Arcane Magic (Stella Mayweather Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

should think Stella is a walking encyclopedia of all things witchy by now," Étoile grinned again, as she perused another sheet of paper that Clare laid adjacent to the others. After a moment, she signed it and handed it back to Clare, who said again how nice it was to meet me, and she hoped she would see me again soon before she left.
    "She seems nice," I said as the door closed behind her.
    "Too nice," said Étoile. "Too helpful. Too perfect."
    I glanced towards the closed door as my brows knitted together in interest. "You're suspicious of her."
    "I'm suspicious of everyone."
    "Paranoid?"
    "I want to survive this term. Whose idea was it to run for president of the Council?"
    "Yours."
    "Damn it! I like Clare, but I have to be cautious. Perhaps less of that for now; how is the work going?"
    "You didn't insist that I come all the way to the city to ask me that. You could have asked me over the phone. What's bugging you?" I enquired, cutting to the issue that I knew Étoile really wanted to discuss. Why she would go through such a charade of questions was more than curious; usually Étoile simply got straight to the point.
    "Honestly? There are things I need you to look for specifically while you're going through those files. I need information and I can't go poking around here. There are too many eyes watching me."
    "What things? Why?"
    "The why is the easy part." Étoile sighed. "The High Council, toward which so many of us are working, is in danger of not even reaching fruition. We can't agree on key parts of our cooperation. The demons want to run the whole damn thing and they aren't all that keen on democracy. More like a demoncracy . The werewolves just want to rip the heads off anyone who disagrees with them, and the witches... well, we just fight and oppose the others, but we're subtle about it."
    "Sounds it."
    "If we can't agree on getting the High Council into a working framework, it won't happen. We will all go back to being separate and feudal, thereby putting everyone in greater danger. To make matters more fun for me, I'll get the blame for it and be ousted."
    "Okay. So... this all sucks. What do you want me to look for?"
    "That's just it. I don't know. I think you should look for weak points within the witches. How can the demons attack us and succeed? The werewolves too. I don't trust Noah Wilde one bit."
    "Isn't that kind of duplicitous?"
    "Forewarned is forearmed, as they say. I want the details. It doesn't mean I'll attack them. I just want to stop them from attacking us, and you can bet they will be seeking the same goals too. There's something else. I want you to look into the backgrounds of some witches. I need to find out if they have any connection to Georgia Thomas."
    "Georgia Thomas?" Somehow, the name didn't surprise me. Georgia was once implicated in a treasonous plot, but despite being actually innocent, she still couldn't be trusted. There were too many incidences of her bullying and attacking other witches. She was hell-bent on power and would stop at nothing to get it. We suspected demon collusion, but since Étoile's swearing in, Georgia had gone to ground.
    "I know, I know. She's the gift that just keeps on giving. I need to be a step ahead of her. My network is currently unable to locate her."
    I sighed. Georgia being off the grid was not good news, but also not surprising. I couldn't imagine where she was hiding, or what she was doing, but I assumed that it was no good. "Great."
    "That's not what I said. Can you look into these things discreetly when you return to work?"
    "Of course. You know I will," I said, concluding that Étoile's instructions weren't too dissimilar from my own private research. I would simply continue what I was already doing.
    "One more thing."
    "Yes?"
    "If anyone asks, we never had this conversation. I don't want anyone thinking I feel threatened, and I definitely don't want anyone thinking I care one bit about whatever Georgia might be up to."
    "I won't say a thing,"