Chapter 11: The Vows

Jarrett took his eyes off me with an effort I could see.

He turned to Imogen and took her left hand.

A strip of skin-colored tape was wound around the base of her finger.

He slid the ring onto the tip.

It stopped at the first knuckle and sat there, crooked.

He pushed.

It slid down to the base of her finger and rested there.

For one second, I thought it would hold.

Then it turned a half circle on its own.

The band slipped over the tape.

It dropped off her hand and rang against the dais, and it rolled in a long lazy circle across the pale wood and stopped against my shoe.

The entire ballroom gasped.

"Pick it up," Imogen hissed at the floor, smiling at the room. "Someone, please."

The elder in white bent stiffly and picked it up and handed it to Jarrett.

Jarrett put it on her finger a second time.

His hands were not steady.

Imogen clamped her other hand over it and held it down with her thumb.

"There," she said. "It's just the tape. It's slick."

She took her thumb away.

The ring slid straight off her knuckle again.

This time it hit the floor, bounced once, and rolled to the edge of the dais and dropped down the steps.

It clattered all the way to the bottom.

It stopped in front of the Redfern Alpha's chair.

Nobody in the hall said a word.

The Redfern Alpha looked at it for a long moment without moving.

Then he got to his feet.

"Twice," he said. "On the day of the vows. In front of both our packs."

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