Thinking out loud--

What else would Althea want from Hell? I mean, she got herself a seat on the Council, but now it's unraveling a bit and people are starting to ask questions.

Obviously, you can't make deals with Hell without repercussions, and she'd be desperate enough to try another one after she kidnaps Emle. But what does she want?

Power. Control. Dominion. Respect.

She's one of those people who have to be in charge. Who has to have everything done her way, even if she knows it won't work. Who can't listen to anyone else.

Who resents the power that Lucas holds, and the way he treats her. Who resented the golden glow of Michael's future so much that she did the unthinkable and effectively murdered fourteen people. Who thinks the Hunt should be completely controlled, unable to talk back or make decisions of their own.

Who detests Gabriel, for everything he stands for. (Magic, mostly, since she has none of her own. Mystery. Myth. Just the fact that the Wild Hunt exists.)

She got greedy, our Althea. She wanted something she couldn't have, and didn't stop until the deed was done and Michael was gone. And she's been trying to keep that patchwork of lies together since then.

I think that would drive anyone insane, don't you?

It would make sense that she would give Emle to Hell for another bargain. I think she thinks that if she renews the Hunt's binding, she will be their Master, and they will have to do her bidding. (Which would be true, since she is working outside of Council knowledge.) And then she would make the Council pay. Find a way (another deal with Hell?) to steal someone's innate powers, so she could have her own, perhaps. Become what she thinks she should have been all along, instead of a powerless weakling, which she was before.

But the careful house of cards has to collapse sometime. She can't keep it up forever. Twenty-three years is a long time for a web of lies to hold.

So what does she want? What would she ask for?

If Michael died, then the Council would drop the question of his escape.

But I like the idea of Althea using Emle and the child as a bargaining chip--telling Gabriel that if he submits to her, she will release Emle unharmed.

And there are rules, as well. Hell cannot harm the innocent. (Of course, what they really want is Althea, but her time is approaching.)

But if Michael is to discover that he's not at fault for the deaths he's being punished for--that, in fact, he was a pawn all along--then Emle has to find out somehow, and speak with him about it.

Hmm.

Or. Maybe. Althea likes to boast.

What if she tells him? What if she's there when he opens his eyes, and she tells him? And takes Sarah's cell phone, so he won't be able to tell anyone else? And kidnaps Tib at that time, too--

Oh boy. That just might work.

But I'm still not sure what she wants.

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