Chapter 18: The Bench Is Empty

Evander's POV

I took my seat off the bench at noon on the twenty-seventh, in front of the clerk and three witnesses.

There is a form for it. I had never filled it in.

"Your Majesty," the clerk said. Her pen hovered.

"If you step down, the sitting passes to the three oldest Alphas present. You will have no vote and no word."

"I know."

"They may rule against her. You can't stop it."

"I know that too."

"Then why?"

I signed my name at the bottom.

"Because Lenore Winslow is right about one thing," I said. "A judge who wants the verdict has no business holding the pen."

The clerk looked at me for a long moment.

Then she sealed the paper, and the seal made a soft, final sound.

I had held the Crown for nine years. I had never once handed away the last word on a case.

My hands felt empty.

My wolf did not like it.

He paced in my chest and said the same word he had said every day since the Council hall.

I told him to sit.

He sat, for the first time, and I understood that he trusted her more than he trusted me.

She came to my door that night.

It was late, and the corridor was quiet.

I had been sitting in the dark with the window open, listening to the wind come down off the north.

She knocked twice, softly, and I knew it was her before I stood.

She wore a plain grey nightdress with her coat over it. The silver wolf hung at her throat.

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