Page 28 of House of Pawns
She barely resists rolling her eyes. “Give it up, Samuel.”
“Never,” he taunts her. “And, I’m not finding anyone, Alivia. Whoever this spy is, he’s good.”
“Spy?” Anna asks.
I explain to her what has been going on and watch her face closely as I do so. I need to feel her out.
She’s curious—and intrigued.
“He said five weeks?” Anna repeats. “That’s not very much time. You feel like you’re prepared?”
I give the smallest of shrugs. “I think there are few circumstances anyone can ever be fully prepared for. I will do my best and deal with the reality when it arrives. But I wondered if you’d be up for a job I don’t think anyone is more qualified for than you.”
“A job?” she repeats. She looks doubtful, but also interested.
I nod. “I need to know more from this spy. I am tired of him sneaking around and I don’t like looking over my shoulder. I want to talk to him face to face. But, seeing as I’m still human, it’s a little difficult to do on my own.”
“Your boyfriend used to track our kind down as a human and did a pretty damn fine job of it,” Anna says. She’s testing me out, feeling how committed I really am. “Why not ask him?”
I look up at Samuel, who gives a little chuckle, and Lillian, who gives me a knowing look. “Ian is…torn about his new condition. I’m trying not to push too much.”
“You’re afraid to ask him,” she calls me out.
“Yes,” I admit, no shame. “I have a feeling he’s going to not be around as much for a little while. His sister just found out, in a not so gentle way, that her brother is still alive.”
Anna looks at me for a long moment. She looks over at Lillian, searching her. She glances at Samuel. There’s something unspoken that goes on between them, like he has the ability to tell her what I’ve just done for him.
“I was alone for over a century,” Anna says as she looks back at me. “I thought I was a strong person, but the loneliness nearly drove me suicidal. I found Jasmine and her House and I joined them out of desperation, but I was always her pawn and she made it obvious that I wasn’t needed for anything other than numbers.”
“I promise that you will never be just a number in my House,” I say, holding her eyes and putting as much loyalty as I can into her gaze. “I’m asking you to be my General, Anna.”
Once again, Anna looks from me, to Samuel, to Lillian.
“Alivia is not like Jasmine,” Lillian says. And there’s so much trust and surety in her voice, it leaves me slightly breathless.
“Things are different here. This is how a House is supposed to be,” Samuel says.
“You have my loyalty if I can count on yours,” I promise Anna as she looks back at me.
A small smile pulls on the corner of Anna’s lips when she says, “You’ve got yourself a General.”
Chapter
Eleven
IAN CALLED THAT NIGHT AND said he wouldn’t be back. Not for a while. He had his family to deal with.
I shouldn’t have been surprised. His family was always Ian’s biggest concern before, and the reason he did everything he did—to protect them. But it still left me feeling empty.
So instead of obsessing over him, I concentrated on what needed to be taken care of in my House.
If I am going to run a successful House, I need every member of it to feel as if they are needed and vital. Anna has a job: to find the spy and work with Rath to maintain our security. I task Samuel with finding other Born in our area that are not associated with a House. His ties run deep and old. Lillian is in charge of PR with the town. I need her to come up with ways to continue making the town less afraid of me.
I spend a lot of time in my office, staring at my board of names.
Micah.
Markov.
