Page 80 of Hexbound
"And you do?"
"Sebastian, I have the power to bring London to its knees. But power is not about what you have the means to do, it is about what you could do, but don't. Power is responsibility to those you serve. That is what it means to be Prime to the Order of the Dawn Star. I've never been its ruler, but its servant." Drake tilted his head. "And whilst I could make London tremble, you yourself have the power to destroy it. So you must ask yourself this question: what does power mean to you?"
Freedom.His nostrils flared. "I don't know."
"I felt the tremor of your Expression a month ago. You were spiraling in on yourself. You should have obliterated the city, the way you were going. What stopped you?"
A little girl crying in a room next to him....Sebastian looked away. "I didn't want to harm anyone."
"Ah."
That irritated him, as though his father presumed to know the man he was from the answer to a single question. "You didn't come here to lecture me on sorcery, did you? What do you want? To show me you have my wife? Then have her, keep her safe. Just keep her away from me."
And then he cut the connection between them, slamming a wall up that the man couldn’t breach.
Sebastian awoke with a gasp, curled on the cold stone floors of his mother’s cellars.
There was always a price, and he would pay it.
The knockat the door drew Bishop away from bed and the warm peaceful slumber he'd known wrapped in Verity's arms.
He slid through the early dawn, tugging his night-robe's ties tight at his hips before pausing at the door. If the visitor had malevolent intentions his wards would have made them wary, but there was only one, and not a single trace of power whispered through the night. Bishop let the etheric blade form in his palm, warm and faintly pulsing, as he tugged the front door open.
A man stood there wearing the livery of Drake's household. He flinched when he met Bishop's gaze, and there were singe marks on the collar of his coat. "My lord." The stranger nodded. "I've just come from the Prime's home. Lady Rathbourne requested your presence, if you please? There's been an attack. "
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Chapter 20
BISHOP LEFT VERITY with Lady Eberhardtwhilst he went to visit his father.
Verity complied with his directions, as the expression on his face resembled a cell door slamming shut. Not so much a sign of a lack of emotion when it came to Bishop, but perhaps too much of it. She'd much rather be at his side to offer comfort, if nothing else, but he'd muttered something about it not being safe with Sicarii assassins on the loose.
And she didn't want to distract him. Not now, when his heart was in his eyes.
Which left breakfast with Lady E, a nerve-racking proposition at the best of times.
"Look at this," Lady E muttered to Marie, scowling down at a letter that had earned her wrath. "Lord Dinklage presumes to cast his hat in the ring for the seat of Prime, buthe is concernedthat the Triad Council is favorably disposed toward another candidate. And though he doesn't mention her by name it's quite clear whom he's talking about.Hmph. As if I've ever been less than partisan in my life! Besides, she hasn't even applied yet."
"And she is?" Verity asked politely.
"Lady Rathbourne," Lady E bit off. "I'm not quite certain whether Drake is setting those rumor mills into motion, or whether people are presuming."
"She does have the qualifications," Marie pointed out.
"But does she have the desire?" Lady E countered. "I've been waiting all month and still no sign of her intentions. If she intends to make her move, she's leaving it late. Ascendancy occurs this Sunday!"
"How does one become Prime?" Verity asked. "Do they have to apply?"
"To be quite honest, we're making it all up as we go along," Lady E admitted. "In the past, one candidate dueled the reigning Prime and whoever was left standing either ascended to the seat, or remained in it. It's the way it has always been. Until Drake decided to stir this hornets' nest." That earned a scowl. "Fool man. Could he not have waited until we've buried this demon threat to suffer this crisis of conscience, or whatever is plaguing him?"
Verity nibbled at her coddled eggs. "So why don't you do it? Become Prime? You're powerful, and you seem to know everyone in the Order and everything about it. You're also quite adept at, ah, suggesting what people should do."
"Bossing people around, do you mean?" Marie shared a conspiratorial smile with her.
Lady E's wrinkled lips feathered and she flexed her left hand subconsciously. "I quite like my privacy as it is, thank you very much. And I'm too old to step up into that seat. No. I'd prefer to pull the strings in the background. Far less taxing."
"And then you can sit back and critique whoeverdoesget the job," Marie added with a faint smile. The secretary's gray hair was pulled back in a rather severe knot this morning, highlighting the fine bones of her face.
