Page 17 of The Fake Divination Offense
“Mr. Monroe,” she says. “Thank you for joining us. Please.” She waves at the couch across from them.
Forget my palms sweating; I’m pretty sure I’m fauceting through my shirt.
What the fuck what the fuck what the—
But I cross the room to sink into the middle of the couch. At least it’s not one of those dainty decorative ones a lot of offices have; Roesia’s clearly used to hosting rawball players of massive size, because the couch doesn’t so much as groan under my frame.
“Uh,” I start, ever so eloquently. “I mean—”
Roesia sits, her hands poised on the armrests, those intense, predator eyes whipping from me to the man next to her.
“Oh,” she says. “I assumed you knew each other; my apologies. This is Maddock Drach, the head priest of the Church of Urzoth Shieldsworn in Philadelphia. Reverend Drach, this is Orok Monroe, our newest defensive tank.” She pauses, a small quirk to her lips as she looks at Drach. “Though you probably don’t need that introduction.”
“No, I certainly do not.” Drach shifts forward to extend his hand. “Strong as stone,” he says by way of greeting.
I take his hand. He’s smaller than me by luck of his lineage, but his grip on my hand is unnecessarily tight. Asserting dominance. Or trying to.
I shake back, squeezing enough to let him know I recognize what he’s doing. “Hard as rock,” I finish, the words tasting like dust.
Drach holds my gaze for a beat. And when I think this is going to turn into a stare-down pissing match and I bite my tongue to keep from rolling my eyes, Drach drops my hand and sinks back in his chair.
His stare is assessing. “I’ve been following your career sincethe Manticores, son. You’ve always been one of our most beloved players.”
The Manticores—my time in college. I met a few Urzoth reps while I was there, but never this guy. Either he’s new to the local branch or they sent in the big guns because I’m really, really screwed.
No. I’m not screwed. Once I part from Urzoth, I won’t be subject to any of the church’s authority. Whatever Drach’s here for won’t matter.
I swallow, throat grating on itself. “Thank you, sir.”
Roesia crosses her long legs. “I know you arranged this meeting with my assistant some time ago, so forgive me for hijacking it, but the timing was rather kismet. Before we get started, Mr. Monroe, what did you want to talk about?”
She watches me patiently.
So does Drach.
And my brain undergoes a full system reset in two short breaths as I piece together that they do not, in fact, know what I want to talk about. Roesia has an Urzoth rep here for some other reason, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it could be.
But I’m not about to renounce my patron godin front of one of his priests. That’s like breaking up with your significant other in front of their parents. Plus, with him present, he’d take my renouncing as a challenge and demand we fight so I could have thehonorofearningmy way out of Urzoth’s graces.
It’ll be way less confrontational to renounce Urzoth to only Roesia. Maybe we can take care of whatever business they have, then Drach’ll leave and I can be allactually, funny story, I’m done with that god.
I shake my head. “Oh. That can wait. What can I do for you, ma’am?”
Roesia smiles like that was the right answer. Of course it was. She controls my team; she gets what she wants, always.
“As Reverend Drach said,” she begins, “you’ve always been a beloved player.”
I snort. I can’t help it. Ishouldhelp it, because this woman holds my career in her hands. If she and the rest of the Hellhounds hadn’t taken me from the Chimeras, I don’t know where I’d be. I probably could’ve gotten in with another team, but to be here,home—it’s everything.
Roesia smirks. It doesn’t reach her eyes. “Yes. You’ve had a bit of bad press recently.”
It’s Drach’s turn to make a rude noise, only his is an aggressive throat clear. I study him, and when he shifts on his chair, his gaze meets mine with a disappointed stare I’ve seen enough from my mother to recognize.
Great. He’s on thelawsuit is a sign of weaknessside of this whole debate. Though, being a rep for the church, it isn’t at all surprising.
Roesia flicks her shrewd eyes at him. “Would you care to touch on your church’s run of bad press as well?”
My chin jerks back and it takes me a beat to realize that she’sreprimandinghim?
