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By Root 789 0

and surveyed the room, but his mind was clearly elsewhere. His little mage was starting to show too many signs of independence, questioning his requests, dragging her heels when he summoned her. He was going to have to do something about that, and soon. But not tonight. Not while he still needed her. And right now he had more important matters to deal with. Whoever had broken into his home tonight had defeated not one but two security systems. And his highly-trained, extremely expensive dogs had run off, howling at the moon and not responding to their collar-summons. The loss of one of his possessions was enough to drive him into a rage, but this breach of security left him with a deeper, colder anger. This was unacceptable.

Picking up the phone once again, he dialed a different number. “Your system was compromised. Fix it.”

Beth Sanatini had been freelance for almost twenty years. Halfway through her apprenticeship she had realized that the Council and she were going to butt heads on a regular basis, so why even bother trying to toe the line? But before she left—went rogue, in their eyes—she had studied the layers of power, judged who was an up-and-comer, who was there for the long haul, and what they might do in order to keep their power. And once you knew that, there was no need to cut all ties completely, no matter how rogue you were. Just good business, after all.

But in the end, it had been the Council itself that came calling. Or, rather, one member in particular. They had offered a deal Beth couldn’t refuse, and it would be funny if it weren’t so damn annoying. It was that member Beth contacted now.

Three rings, as always. Someone was tapping into the line to see who it was. Caller ID was a piker compared to a magical tap. Beth crunched on the carrot stick, and waited until someone cleared her ID code, then picked up on the other end.

“Apparently, someone took Mr. Prevost to the cleaners tonight.”

“Really?” The voice on the other end of the line didn’t seem at all surprised. Just once, Beth wanted to be able to give them something they didn’t already expect. If you were going to be a stoolie, however reluctant, you should at least be a useful one. “And I assume that he has asked you to retrieve said object once again?”

“You would be correct,” she admitted. Suddenly the carrot didn’t look anywhere near as appetizing as the chocolate chips stashed in her freezer. It was horribly unfair that you couldn’t magic off excess weight.

“You will not accept this commission.”

Beth watched as her fingers clenched so hard on the carrot that it broke in two. Not a surprise, really. If they could have stopped her from taking the original job, they would have. The Council didn’t like to be embarrassed, especially by escapees like her own little self. “Will I be compensated for the loss of that commission?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

“We allow you to operate without interference,” her contact told her. “Do not presume upon that goodwill.”

Goodwill. Beth would have smiled, if she weren’t so damn tired. That translated to “we’re not going to yank the leash we keep you on—yet.” If they’d had anything to do with the retrieval—and she suspected they did, from sheer pride if nothing else, they would be determined to have it end here, now. You didn’t trespass on Council deals. Except she had, and lived to tell the tale.

Maybe it was time to twist that smug bastard once, just because she could. “Were you also aware of the fact that the item Mr. Prevost recently acquired through my services was showing signs of breakage?”

There was the sound of someone sitting upright in a chair. “Details,” the voice ordered crisply.

“He brought me in to judge what he perceived to be leakage of the spell. He was correct—apparently our Mr. Prevost has a touch more Talent than anyone suspected. Barely enough to notice, but it did alert him to the problem. It also, I suppose, explains why so many of his pretties have a magical element to them.”

“Did you correct the damage?”

“I patched it. But that’s not going to last. And if someone