"He's out of control now." Melissa stood in the middle of her office with the comms against her ear and the door shut behind her. The words left her mouth tighter than she'd planned. "He's obsessed with ruling. Genuinely obsessed. And I think he's going to become a serious obstacle to the awakening."
"We have larger things to think about, Lisa."
Monica's voice came through with that particular ease she'd carried for years, the ease of a woman who had never once in her existence been the person in the room who needed something.
"He is a mortal. A freaking mortal." A laugh underneath it—soft, almost affectionate in its dismissal. "If he were an actual threat, he would not be breathing tonight. You understand that. You've watched me do it before."
Melissa crossed to her chair and sat down in it. The leather accepted her weight with a soft complaint. The desk in front of her held the usual scatter of files, a cold cup of something she hadn't finished.
