Doris, hold my calls, will you dear?”
His secretary closed the door, and Mimi took a seat across from the expansive walnut desk. She noticed that even though Forsyth had taken over Lawrence’s office, he still kept the former Regis’s photos of Schuyler on his desk. Mimi wished she had dressed up more; she had come straight from gym, and hadn’t bothered to change out of her ratty Duchesne Athletics T-shirt and red running shorts. She put her bags on the floor and waited for him to speak.
“I just wanted to commend you on your work with the Venators. You did a fine job in Rio.” He beamed.
Mimi scoff ed. “Yeah. Right. We didn’t find her.”
“Only a matter of time, my dear. Kingsley will find her. I have no doubt. He’s quite . . . resourceful,” Forsyth said, with a hint of annoyance Mimi could not help but notice.
“All right. Well, thanks. I did want to go on another mission, but the Conclave says I have to finish Duchesne first. The school isn’t going to hold my place for that long.”
“Alas, that is true. It is unfair, is it not, that we have to go through the rigamarole of a human childhood and adolescence. But it is in the Code,” Forsyth said, getting up to fix himself a drink from the bar cart. He picked up a carafe and poured a shot of whiskey into a glass. “Want one?”
“No thanks.” Mimi shook her head. “Um, is that all? May I be excused now?”
“Oh, I am carrying on as usual. Bliss likes to tease me about being a big blowhard.” Forsyth smiled, taking a sip and walking around his desk so he could lean on the edge of it and look down at Mimi.
Mimi sank lower in her seat. Llewellyn rarely spoke of Bliss. The bemused-father act didn’t suit him too well: it felt bogus, like he was trying to sell her a used car, or get her to believe he cared an iota about his daughter. At least Charles and Trinity had tried to be there for Mimi and Jack during their transformation. As far as Mimi knew, Bliss’s parents never bothered to explain to her what was happening.
“How is Bliss?” she asked. Mimi had bumped into her a couple of times, and Bliss had seemed friendly enough, but their conversations never seemed to go anywhere. She didn’t know why that was, but something about Bliss made her feel nervous and giggly.
“She’s much better.” Forsyth Llewellyn nodded. “Anyway, I called you in today to discuss a rather delicate situation . . . and forgive me if I offend . . . I realize this may not be the right time for such an occasion, but I feel that after everything that’s happened with the Conclave . . . the community needs something to lift its spirits right now, and perhaps, if I may . . .”
Mimi made a motion to let him continue.
“A simple favor . . . for the betterment of the entire community. I know you and Jack canceled your bonding because of the tragedy, but now is the time to renew morale, to show our people that we are still strong, and to see the two of you together. Our strongest, our best, will bring them hope.”
A wry smile played on Mimi’s lips even if her heart suddenly clenched and an image of Kingsley’s smirking face came to mind.
“So what you’re telling me is, the bonding’s on?” she asked. It took no effort to keep her tone light and breezy. After all, she was still the same Mimi Force whose image was plastered on a billboard across from Times Square. The Mimi Force who tortured freshmen for sport, making them fetch and grovel. (How she had missed orientation week!)
Hopefully she would still fit into her dress. . . .
FORTY-TWO
Bliss
If Dylan wasn’t going to come to her, maybe she could go to him. The Conclave urged its newest members to perform the regression therapy to access their past lives and learn from the accumulated knowledge that was available to them from the vastness of their prior experience.
Bliss sat cross-legged on her princess bed. She closed her eyes and began the deep sorting through many lifetimes of memories. This was the knowing. The practice of finding out who you really were. She was in the void, in that space in between her conscious and subconscious self—who had she been before? What shape had her spirit taken in its prior histories?
She was dancing across a crowded ballroom. She was sixteen years old, and her mother had let her wear her hair up for the first time . . . and she was laughing because tonight she would meet the boy who would be her husband—and even before he came to stand in front of her to ask her to dance, she knew his face.
“Maggie.” He smiled. Had he always kept his hair that way?
Even in the nineteenth century, Dylan—or Lord Burlington—made her heart pound.
But then, something happened at the party—the Visitor whispering lies in her ear. Telling her to kill. Maggie could hear him. Maggie did not want this, did not believe it . . . and before Bliss could open her eyes, she could feel the cold water surrounding her.
The Van Alen Legacy
Melissa de la Cruz's books
- Alanna The First Adventure
- Alone The Girl in the Box
- Asgoleth the Warrior
- Awakening the Fire
- Between the Lives
- Black Feathers
- Bless The Beauty
- By the Sword
- In the Arms of Stone Angels
- Knights The Eye of Divinity
- Knights The Hand of Tharnin
- Knights The Heart of Shadows
- Mind the Gap
- Omega The Girl in the Box
- On the Edge of Humanity
- The Alchemist in the Shadows
- Possessing the Grimstone
- The Steel Remains
- The 13th Horseman
- The Age Atomic
- The Alchemaster's Apprentice
- The Alchemy of Stone
- The Ambassador's Mission
- The Anvil of the World
- The Apothecary
- The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf
- The Bible Repairman and Other Stories
- The Black Lung Captain
- The Black Prism
- The Blue Door
- The Bone House
- The Book of Doom
- The Breaking
- The Cadet of Tildor
- The Cavalier
- The Circle (Hammer)
- The Claws of Evil
- The Concrete Grove
- The Conduit The Gryphon Series
- The Cry of the Icemark
- The Dark
- The Dark Rider
- The Dark Thorn
- The Dead of Winter
- The Devil's Kiss
- The Devil's Looking-Glass
- The Devil's Pay (Dogs of War)
- The Door to Lost Pages
- The Dress
- The Emperor of All Things
- The Emperors Knife
- The End of the World
- The Eternal War
- The Executioness
- The Exiled Blade (The Assassini)
- The Fate of the Dwarves
- The Fate of the Muse
- The Frozen Moon
- The Garden of Stones
- The Gate Thief
- The Gates
- The Ghoul Next Door
- The Gilded Age
- The Godling Chronicles The Shadow of God
- The Guest & The Change
- The Guidance
- The High-Wizard's Hunt
- The Holders
- The Honey Witch
- The House of Yeel
- The Lies of Locke Lamora
- The Living Curse
- The Living End
- The Magic Shop
- The Magicians of Night
- The Magnolia League
- The Marenon Chronicles Collection
- The Marquis (The 13th Floor)
- The Mermaid's Mirror
- The Merman and the Moon Forgotten
- The Original Sin
- The Pearl of the Soul of the World
- The People's Will
- The Prophecy (The Guardians)
- The Reaping
- The Rebel Prince
- The Reunited
- The Rithmatist
- The_River_Kings_Road
- The Rush (The Siren Series)
- The Savage Blue
- The Scar-Crow Men
- The Science of Discworld IV Judgement Da
- The Scourge (A.G. Henley)
- The Sentinel Mage
- The Serpent in the Stone
- The Serpent Sea
- The Shadow Cats
- The Slither Sisters
- The Song of Andiene