“This one is fascinating,” Finn continues. He flips open another folder and spreads the pages out. “It seems like he was starting his campaign against you, Kade. Luckily, he couldn’t juggle more than three things at a time. He was a little too focused on other families to make a real effort.”
“Was he, now?” Kade’s eyes are dark as he looks through the file. He flips pages, his face stony. “And you came by this… where?”
“His home. Hidden away.”
Kade nods. “And I suppose he has a file on everyone.”
“This is unbelievable,” Enzo says, his words a low growl. He glares at the pages before him, flipping through the documents.
“Of course,” Lachlan agrees. “He was scheming against every single one of us. He wanted to drive wedges between us, each group, to spark open warfare.”
“He wanted everything,” Finn says, pointing to the other folders. “And he had a plan to get it.”
I can see the anger on the men’s faces. These powerful heads of families were all tricked—including us. Every single one of us was tricked by Dmitri, but that’s over.
He’s dead. And I don’t regret it.
Kade looks across the table at me, his rough face arranged into something I think is supposed to be mild respect. Or maybe he’s just satisfied that I did what I needed to when I was given the chance.
“So,” he begins. “I think we can agree that the usual punishment doesn’t apply here.”
Killing me, he means. I should be executed for the disrespect I showed the Assembly, for going against their established rules. In any other case, I’d be interrogated and stripped of everything, and then I’d be executed. My family would pay a price too, everyone in my orbit held to account for my crime.
But that’s not what’s going to happen to me. Not when we have this proof.
“Dmitri was doing something unheard of,” Antonio adds. He glances at Enzo. “He was going to destroy everything. We’re lucky he didn’t get far.”
Luck. I’ll let them say as much, but we all know the truth. It was my family that took the risk, my family that did the work. We’re the ones that risked everything to ensure that Dmitri never succeeded in his plan.
But it’s fine. We’ll trade our shaky reputation for this new standing with the Assembly. They know we saved them, and that’s enough. The least they will do is recognize us as equals. From here, we can work our way higher.
Kade snorts. “Destroying everything is an understatement. He wanted to watch us devour each other.”
“A vote, then,” Antonio says, glancing around the room. “For whether punishment needs to be enacted.”
There’s a beat of silence. I’m not sure what’s about to happen, but I can feel danger brewing.
If they decide I have to pay—even a little—there will be consequences. Bad ones. Ones that I don’t deserve to pay for what I did.
I’ll be damned if I have to pay for ensuring Dmitri suffered.
Antonio speaks, making a case for why the others should vote against punishing me. I watch the heads of the families and their seconds vote, hands in the air, murmurs exchanged. I listen and wait, prepared to run for my life, prepared to take Rose somewhere safe.
The vote is a unanimous no.
Despite my confidence in the evidence, my confidence in the Assembly wasn’t as high. It’s a relief to hear them say that I won’t suffer for what I did, for the death of Dmitri.
I breathe deeply for the first time since storming Dmitri’s house. I know I have nothing to ask forgiveness for, but there was a part of me that worried perhaps the Assembly wouldn’t see what I did, what everyone in my family could see about Dmitri.
It’s good to put that doubt to rest. Perhaps now the instability and tension within the Assembly will finally ease up. The animosity that was sown by Dmitri will die, and everything will return to how it’s always been.
“Then that’s it,” Antonio says. He sounds relieved. “We know the truth now, and we know what might have happened.”
“It ends neatly,” Nikolai says, pinning Lachlan with a stare. “Lucky for us.”
“More than luck. We were watching,” Lachlan replies evenly. “We saw what he was, and when he attacked us, we did not stand for it.”
“It was unfortunate that he had to die,” I say. I only half mean it. “But he gave us no choice. I don’t regret protecting the Assembly, or my family.”
