Leon whistled the opening tune from A Fistful of Dollars.
The white-haired man opened the car door, and a woman stepped out. She was a year older than me, with pale skin and long dark hair, a cooler brown with carefully chosen highlights. Tall, about five ten, maybe a hundred and thirty pounds, long waisted, long legs, long arms. And she walked like a fencer, balanced and light on her feet. Her dark pantsuit fit her perfectly but was loose enough to let her move freely.
Huge grey eyes on an oval face, straight nose, a large mouth she toned down with pale pink lipstick . . . She was quite beautiful, in that upper-class slightly generic way. If you googled European heiress, you would find a slew of girls just like her, with big eyes, lovely smiles, and perfectly applied makeup designed to elevate their features rather than emphasize them.
She walked over and sat across from me. The man took position behind her. I sent my magic out. It spiraled from me, carefully slipping around Christina to the man behind her. Not a mental mage. His mind was unshielded and vulnerable. Probably an aegis. That’s who I would bring.
“I’ll get straight to it,” Christina Almeida said in her accented voice. “Alessandro’s family and my House have made arrangements. We are able to meet their financial demands.”
They sold him. Again. As expected.
I let a single tendril of my power gently brush against Christina, its touch featherlight. An antistasi wall.
Interesting.
“How much did you pay for him?” Leon asked. “Just wondering what a good-looking Prime antistasi goes for on the open market these days.”
Christina ignored him. “Your feelings for him and his feelings for you are immaterial to this arrangement. This is about family, obligation, and children.”
She wasn’t as strong as the basalt rock that was Alessandro’s mind. She must’ve ranked lower, probably a Notable. Antistasi plus a Prime praelia. Summoned augmented weapons, maybe?
Christina leaned back, raising her chin slightly. “His family will never accept you.”
“Not the greatest argument considering they excised him,” Leon said.
“It’s not just a matter of money but of class and pedigree. You have neither. Furthermore, you have no idea how to handle a Sagredo or how to navigate their family dynamic. His grandfather is an insufferable, toxic man.”
On that, we agreed.
“If you marry Alessandro and travel with him to Italy, his grandfather will make you miserable until you either quit or die by his hand. If you marry Alessandro and keep him here, his excision will become permanent. He will lose all contact with his mother and sisters. The guilt will eat him alive. We both know duty to his family is his Achilles’ heel and the benefits of a pretty face and intense sex only last so long. No vagina is magic.”
Leon smiled.
“Unlike you, Ms. Baylor, I have the leverage to free Alessandro from his grandfather while preserving his other family ties. I will give him what he truly requires—a family with status and powerful children. My line is compatible with antistasi magic. My grandmother was one. I am also one. Feel free to test my mind.”
Heh.
“Our children will be powerful, and their future will be assured, because my House will commit all of its resources to their training. They will be worthy of the Almeida name. Your children with him would struggle even if by some genetic miracle, they were born with some talent. Let him go. Let him live the life he pretended to have all these years. If you love him, help me make this as painless for him as possible. We both know he doesn’t belong here.”
I glanced at Leon. “Did you catch the ‘my House will commit all of its resources’ bit?”
“Mhm,” he said. “They’re planning to play ball until the old buzzard dies and then they’ll try to absorb Sagredo into their House.”
“I will win in the end, one way or another,” Christina said. “I’ve viewed the recordings of your power. You require an arcane circle to be effective and your command of the blade is rudimentary. You are no match for me physically, magically, or in terms of family resources. In the interest of resolving this matter quickly, I’m willing to negotiate. Name your price and we can conclude this unpleasant business. Don’t look at it as a bribe. Instead look at it as an extension of assistance from someone who understands the emotional toll of sacrifice.”
She was a child.
“Okay,” I told Leon. “I’ve learned everything I needed to know.”
“I’m being extremely generous,” Christina told me.