Page 34 of I Regret Nothing
I watched Rei fume.
“Excuse the fuck out of me? Venus didn’t research the security of the Museum of the Profane. Isawher face on the security cameras I was trying to disable. She didn’t bother finding out how to disable the alarm either. She just barged in and tried to use magic like the Museum of the Profane doesn’t have wards for that. She would have gone down for that theft even if I hadn’t bitten her.”
“Maybe, but did youhaveto bite her? My witches are less offended that she got arrested and are more offended about the biting. Everyone in here knows if you’re going to become a career criminal, you will eventually get caught. Venus is pissed she ended up here and blames you, but my coven gets it. They don’t think you should have bitten her.”
“If someone wronged one of your witch’s mentors and caused physical harm to them, would you let that slide or get a blow in when you could?”
“She’s not wrong,” Wren said. “It’s just how things are. Rei said Venus got her mentor beaten several times. Rei has the right to take whatever revenge she wants for every single one of those beatings.”
“There is no way to spin this without starting a war. If I say it was the foxes acting without Rei’s orders, the coven will come after the foxes and Rei. I can’t blame anyone else either. If my witches start coming after a particular gang for no reason, they’ll know I condoned it, and they’ll come for me personally.”
This was so fucked up because it was true. Venus had clearly never been in prison before, and she hadn’t bothered learning how things work before she started moving things in place. Even if Venus managed to take over the witches, she’d never keep that position. She’d pissed offwaytoo many people here. And I didn’t know what to tell Astrid because everyone here respected the pecking order and didn’t play fucked up games when they wanted to take over.
How did we fix this shit without starting a prison war?
“I know how,” Rei said.
Rei knew Venus better than any of us, and she was a fucking Kitsune. If anyone could circumvent a plotting witch and foil their plans, it was going to be a Kitsune.
“I’m listening,” Astrid said. “I’ll tell you if it’ll work or not after I hear your proposal. You’re just as new to prison as she is.”
“You tell your witches several gang leaders came to you because Venus was approaching people about a hit. They were angry about it because it came from her instead of you, and witches rarely ask other gangs to handle their dirty business. I know I’m new, but I’ve been watching, listening, and learning how things work. You don’t need to name who beat her. You just need to tell your witches Venus was breaking the rules trying to get an unauthorized hit done, and it could have been anyone. I’ve only met the two of you from your coven, but you seem reasonable. Won’t that get everyone angry at Venus instead of starting a blood feud with another gang?”
“That would work right up until Venus got out of medical. If she intends on lying and naming you and the foxes, it’s my word against hers. And a lot of my witches only agreed not to come after you because of Dakarys and Rajack.”
“Did you tell them what she did to Hauser? Wren gets why I bit her.”
“You have to tell them everything, Astrid. Now, while Venus can’t whisper in their ears behind you,” Wren said. “Tell them Venus and Rei knew each other way before the museum and what she did to her mentor. You know they’ll think Venus had way more coming to her than a bite. It’s time for me to tell them what she told me while I was working her. Since this is a tense situation, put her fate to a vote, but make sure to guide it, so it goes in your favor.”
Astrid sighed. She looked more tired than I had ever seen her.
“I havenotput anything into the universe to have this bad karma biting me in the ass. Who thought it was a good idea to put the two of you in the same prison, anyway?”
I’d been asking myself that as soon as I saw Venus. At first, we were happy they both ended up here. We had decided against Venus, but if we met Rei and she wasn’t cool, we would have approached her. We were stupid and selfish. We just wanted a thief so severely, we sat there rating their merits like they weren’t real people with feelings.
We hadn’t even considered what it was going to be like with both of them here, and it was biting us in the ass now. Rei seemed to think she was safe from Faust because he swore on his wolf, so we put him to the back of our minds as threats and were trying to concentrate on Venus.
Rei just shrugged.
“They kept us both in solitary before they transferred us like they didn’t want us in gen pop together. I can’t figure this out either unless they did it on purpose, hoping we would kill each other. They could only prove it was me for one theft, so I have a witch coven pissed at me, but a lot of people didn’t like Venus before they proved she had stolen from several people.”
Did someone do this on purpose? Rei had pissed off some witches. We couldn’t deny that. Venus had pissed off several races, and I could see why someone would want her dead.
But who did they want dead by sticking them together? Rei or Venus?
Chapter 30
Rei
W
itch politics were so fucking complicated. I could probably sneak into medical and take out Venus. I’d never killed anyone before, but Venus was getting beyond annoying. I didn’t understand why Astrid wasn’t killing her either. Astrid and Wren said they’d call a meeting in the laundry room and discuss her fate.
I was on my way back to Faust’s office. I guess he wasn’t taking any of his days off. He turned to me as soon as the door was shut.
“That little witch that keeps threatening you was found in medical beaten pretty badly. Your handiwork?”
I scoffed.
