My Alpha Parents Gave My Tuition Away, So the Royal Command Took Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: The Leech

The hall roared.

Two thousand people shouted at once, and the Justice hit his bench with the gavel until the noise broke apart.

"Order," he said. "Order, or I clear the floor."

I hadn't moved, and my ears were ringing.

Hollis put one hand flat on the table between us and kept it there.

"Mrs. Brask," the Justice said. "That is a grave charge. What do you offer for it?"

My mother pressed a handkerchief to her mouth.

"A mother's eyes, Justice," she said. "When Linnea was six, her wolf woke early, and it fed on whatever was nearest."

"And what was nearest?"

"Her little sister. Sabine was four, and she lay in bed for a week."

A sound went through the hall, soft and horrified.

I watched it happen.

Half the benches turned toward my mother and her tears.

"My husband's family knew the old circle," she said. "We sat Linnea in it every month to give back what she took, and we gave her a tonic to calm her hunger."

"You never told her," the Justice said.

"She was a child. It would have broken her heart to learn what she was."

My father rose beside her, turning the signet ring on his finger.

"Every word is true," he said. "I have carried this family's shame for sixteen years."

"And the stone, Mrs. Brask?" the Justice said. "Why does it read S beside her?"

"Because she pulls it up to the surface, Justice. She feeds on her sister through a wall."

The hall gasped again.

I stood up slowly.

"Justice, I'd like to ask my mother one question."

"You may."

I turned and looked at her across the marble.

"How many nights did you sit in the circle, Mom?"

Her eyes flickered.

"I held the candles, darling."

"You held the candles," I said. "Dad said the words, and Sabine held my hand, and I lay in the middle."

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