The room froze. Kai had never spoken to her like that, not in our entire lives. He stood up for me on multiple occasions and redirected his mother’s ire more times than I could count, but always with respect. Always with a political flair. This was the first time he’d done it with a finality, with the anger borne from a cousin who was tired of seeing his best friend mistreated.
Aunt Mira didn’t know what to think of it either, but when the oracle cleared her throat, she had no choice but to take her seat. That was also a sight that would forever be burned into my memory, the faction heads sitting around the table with Soloman’s body displayed before them like a centerpiece.
There really were silver linings.
For a moment, no one said anything. It was the calm before the storm, the charged silence before destruction. And then… it set off. Spectacularly, I might add. The vampire leader was the one to start it. I couldn’t even make sense of his shouting, just vague disbelief sprinkled with colorful profanity and lots of hand gestures.
A solid five out of ten.
Cova’s dad remained contemplative, his eyes flicking back and forth between his son and the dead man who, until only hours ago, was leading a targeted attack against his people. He got a respectable six out of ten.
Are you…ratingthem?
Oops. Did I say that last one out loud?
Rani’s shoulders shook with silent laughter while all around us the factions fell into argument and blame. Tale as old as time with these bastards. Except for the newcomers. Tucked in the back, at the farthest seats down the table, were Eryn’s parents.
Her father was only sworn in as head of their small faction a week ago, and they wanted no part in the drama unfolding before them. Eyes slightly lit from within, they surveyed the room with shrewd intelligence. Every member of this tribunalwas their enemy until just recently. I had no doubt they’d grab their daughter and run, leaving all our brains in mushy puddles, if they needed to.
The scent of gathering magick burned my nose, and I once again pushed Rani behind me, tucking her between my back and the wall despite her protests.
Stop it!Rani swore, before sinking her teeth into the muscle below my shoulder.I want to watch.
I blocked another of her attempts to squeeze past my arm.No can do, baby. As a wise philosopher once said, ‘This place about to blow.’
Did you just quoteKe$ha?
Well, the pop singer wasn’t wrong. Between my aunt’s shouting match with the vampire head and the methodical plotting obviously going down with the other faction leaders, we were one spark away from powers free flying to the rafters.
“Silence!” The oracle’s withered voice cut through the chaos with an efficiency that made me jealous. “We are at a precipice,” she warned. “With two branches offered before us. One leads to the destruction of all you’ve known—not now. Not for many generations—but our kind will scatter and succumb to the humans. The other offers a different outcome. The humans remain a problem, but the tribunal and all her factions arenotthe weaker opponent. The choices made today will decide which branch withers and which will flourish.”
That was so helpful in a vague, you’re-still-eventually-fucked kind of way. And gods, it was strange to be having this serious of a conversation with a dead bodystillon the table. Was no one going to move that? Like to a storage closet?
Kai climbed the stairs, putting himself at a higher vantage so everyone in the room could see him. His bonded stood loyally by his side, only one step below. Anticipation and dread mixed into a volatile concoction that sent my head reeling. This was it. Themoment we’d worked toward since we were old enough to leave our faction’s land without an escort. It was time to change the tribunal.
“I, like many of you, have grown up in a world of constant squabbling and lack of unity. Where children were forced to look over their shoulders, some even hunted their entire lives, never knowing a minute of peace.” Kai looked down at Eryn, and she moved closer with a tight smile. When he glanced up again, no one said a word. “It’s time for that to end and for the tribunal to become what it was always meant to be. What it used to be. A governing body that protectsallits peoples.”
He glared at Soloman’s body, the hatred he had to keep contained now out in the open for all to see.
“For too long, there has been a bid for power among us. With some leaders grabbing at more than their fair share; threatening, killing, and manipulating to get their people ahead. We nearly lost an entire faction due to fear-mongering and greed.Enough.” Kai raised his head in challenge as he swung the proverbial axe and laid the challenge that would determine our future. “It’s time for the current leaders to step down in favor of their heirs.”
If I thought the room lost its collective shit before, that wasnothingcompared to now. The faction leaders were shouting, voices only growing more shrill as they tried to be heard over one another. Only the oracle and Eryn’s parents remained silent. The nightmare elders nodded to their daughter when she looked at them.
A silent exchange, but a loud declaration. It was as easy as that for them to step aside in favor of their daughter. The discord trickled to a halt as the others witnessed the couple’s deference. At least, until my aunt snorted.
“They don’t speak for all of us,” she proclaimed, waving a hand haughtily, like their dignity could be ignored. “Besides,Eryn Montallicannotbe the nightmare heir. She is bonded to my son, who is also an heir.”
Kai growled, the sound more animal than man. It seemed my cousin didn’t like his mother speaking about his bonded as much as I hated when her attention was on mine. Aunt Mira pretended the threat that had come from Kai was merely bad manners.
“You yourself just preached about equality in the tribunal,” she asserted, with an arrogant curl of her lip. “Two bonded heirs are more than an equal share of power, wouldn’t you say?”
Kai held his mother’s stare, nostrils flaring as the only sign he was pissed off. Slowly, he dipped his chin in acknowledgment. Aunt Mira leaned back, arms crossed in smug achievement.
“I renounce my title as witch heir, effective immediately.”
My aunt sputtered in shock, at a loss for words as her son dismantled an entire life’s worth of plotting with one sentence. And then he added two more.
“I hereby reject and relinquish the responsibilities and privileges permitted by birthright and forgo any claim of my blood.
