Awakening - The Last Science #1

Chapter 5 - Apathy - III

  Will saved whatever he was working on and closed the laptop, then set a hand to her face gently. "You know I'm horribly biased right?"

  "As honest as you can get, please."

  "I think you're the best thing to ever happen to our little gathering of witchery. I wish you'd invited me in sooner..." he said pointedly. Rachel grimaced. She'd neglected to tell Will about magic until the incident with the ritual in her room, long after she'd awakened herself. "...but the work you're doing to organize people, to set up a society and a government, it's good work. We're all tribal people at heart, right? And if we don't organize, we end up competing king-of-the-hill style til everyone else gets knocked down. You're making sure that doesn't happen."

  "But couldn't I do that and still think of them all as beneath me?"

  "Rachel, you're their elected leader. They voted you in. Clearly you've doing something right."

  "Like being voted in means anything about the quality of a leader," Rachel grumbled.

  Will grinned. "So maybe you're doing a terrible job and no one can tell because we're all too stupid to know the difference."

  "I don't think you're stupid."

  "Honey, you don't need to be nice. I've seen you work. Compared to you, I'm about as smart as a caterpillar. You're light years ahead. Way better than Julian."

  "Thanks... wait, what about Julian?"

  "...You didn't know?" Will asked, taken aback.

  Rachel shook her head, which had a surprisingly pleasant sensation against the fabric of Will's pants.

  "He's been putting out feelers about trying to get himself elected to the council. Building up trust and connections, you know how it goes."

  "Julian Black on the council?" Rachel wondered aloud, with a bitter taste in her mouth.

  "Problem?"

  "He's a selfish, power-hungry bastard."

  "Wow. No mincing words on this one."

  "Who did you hear about this from?"

  Will shook his head. "No one told me. I happened to overhear him campaigning while I was at Hector's store. He was talking to a couple of those Grey-eye weirdos."

  Rachel sighed. "If he got their votes, he might have a shot. Enough people between his friends, the cult and the floaters that he could probably knock Josh off if he wanted to."

  "What does that mean for you?"

  "I don't know yet," Rachel frowned. "It's not like Josh does much anyway, but he's predictable. That's way more useful to me. Do you know what Julian proposed today?"

  "You literally just got home, Rachel."

  "...Right. He's up to something big in the neighborhoods. Says he's just trying to make deliveries more efficient."

  "But you don't believe him," Will prompted.

  "Do you?"

  "I've only met the guy once."

  "What did you think of him?"

  "Of the guy that delivered my graphics card?"

  "Yeah, what did he seem like to you?"

  "Like a delivery guy? I just took the box and shut the door again."

  "Nothing at all?"