"So that's the deal," she finished, looking out from Greenwich Park at the river, "You get magic, you owe me some favors, and you join my coven. We're ruthless, but the world of magic is dangerous. And - I won't claim most Hespatians are good people. Let alone nice. Some treat newbies as resources to be burned up, sink or swim, become powerful or die unmourned. I don't. I won't. That's stupid. You can get away with it if you're ludicrously powerful already, and many of them are, but that's just coasting on your own banked advantages. All Hespatians have power backing you up. My rule is, if you're mine, that power will be there when you need it. That's a promise in blood."