Chapter 11: The Gathering

Saskia's POV

The Hall of Moons had nine chairs in a half circle, and by noon every one of them was full.

Hazel had cut down a dark green gown for me out of something in the old queen's chest.

She pinned my hair up herself, with her mouth full of pins.

"Chin up," she said. "You walk in beside him, not behind."

"I'm not his queen."

"No, child," Hazel said. "You're his witness."

Conrad had carried my mother's dagger down from the broken wall at dawn and put it in my hand without a word.

I stood behind the black doors of the hall with it strapped to my thigh under the skirt.

Conrad stood beside me in the iron mask and a black coat.

His bandaged hand brushed mine once, and neither of us moved it away.

"You can stay in the tower," he said, very low. "Nobody would blame you."

"I want to see his face."

"Then you'll see it."

The doors opened.

Nine Alphas sat in their half circle, seven men and two women, each in a pack's colors.

They rose when Conrad entered.

Then they saw me at his left hand, and the murmur ran around the hall.

I looked for the green.

Redmoor's chair was the third from the right, and my father was standing in front of it with his hand on his signet ring.

Jonas was a pace behind him, and beside Jonas, small and clinging to his arm, stood Cecily in her cream cardigan.

For the length of one breath no one in my family did anything.

My father's face emptied.

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