Free Deception of the Magician (Waldgrave Book 2) by A.L. Tyler Page A

world and the whole political structure and everything!”
    Devin gave his lopsided grin. It hadn’t changed since the day they’d met. “Oh yeah? That big?”
    “Oh yeah.” They smiled together. “So how are things?”
    Dev leaned back in his chair. “Same old, same old. Tab lost a few too many last night and yada, yada, yada, I do not recommend the chicken today, or standing too close to Tab, because he smells like raw chicken and it’s really gross. There’s a really cool mud impression of someone’s half naked body around the other side of the house, unrelated to the chicken ordeal, and I recommend you check it out before someone washes it off later this morning. Oh, I just heard about Marie. I didn’t even know she was still here. Haven’t seen her around…”
    “Yeah, I just found out about it last night.” Lena furrowed her brow. “Is she okay? I thought everything was—“
    Tab poked his head out of the kitchen. “Man, are you going to get back in here or what? Finish making out ‘cause the oatmeal’s starting to burn!”
    At that same moment, a few other Representatives walked into the dining hall. Lena didn’t have time to see who they were before Devin had pulled her into a quick hug, jumped out of the chair, and walked briskly back to the kitchen. Lena turned around. It was Masters Astley, Brendon, and Rivera—New Faith families. She wasn’t sure if all of them were integrationists or not. Only Master Rivera was looking at her, however; she was sure what he had seen. As she was the only one in the dining room, and it would have been odd for them to purposely sit somewhere else, the wandered over and joined Lena at her table. She smiled politely, and they did the same. As an heir, and not a full member of the Council, Lena thought she would get off easy because it was customary for heirs to only speak when invited to do so.
    Master Rivera nodded toward the kitchen. “A friend of yours, Ms. Collins?”
    So much for getting off easy. The ghost of the conversation that was about to take place was already haunting her. It looked like Howard and Griffin. “Yes. An old acquaintance from my first year here. We’ve loosely kept in touch.”
    “Well, that’s impressive.” Master Rivera’s brown eyes registered surprise. “Most of the Council members here would like to pretend the lower echelons of society don’t exist. Do you have many friends among the lower classes?”
    Lena looked up at Master Rivera, shocked at what he’d just said.
    “A few…” She searched the faces around her for signs of disapproval, but didn’t find any. On the contrary, the three of them looked rather intrigued. Lena wasn’t sure how the conversation had turned in her favor, but in her mind she was thanking her luck that it had. They might have been humoring her, but she decided it might be worth it to risk a little more. “Sometimes after dinner and meetings are over, I come down to visit. We play cards and talk. Just casual stuff like that.”
    Without looking at her, which he rarely did because of their shared past, Master Astley joined in. “How fascinating. I haven’t played with cards since I was a boy. It’s good to see you mingling with those you serve.”
    At that moment Tab came out, took orders while standing bizarrely too close to Master Brendon, and then retreated back into the kitchen. Master Brendon turned up his nose. “Good God, do they all smell like that?”
    Lena tried to keep a straight face. She was sure she heard heavy guffaws coming from the kitchen. “No…I assure you the majority of them don’t.”
    Just to the left of Master Brendon’s head, Lena saw an arm stick out of the kitchen door briefly, giving her a thumbs up. The conversation quickly changed to more solid politics after that, and the rest of breakfast went on without any further hurdles.
     
    The week went by much faster than Lena had anticipated, and before she even knew it, she was sneaking a stack of index cards