The Alpha's Debt the King's Claim novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Price

I crossed the marble floor and stopped between Evander and his sister.

"Elder," I said. "I'm calling a debt."

The eldest elder blinked.

"Healer Corrigan, the life-debt of the Greywater Alpha was paid on the palace steps this morning."

"It isn't his debt. It's the king's."

Evander's head came up.

"Maeve," he said. "Don't."

"You owe me," I said, without looking at him. "Eight years ago a wolf came off the border with a silver arrow through his arm, and a masked girl put her hands on the wound. He never knew who she was."

His grey eyes widened.

"You only learned who she was at my grave, in the other life," I said. "Now the court will hear it."

"Show them your arm, Majesty."

For a long moment he didn't move.

Then he turned back his sleeve.

The scar ran from wrist to elbow, white and puckered, and the whole court could see the clean seam where a healer's hand had closed it.

"A Corrigan did that," Brigid said from the witness row, loud and cracked. "I taught her the stitch myself."

"That is a debt of blood," said the eldest slowly. "It was never sworn. It stands anyway, under the old custom."

"I call it," I said. "One time, in front of the Crown's seal, and I name what I want."

"Name it," the elder said.

"I want his crown to stay his, and I want it lifted off the floor and put back on his head."

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