Drink Deep - Chloe Neill [88]
“Maybe so,” I said. “But these kids are no match for Tate. He was able to manipulate Celina, and she’s as stubborn and resilient as they come.”
“There’s no other choice,” he said. “Chuck had to fight to keep Tate separated from the rest of the prison population. To tell you the truth, I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that Tate’s no longer mayor. He started off strong enough—opened the Ombud’s office. He was a real supporter of Chuck.”
“Until he started manufacturing drugs and attempting to control vampires?”
“There is that,” Catcher agreed. “I’m not saying those were good deeds. I just think they’re anomalies in the bigger scheme of Tate.”
I didn’t disagree the change was odd, but I thought it revealed true colors Tate hadn’t been able to hide any longer. “Scheme,” I thought, was the key word.
I hopped out of the cart, offered up my weapons, then glanced back at Catcher. “You’re staying here?”
He’d already pulled out a book and was flipping through the pages. “Right here waiting, just like the song. I’m scanning the Order’s annals for any evidence of whether anything like this happened before—including whether Tate might be involved.” With a frown, he absently scratched the back of his head. “I’m hoping if I can find that kind of entry, I can backtrack and figure out what kind of magic was behind it.”
Given his obvious exhaustion and tireless efforts, I managed not to make a juvenile joke about the “annals” of an organization with the acronym U-ASS.
“That sounds perfectly reasonable.”
“We’ll see,” he grumbled in response, but he was already scanning the pages.
I headed for the door. The kid in uniform offered me a salute, then opened the door to the building. A second uniform stood point at the steel door that led into the office.
“Ma’am. Be careful in there,” he said, and when I assured him I would, opened the door and let me inside.
It immediately slammed shut behind me.
I jumped a little, which wasn’t exactly the brave facade I’d hoped to put on for this meeting.
“I don’t bite, Ballerina,” Tate cannily said. In his orange jumpsuit, he was seated at the aluminum table again. Since he clearly wasn’t going to use my name, I didn’t bother to correct him. I’d also already decided it was useless to play games with a liar, so I sat down across from him and got down to business.
“Are you the one manipulating the city right now?”
He looked back at me, head slightly tilted, his expression inscrutable. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His tone was equally opaque. I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or if he was truly surprised by the question.
I decided there was no point in not putting all my cards on the table—not when the city was at stake.
“The lake went dead. The sky turned red. I understand we’re seeing elemental magic, symptoms that are popping up because the city is unbalanced. We’ve seen water and air so far. Fire and earth could be next.”
“And?”
I paused, picking a tone to offer up my theory. I opted for Ethan’s “Slyer Than Thou” voice. “It’s the strangest thing, Tate. Whenever I’m in your presence, I smell lemon and sugar—like cookies baking.”
His expression stayed flat, but his pupils had narrowed just a smidge. I was on to something.
“Yesterday, while the sky was red, it rained. And I smelled the same thing.” I linked my hands together on the table, and leaned forward. “I know you’re doing this. And you’re going to tell me how to stop it, or we’re going to go a round. Right here. Right now.”
Okay, I might have gone a bit overboard on the last bit, and not just because I had no weapons and wasn’t entirely sure what he could do. But Tate ignored the bravado.
“If I am the maker of these events, how, exactly did I arrange them from my humble abode?”
“I hadn’t exactly gotten to that part.”
He made a sound of disdain. “You hadn’t gotten to any part. You could hardly be more wrong, and that bodes as poorly for the city as anything else. It is not in my nature to produce that kind of magic.”
“What are you?” I asked him.
“If this magic isn’t mine, why does it matter?”
“How could