Chapter 18: The Seventh Seat

We walked into the Council Hall side by side, and the whole pack turned to look.

The bell had rung a day early on purpose.

Cecily's father had wanted us caught with our boots unlaced and our witnesses asleep.

Torin walked with gold in his eyes and his shoulders square.

I had a cardigan over a bruised rib and my mother's locket under my collar.

Two hundred wolves filled the benches, and none of them said a word.

At the far end of the hall, on the dais, stood a long oak table.

Six elders sat behind it, in tall chairs, with Cecily's father in the middle.

At the end of the table stood a seventh chair.

It was white oak, older than the others, with a high carved back.

It had a skin of dust on the seat.

I looked at it and could not look away.

Edmund sat on the front bench with both hands on his cane.

He did not look at Torin.

He looked at me, steadily, for a long time.

Cecily sat beside him with her shoulder bandaged under her white dress.

She was pale, and her eyes were on the floor.

Her father rapped his knuckles on the table.

"The Council sits early," he said, "because the Alpha is unwell.

"It will hear the claim of Isla Garrow, and then it will vote."

"I claim the seventh seat," I said.

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