“I’ll fucking lobotomize you, you filthy prick. You made her into a Warden! She was mine!”
The door behind me swung open and Arabella stuck her head into the room. “What’s with all the screaming . . .”
I pulled her in and clamped my hand over her mouth.
“You had two others to choose from,” Victoria snarled. “You could have had the older one. She would’ve been perfect. She is just like you. If that didn’t work out, you could have had the youngest one. She would walk across hot coals to get one of those kindly grandfatherly chuckles out of you. She adores you. But no, you took mine!”
“There were circumstances,” Linus said.
“Fuck your circumstances. You can take your circumstances and shove them up your ass.”
The circle pulsed with blinding light. If she had hit us with that much magic, our brains would have leaked out of our ears.
Victoria waved her arms around. “She stole Trevor from me! And I didn’t know! The subtlety required, the planning, can your stupid old brain even imagine it? I taught her, I molded her, I made sure she could lead this family. I made sure to find her the perfect partner. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to maneuver the two of them together? I suggested to the Keeper that he should request that boy to come to her trials. I made her promise that she wouldn’t leave the family for another House. I all but forbade her to love him, because forbidden fruit is the sweetest, and when she came to me, she was so meek and unsure, she would have fainted if he’d looked at her for two seconds. Their children will be invincible. And you ruined everything with your stupid plots and your inane nattering about duty and the greater good. Now she will die in one of your never-ending Warden schemes!”
Wow.
Linus opened his mouth.
“Don’t you dare!” She pointed her finger at him. “I don’t want your excuses. We had a deal. I held up my end of the bargain. I helped you with your idiotic Caesar plot! I became a criminal for you. I let them put me in prison. You promised me complete access to the children. You said I could pick one and you would not interfere!”
The circle pulsed. The floor under us shuddered.
“YOU LIED TO ME, LINUS!”
The chalk lines crackled with white lightning. We all stared at them until it faded.
“Question,” I said.
My grandparents looked at me.
“Actually, I have several questions,” I said, “But this is the most important one. Explain the idiotic Caesar plot.”
Nobody said anything.
“Go ahead,” Victoria said. “Tell your granddaughter about the mess you made.”
“It’s complicated,” Linus said.
“He is Caesar,” Victoria said. “The whole thing was cooked up by the National Assembly to dismantle that idiotic conspiracy, and your grandfather infiltrated it and got himself appointed as head idiot.”
That was too much.
I covered my face with my hands.
“Catalina, are you okay?” Arabella asked.
“Yes. I’m fine. I can’t kill him because he’s my grandfather and I promised Nevada.” I turned to her. “Can you please deal with this. I can’t . . . I just can’t right now.”
“I’ve got this,” she said. “I’ll bring them cookies.”
I turned around and marched out the door.
Chapter 16
I hid in my office. That seemed like the best place.
For a few minutes I stared at my email trying to read it. None of it registered. After twenty minutes I gave up and logged into the Warden Network.
It didn’t take me long to find it. Some files, usually the ones dealing with past matters the Wardens have handled, required a higher clearance. They weren’t available to me when I was a Deputy. But I was the Acting Warden now and the archives of the network were my playground.
Victoria was right. Linus was Caesar.
Two years before Adam Pierce blew up the bank that started our involvement, Linus was pursuing a complex corruption case and stumbled onto the Conspiracy. Two dozen powerful Texas Houses were involved, people with armor-clad reputations, strong connections, and staggering resources. It was too big to take down from the outside. After a consultation with representatives of the National Assembly, Linus made a decision to infiltrate it.
It took him six months. The conspirators needed a face, someone with an unassailable reputation they could use to inspire new recruits and reassure nervous members. Someone to shake their hand and promise with total sincerity that they were doing the right thing, that their cause was noble, and that future generations would celebrate their efforts and their sacrifice. Linus became that somebody. Caesar, a leader without power. An inspiration.