Chapter Seven
Kade
Kade’s patience waned like the moon.
For an hour, he’d remained silent as Evelyn faced her hearing against the Council.
He stood by and said nothing as the witches around her doubted and judged, despite his wolf demanding to defend his mate.
Not because the Elders hadn’t permitted him to speak during the hearing, but because he loved Evelyn and believed in her.
She didn’t need him to—she’d commanded the floor like a warrior facing their enemy on the battlefield.
Yet, the Council Elders had their heads shoved so far up their politically threaded asses, they’d overlooked her true message.
“Have you not heard anything Evelyn has said?” Kade demanded. “Or are you too blinded by fear to accept the truth?”
An Elder, frail with skin the thinness of paper, who hadn’t uttered a word all morning rose from her seat.
Beside Kade, Evelyn stiffened. Without their mating bond intact, he wasn’t able to ask who the Elder was mind to mind, but by Evelyn’s balled fists, straightened shoulders, and thud, thud, thud of her racing heart, she had history with this Elder.
Drab, she wore a high-neck dress that reached to her toes and covered her arms with only skeletal hands exposed as well as her face, set in a permanently pinched expression as if something sour sat on her tongue.
“May I remind you, Kade Drengr, that the terms of this hearing agreed you would not interfere,” she said.
Elder Burns nodded. “Elder Circe is right. This is a matter between witches.”
Kade’s wolf, along with another force, wrestled inside him. “I’ll not tolerate the blatant disrespect of my mate.”
Circe smiled like a cat that caught its prey. “And that”—she threw her arms out and addressed the atrium—“is the biggest lie of them all. You talk of truths? Here is one: witches and werewolves can’t be mates, fated, or whatever you fools believe it to be. It is the prophecy guiding you together.”
Kade bared his teeth. Evelyn braced a hand on his forearm, but he ignored her. Doubt the prophecy. Hold prejudice against vampyrs. Fine. But Kade wouldn’t stand for them discrediting their mating bond, the realest and purest part of them. Their love for one another.
“How dare you?” he growled.
“Silence!” Circe shouted, shaking from the baritone in her voice.
“I have heard enough! We granted this hearing for diplomacy, but I see it has been a waste of our time. I fear”—she addressed the crowd—“that Elder Burns is right in his assessment. The Daughter of the Goddess and the Son of the God have forgotten their place. It’s in the best interest of Sorin that we remind them, and for that reason I am calling a Council vote for a formal trial. ”
“What?” Kade growled, energy building inside his core.
Mirella shot out of her seat, bracing her hand on the panel. “You are in no position to call for a vote on the Council.”
Circe snarled. “Are you? You may have the Ailm seat, but you’re the Elder that allowed Evelyn to run. I question if you’re truly fit to sit on this Council at all.”
Mirella seethed, mouth set in a thin line.
She glanced over at Kade and Evelyn, a storm brewing in her Carson-blue eyes.
They’d anticipated this and discussed it.
Mirella had to tread lightly, and despite what was thrown at Kade and Evelyn, she needed to keep her seat on the Council.
If the Carson coven had any chance of protecting them, Mirella couldn’t risk her seat.
Kade nodded once, and with tears gathering at the edge of her eyes, Mirella sat back down.
Circe inhaled, addressing the others. “Now, those in favor of dropping all charges against Evelyn Carson?”
Kade’s heart dropped like a stone to his gut. Evelyn sucked in a breath. Mirella and Elder Quinn raised their hands. The others three remained still.
“Those in favor of moving forward with a formal trial?”
They didn’t have the decency to look Kade in the eye as Elders Rose, Burn, and Circe raised their hands.
Evelyn charged forward. “Please. See reason. We don’t have time for a trial! There is a curse we must break.”
Circe waved her hand. “Of course, of course. You’re right. The trail can’t delay. We will start tomorrow morning. Until a verdict is reached, the bloodstone must be turned over to the Council for safekeeping.”
“What?”
The outburst was a collective cry from Kade, Evelyn, Mirella, Blair, and every other Carson coven member present. Those in the pews sprang from their seats.
Roderick jabbed a figure in Circe’s direction. “To take another’s magic from them is an outrage!”
Evelyn stumbled back a step, shaking her head as tears welled in her eyes. Circe tracked each step, and Kade angled his body ahead of Evelyn, protecting her.
“My mate’s magic doesn’t belong to you!” Kade roared.
“The gift of the Sun Goddess belongs to the people of Sorin, and your mate has proved unworthy of keeping it in her possession. If Riven is such a threat as you all say he is, what’s not to say he isn’t hunting it down as we speak.”
“You want the power for yourself!” Ruth cried, pushing her way through the crowd to meet them on the floor, Josepha in tow behind her.
Mirella rounded the panel, rushing down the steps. Emmet and the others hurried forward. The atrium erupted. Most objected Circe’s demands. Some screamed for Evelyn to comply.
This is madness, Kade thought.
“Please, Kade,” Evelyn whispered. “Not her.”
Kade’s attention jumped between the Elder and Evelyn, his instinct screaming something was wrong, and he caught the thud, thud, thud of her heart again. Moons, she was petrified. He reached for Evelyn’s hand, grasping it in his own.
“Evelyn, it’ll be alright,” he said. “I’ve got you.”
She blinked. “I won’t do it . . . ” Her next words were aimed at the council. “I’ll not hand over my magic!”
Circe flattened her hands against the table, rearing over it like some snake waiting in the underbrush. “Elder Carson?”
Mirella, with Emmet at her side, said, “The Carson coven stands with Evelyn. What you ask was not voted on by the Council.”
At her words, Roderick, Artie, and Blair reached the floor, surrounding Kade and Evelyn on all sides. Kade’s inner wolf paced, howling with rage. Like the yank of the moon against tides, a tautness brimmed deep inside Kade.
Stars above. He’d mentally prepared for many things these last few weeks—Riven attacking, the curse spreading over the Void, and more demons leaching across Sorin’s borders. Yet, he’d never imagined their own turning against them.
“If you will not comply with the best interests of Sorin, we are left with no choice but to take the bloodstone by force.” Circe inclined her head at the Guards stationed at the doors. They charged, sights on the bloodstone resting on Evelyn’s chest
The energy inside Kade amounted to an uncontrollable force. Weeks’ worth of tension tipped over the edge he’d teetered on. The power he’d not conjured since the Blood Moon rose in an untamed wave. Kade had no grasp on it and unleashed.
Kade’s power spread out in a circle of immense blue. The witches gathered screamed, and the glass walls burst into shimmering dust. Stunned silence rang in the atrium, and Kade stumbled, an emptiness flushing through him.
“What is this?” Circe roared. “What are you?”
Kade blinked and snapped back to the present.
The winds of Nūa escaped past the aftermath of his destruction.
Witches cowered yards away, pressed into the brass beams of the atrium’s frame.
Kade spun, finding the council wide-eyed and fearful along with Mirella and Emmet.
He searched the crowd, hoping, wishing, praying to all the gods that might listen, that he hadn’t hurt anyone and thank the stars above, he found only the Guards on their back sides, struggling to stand.
But Kade’s shred of relief was short lived.
“More lies . . . ” Elder Burns whispered. “This was certainly left out of your tale, Miss Carson.”
“Kade’s power is new.” Evelyn grabbed his hand, standing with him. “He is still learning it.”
“Power?” Circe’s eyes narrowed. “It’s an abomination. Werewolves do not have magic. Not like that.”
“It’s darkness,” Elder Rose hissed.
“It’s not.” But Kade couldn’t fight the tremor in his voice.
Mirella pushed forward. “Kade is the Son of the God; he isn’t just any werewolf.”
“The first third-born werewolf, Finton, possessed no such power,” Elder Burns said.
“The truest unions will defeat the darkness,” Blair said. “Kade and Evelyn are mates while Finton and Carena weren’t, and there is no stronger bond than souls tied by fate.”
Kade balked, caught off guard by Blair standing up for him.
“This is nonsense!” Circe slammed her fist into the table. “Regardless of where or how Kade has come by this power, he is dangerous. Arrest them both! They’re a threat to city.”
“No,” Kade growled.
His mate had already endured enough. Locked away in Drystan Castle. Sacrificed her magic. Kade wouldn’t let the witches through her in a cell—
Evelyn hissed in pain, cursing as she snatched her hand from his.
He whirled. “Ev—”
It took every ounce of strength to keep standing.
Evelyn, wide-eyed and panting, clutched her hand to her chest. Blair held her shoulders, dark-as-night eyes tracking Kade like some wild beast. His wolf’s sense of smell caught burnt flesh and blood. No. No. No. Blisters formed across her palm and fingertips as the dreadful seconds trudged by.
Evelyn stepped forward. “Kade, it’s alright—”
He retreated out of her reach, shaking his head as tears stung at the edge of his eyes. His heart cracked. “I fucking hurt you.”
“It was an accident. You didn’t mean to.” Her words turned small, desperate.
Kade’s wolf whimpered, and his instincts screamed to protect her. But how could he with this abomination coursing through his veins? Perhaps a cell was where he belonged after what he’d done to his mate.
Evelyn strode towards him again, but he flinched. She halted, face falling.
He couldn’t bear to look at her and witness the pain she tried to fight, knowing she didn’t have her magic to heal the angry red wound on her hand. That she was already dying, and he’d hurt her more. All because this power was too great, too unpredictable for him to master.
Protect her, his wolf howled.
“Arrest me.” He averted his attention away from her, locking his gaze on Circe. “I’ll comply with your wishes, but leave Evelyn and the bloodstone with her coven.”
“What?” Evelyn cried from behind him. “NO!”
He moved towards the Guards and held out his hands.
“Kade, don’t do this!” His strong, beautiful mate’s tear-laden words strangled his heart. Commotion resounded behind him. Guards forced him to his knees. He fell with ease, no fight left in him. Evelyn’s sobs and her sisters’ comforting words echoed in the corners of his wary mind.
But he didn’t dare turn and meet Evelyn’s steely stare. He tamped down his wolf, and allowed shackles to clamp around his wrists. Unfitting relief washed through him, his power subdued, locked away so he couldn’t hurt anyone else.
Circe peered down her nose at him, a sickening smirk playing on her lips. “Our Council vote remains. Evelyn’s trial will start in three days’ time, but in exchange for your surrender, she is permitted to keep her bloodstone and remain with her coven while you, Kade Drengr, are under arrest—”
“No!” Evelyn cried.
“—and Tùir’s newest prisoner.”