Chapter Twenty-Seven
NICOLA RIVERS shut herself in the study of her six-bedroom house. She didn’t know if she was more hurt or angry that Elliot could do this to her. His comment while he was back home about not going into politics had been a sign that she would have to work harder to get his life going in the direction it needed to go, but to call himself a friend to two Neans... The idea of it made her feel sick.
The visit to Elliot’s university was cut short after the scene with that obnoxious Nean, when Elliot had actually defended the boy’s insolence. Had Elliot listened to nothing she had said over the years about the threat Neans posed to the rest of the world? When her fellow politicians voted against her and granted the Nean race freedom it had hurt, but the betrayal of her own son was a pain she could never have imagined.
In her anger, she was tempted to retaliate. His generous allowance and car could vanish in a click of her fingers. He would come running back, full of apologies, if he was disinherited. She frowned, unable to picture the scenario. He had her sense of determination: if asked to choose between the Neans and his family he might just be bull-headed enough to choose them and cut himself off from her. She would have to play this carefully until she got him to understand the truth about Neans.
And why had no one told her that Neans would be attending the same university as her son?
She picked up the phone on her authentic Georgian-era desk and phoned her secretary, tapping manicured fingernails on the wood as she waited for the woman to answer. It might be the weekend but her business was urgent. When there was finally a reply she said, “Find out everything about the Neans who are at university with Elliot.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Half an hour later she received an e-mail with the preliminary report which gave the names of the two Neans, where their family lived and the startling news that the one she had encountered possessed magic. She tried to recall his appearance but his insulting comments were all that had stood out about him, otherwise he was like any other Nean with the usual bright clothes, over-long hair and the ugly brow ridge that marked his inferior species.
Was magic the reason why Elliot was so interested in him? Was he trying to find out more about his gift? It would put an entirely different perspective on his behaviour.
Another thought occurred to her that made her grab the phone once more. There couldn’t be more than a handful of magic users in the country – it was hardly likely that Elliot had just happened to end up living near to another one.
She phoned the number of a government department few people knew the existence of. When she was finally put through to a senior person there she said, “Did you arrange for my son, Elliot Rivers, to meet another magic user at university?”
“We did, yes.”
“This is my child,” she snapped. “How dare you do this without consulting me?”
“Magic users have a duty to serve this country, one way or another,” the man said and the threat in his words made her confidence vanish and her breath catch in fear. “We need to determine the type and strength of magic that these teenagers possess.”
“You can do whatever you like with the Nean boy, but my son is a Sapiens. He has rights.”
“The amount of freedom and number of rights he has will depend on how cooperative he is and what he can do to help with our experiments.”
There was a pause in the conversation as she took in everything that the word experiments could cover. She couldn’t allow her baby to be harmed. Elliot had no idea of the dangerous situation he was in the middle of.
She swallowed. “I’m an MP, sworn to protect this country, and Elliot is my family. I guarantee that he will help you in any way required. There was never any need to do this behind my back – I can control my own son. Tell me what you need and I’ll make sure you get it.”
“I appreciate your willingness to assist and I’ll let you know when it’s needed. For the moment everything is going just the way we want it to at your son’s university.”