Friends and Enemies (Gwen Farris Book 5) by P.S. Power Read Free Book Online Page B

could take a few hours, but we need to hurry, so you don't have enough time to think about it all. Mr. Winslow? Would it be possible to have something brought in to cover that fainting couch? Gwen is a little messy at the moment. Not that it doesn't serve you right. Letting yourself be stabbed like that. What were you thinking?" The kid was being cute, which was a real skill of his. Charm, which in this case was mixed with an honest sense of rebuke.
    She got it.
    Half the room glared at him. It was mixed as to who did it, too. Robert did, as did Ethyl, and so did Beth, but Winslow and Heather both nodded . Billy wasn't in the room for some reason, or he would have been doing the same thing too, she didn't doubt. Merely being asleep wasn't an excuse as far as they were concerned.
    It was one of the things they kind of needed to talk about, some day, Billy and her. His history, and the kind of training he'd had as a boy. Not that she wanted to. It had been a long time ago, and so far away. Then again, it was clearly worked into both of their lives, and in a way that wouldn't be easily escaped. Their crazy mother had set a whole lot of things in motion, and had managed to do it in more than one world. Both of them had paid for it, too, as had their little sister. Heather's little sister, to be more exacting, though no one had spoken about that part either. People hid from their feelings here, as a rule. It was a thing that Gwen liked about the place.
    Gwen didn't think the girl had a counterpart in her own reality. Erin Debussey had produced her just to sacrifice to the Elder Gods. It just showed what kind of a psycho she'd been. Really, the only saving grace for the woman there was that she'd tried to steal Gwen, her daughter from a different world, to kill instead. That had been about the best thing the woman had ever done, as far as she knew.
    The thought, of the hole in space, the rent in the fabric of the world, that she'd once seen caused her to flash back then. It got her to gasp, which had most of the room staring at her.
    Robert reached out, but didn't touch her.
    "Dear? You don't have to do this. I'm sure that Adam Westmorland won't force you to-"
     She made herself breathe, doing it slowly, as Winslow walked quickly from the nice, and light colored, space. To get that protective coating for the furnishings, no doubt. It was a good plan, since there was no need for her to rub half dried blood all over the place.
    "Sorry, flashback. Um, to what happened with Erin. In the cave?" She didn't add more, since both Heather and Beth had the same kind of thing going on. There was no need to cause them to trigger by talking about it. It wasn't just them either. Everyone that had been in that cave could feel it, constantly. It was burned into them, like a scar, it didn't really heal. Not so far. Nothing anyone had done worked either. They just had to live with it, feeling like they were about to die at random times. Fear coming out of the hole that followed them around, leaving them stressed and uncomfortable.
    That all of the world's leaders had been there too suddenly left her feeling a lot less than secure. Ferdinand was a great guy, and the Marduk was kind on a level that had left her feeling hard and angry when they'd met. It had been so wrong of Debussey to bring either of them into her plan. They were good people.
    Which didn't mean they'd stay that way over time. Not with constant fear and stress beating them down, on top of their actual duties. All of them were in their positions for life, too. Except the Premier of Europa. He could get out of his job at any time, just by resigning. Hopefully he would.
    Gwen didn't know the man at all, but no one that had to live through what they had should be given any sort of power, she didn't think.
    Which made what she was doing just then nearly insane. That wasn't lost on her, but Gwen didn't know what else to do. The Westmorlands needed to be free. That couldn't happen as long as