CHAPTER 22
Back at the Dauphins', we gathered awkwardly in the front hall. Even Luc seemed reluctant to enter the quiet, empty apartments after the funerals. But then we heard a bang from up the stairs, and a kid's shriek of laughter.
Luc elbowed Stellan and grinned, and then he ran a hand through his hair, pulling his careful coif back into his usual bedhead. "Alors, my first act as head of the Dauphin family will be to invite in the people half the Circle still thinks are their enemy and the other half are afraid of. Sounds right. Everyone come in, make yourselves at home, and I will open some ridiculously expensive wine."
It broke the awkwardness, and I twisted my newly filled locket around my fingers as I followed everyone into what had become our favorite sitting room.
Before we were even settled in, Jack perched on the arm of the couch, his hands in his pockets. "I hate to bring us back to duties so quickly, but I was speaking with Fitz at the ceremony, and he told me something we need to think about right away. We'd mentioned earlier that it was possible the Circle could come back from a Saxon takeover."
Elodie had been lounging on a couch and now she sat up, interested.
Jack shook his head. "Unfortunately it's not a positive. Fitz believes, due to conversations he overheard while he was in captivity, that the Saxons may be planning to assassinate the heads of all the families, when the time is right. And it sounds like once this treaty is signed may be that time."
There was a loud pop as Luc uncorked the wine bottle. "Excuse me?" he said.
"What about their plans being ‘best for the Circle'?" I said. "I think that somewhere deep down, Lydia actually believes that."
Jack spread his hands. "I agree, but I think she could easily fit this plan into that framework. If every family was trying to introduce new leadership, no one would have time or energy to mutiny."
"She'd probably call it giving the Circle a fresh start," Stellan muttered.
"I think we've got to assume it's true and try to do something about it, but it doesn't necessarily change-" Jack turned to me. "There's plenty of your blood to vaccinate the families."
"If they'll take it." Luc got down wine glasses from the well-stocked bar while Colette poured. "I've already tried to tell them we have a vaccine, but they won't listen. No one knows what-or who-to believe anymore."
I stood, crossing the room to look outside through the split in the heavy velvet curtains. The streets on the back side of the Louvre were almost empty. This city that had come to mean so much to me was terrified and cowering, avoiding the virus, or the riots because of the virus. Down the block, a group of people in black masks appeared. They smashed the window of a parked car with a pipe and laughed, and I winced. Was that what the world was coming to? Something had to be done. Something had to be done to save the Circle, too.
I heard a knock. I knew even before I'd turned around that it would be Nisha standing in the doorway.
"We have good news," she said, but she didn't say it with a "good news" kind of smile. "A mouse has lived. We have many more tests to do, but to have any chance of getting a vaccine out before the treaty meeting, we would have to do the procedure . . . Miss West's injection, that is . . . tomorrow in the morning." Her eyes softened. "You don't have to decide now."
I felt strangely calm as she left the room. I slipped off my shoes and curled back in the armchair, trying to ignore everyone staring at me.
At first, all I'd wanted was to keep people I loved safe. I understood Lydia in that way. But I'd come to feel responsible for so much more.
I may have been wrong assuming all the Circle families were only out for themselves, but they would need as many people on the good side as they could get. The more I thought about leaving, the more I realized I didn't want to. And it wasn't just to avoid going back to a life of hiding. I'd said I didn't care about power, but maybe I was wrong. If someone like Lydia Saxon could change the course of the Circle, why couldn't I? Why shouldn't I? The more I realized what was there for the taking, the more I wanted it, even if I had to fight for it. Maybe I did have a little of the Circle, of the Saxons, in me after all.
"I don't think we should leave." I ran a thumb along the chair's stitching. "We've all pledged ourselves to the Circle in various ways, but more than that, I think we have a responsibility. My mom, the Circle families we respect, Fitz, the Order-they all just wanted the Circle to be what it's supposed to be. I don't think I can abandon that now. I know it's dangerous. But my mom ran from this to try to keep me safe, and it just made everything worse. Running has consequences, too."