“So?” Luna said. “What about you?”

“Well,” I said. “I spent half the day sitting around in a very nice waiting room, and about half an hour getting very thoroughly threatened by Levistus. He says if I don’t play along with what he wants, he’s going to destroy me. He also implied he’d do the same to you.”

Luna, Anne, and Variam exchanged looks. “Um,” Luna said. “Details?”

I told them the story.

Once I’d finished, there was a brief silence. “Okay then,” Luna said.

“What do you mean, ‘okay then’?” Variam said. “Fuck that guy.”

“Vari, wait,” Anne said in her soft voice. “We weren’t there when you had to deal with this the first time.” She looked between me and Luna. “Can he really do it? Everything he’s threatening?”

I hesitated. “Put it this way—I wouldn’t like to test it.”

“We beat his assassins before,” Luna said.

“I don’t think it’s his assassins that we should be worrying about,” I said. “You remember the Nightstalkers? The reason they were left to go after me was because of him. It’s that kind of thing I’m really scared of. If he sends an assassin, I can fight them. But if he just gets other Light mages to do the work instead . . . He could probably turn half the Council against me if he really tried.”

“This is so stupid,” Luna said. “He’s got this fight with Morden. The whole Council is fighting amongst themselves about White Rose and this proposal with the Dark mages. And he decides to go after you?”

I didn’t answer. What I was really thinking was something so childish that I was embarrassed to say it out loud: It’s not fair. I already had Richard to worry about. Wasn’t one overwhelmingly powerful enemy enough?

“So fuck him,” Variam said. “He’s not allowed to do this.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s really going to help,” Luna said in exasperation. “We’ll tell him he’s not allowed.”

“Yeah, well, what else are you going to do?” Variam asked me. “Do what he tells you?”

“It doesn’t even sound as though he can,” Anne said. “Levistus said that he wanted White Rose protected. If Alex stays here and they go through with their plan and arrest them, isn’t Levistus going to blame Alex anyway?”

“Somehow I don’t think he’s going to give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“So no point worrying, is there?” Variam said.

“I don’t think it’s that simple,” Anne said.

“Well, we’ve got one thing going for us,” I said. “We might be juggling multiple enemies, but Levistus is too. He’s too busy with this political duel he’s fighting.”

“Until it ends,” Anne said.

“And if he loses, he’s not going to be happy.” I sighed. “On the other hand, if he wins, then he’ll have even more influence. And he wanted to go after me anyway. I’m not actually sure which would be worse.”

“Alex?” Arachne said. “Would you like a suggestion?”

“Please.”

“It seems to me that you have already established what your decision has to be,” Arachne said. “Even if you could aid Levistus—which may or may not be possible—you could not trust him to uphold his end of the deal. You would be adding to the resources of one proven to be your enemy. As well as mine. That is without taking into account that aiding Levistus would by default bring you into conflict with other factions of the Council. Besides . . .” Arachne looked down at me. “You know what White Rose are. You know what they do. Do you really want to help them?”