Free The Schism (The Broken Prism Book 4) by V. St. Clair Page B

toyed with me long enough. You haven’t been able to come up with any legal argument yet for why you should still be allowed to hold my property, so you have one month to begin repayment and finish up whatever you’re doing in my estate, or I’m coming after you individually.”
    Magdalene Trout motioned for her colleague to sit down, looking annoyed with his outburst. Calahan exchanged a brief glance with her that Hayden couldn’t interpret, and then he said, “Alright, you’ll get your things back. We’ll have one of our accountants contact—”
    “I’ll be using my own accountant, actually,” Hayden interrupted. Mrs. Trout and Edgar had both strongly encouraged him on this point, to keep him from being swindled by someone that the Council had control over.
    Calahan frowned and said, “I wasn’t aware that you had your own accountant on retainer…” in a tone of polite disbelief.
    In truth, he didn’t. He was about to take a gamble and hope for the best, because Edgar and Mrs. Trout had disagreed about whether his next decision would actually work or not.
    “I’ll be hiring Fia Valay to run the ledgers and get everything set up with the banks, until I have time to put someone on permanent retainer,” he explained as though it had already been decided.
    Fia Valay, who happened to be in the audience, looked momentarily stunned, but he cleared the expression from his face almost immediately and stared curiously at Hayden. The High Mayor glanced over at his Fia like he was wondering why he wasn’t told about this development beforehand. In truth, it was because Hayden hadn’t actually asked the Fia if he would help him yet, and wasn’t at all sure that the man would want to, since Hayden nearly blew him up with an Absorber last year while fleeing Mizzenwald.
    Mrs. Trout had thought it was too risky to gamble on Valay agreeing to help him without speaking to him first, but Edgar thought it was brilliant. Hayden had only thought of the Fia because anyone who could teach him trigonometry was clearly a mathematical genius, and could certainly figure out the mess of receipts and transactions from this loaning business.
    “You’re hiring one of the High Mayor’s Fias to run your personal finances?” Calahan couldn’t have looked more shocked if Hayden had announced he was from another planet.
    “Is that a problem?” Hayden asked cautiously.
    “It’s just surprising that you wouldn’t want a mage to be involved in the process…” he said with a brief glance at the Fias in the audience. Hayden couldn’t have scripted Calahan’s words better himself, because the Fias looked affronted at being called second-rate for not having magical abilities.
    “Why would I need someone with magic to do simple arithmetic?” he raised a questioning eyebrow. He didn’t wait for an answer. “Please provide him with a copy of all your paperwork and receipts regarding the Frost properties and monies, and we can work out a repayment schedule once I’m back at school.”
    The room fell silent again, and Hayden stood there expectantly, attempting to wipe his sweaty palms on his robes without anyone noticing how nervous he still was. He hoped he had done Magdalene and Edgar proud, since he was fairly certain he’d just made some dangerous enemies in the Council of Mages.
    Finally, Calahan spoke.
    “Fia Valay will have all of our documentation within the week.” It sounded like every word was causing him terrible pain, and he looked ready to spit poison.
    “Thank you,” Hayden replied courteously, hoping his relief wasn’t too visible.
    He turned and walked calmly from the chamber, letting the door close behind him and finally taking a moment to slouch against the wall in the hallway and breathe deeply.
    I did it. I actually one-upped the entire Council of Mages and got my things back.
    He didn’t have long to celebrate privately, as the doors opened almost immediately and the room began to clear, forcing him to