"Korolev family?" Zara Koning said. "Your floor."
"For the third item on the agenda, I outlined the pros and cons yesterday," I said, "and now we'd like to put it up for a vote." The Mikados asked a question, and I explained.
Stellan was watching me, little frown lines between his brows that said he was taking something seriously. I wasn't sure why. We knew exactly where we stood on this issue.
"Excuse us for one moment while we discuss." He closed the laptop.
"What's wrong?" I said.
He framed my face with his hands and kissed me hard. "You really have to stop looking like that while discussing trade agreements. I can't concentrate. I'm going to accidentally put in a motion for Luxembourg to invade Belgium, and it'll be entirely your fault."
I hid my grin as he opened the computer back up. "Thanks for your patience," he said seriously, turning the floor back over to me.
"If there are no more questions, we'll take a vote," Zara said. She and her brother were both at the meeting. Zara was older, but in the past, her brother would have been next in line, as the male heir. That was one of the items on the docket for future vote, but for now, families were allowed to have anyone they wanted present at council meetings, and all thirteen families took turns leading them. When we'd voted and the issue passed, Zara said, "And with that, the meeting is adjourned. Reconvene tomorrow, at the same time."
We all nodded, Luc gave a little wave of his fingers I knew was meant for us, and I gave one back. Stellan closed the laptop again. "Another day as a Circle family down," he said.
After the Vatican, we'd brought the remaining Circle together and made a plan for the near future. We had to rebuild, within the Circle and in the world. We'd be meeting every day, but for the sake of both peace of mind-lots of the families still didn't trust each other-and each family's efforts in their own territories, we'd do it remotely for now.
The world had quieted some in the weeks since that night. Once the pope had calmed the crowds, any world leaders left alive in the room assembled, showing not only the half million people in the square, but news cameras streaming around the world that we were a united front. The story, according to the press, was that the politically motivated terrorists responsible for the carnage all over the world had attempted to attack again that night, but had been killed. With all the chaos that had been captured by the news cameras, people believed it. There had been no more attacks since then.
The Circle was trying to recover. Our first order of business had been to make sure the places hardest hit by the Saxons-Jerusalem, and Paris, and Rome, and Beijing-had help putting their cities back together and trying to heal.
The heads of six families had died. Every family had at least one direct heir to take over-except for the Saxons.
The closest Saxon heir still alive was me.
For now, Alistair's cousin-the father of Sunday Six drummer Noah Day-was second closest, and he was acting head of the family. I wasn't worried about him trying to overthrow me. Like Noah, he had no love for the Saxons. Plus, he was an influential politician in his own right.
We, the thirteenth family, the Korolev family, had no territory of our own. That would be put to a vote sometime soon, but for now, we were in an "undisclosed location." Someplace far away from Paris or Rome or Russia, where we could be certain we were safe while everything settled.
Stellan stood up and unbuttoned his crisp, collared shirt. It had looked a bit ridiculous with his orange swim trunks. I took a second to admire our tattoo in the center of his chest. I'd chosen the placement well. It made me want to touch his chest even more than I already did. The cuts across his back from Lydia's attack in Russia had healed to nothing already. The salve Nisha had made was helping with the pain. She'd given us more, and now we were putting it on Anya every day, too. It didn't offer much relief to the thicker burn scars on Stellan's back-but it was something.
And as they worked to learn more about the Great modification, Nisha and the science team were beginning to discover that it might have more uses. It was especially promising in cancer research. And they were still, secretly, working on a way to better distribute the vaccine for the virus, just in case.
I pulled my dress over my head to expose my own neon-yellow bikini. Stellan raised his eyebrows appreciatively. "Have I mentioned that I have the most beautiful girlfriend in the world?"
"About a hundred times a day."