Chapter 19: The Seat

Nine elders turned in their chairs and looked at me.

"No," I said.

Slade's face did not change.

"You haven't heard the terms."

"I don't need to."

"The seat, the house, the territory. It would be yours, with the council's vote, and mine."

"I was a signature on your contract for three years," I said. "I'm not going to be a signature on your seat."

"That isn't what I'm offering."

"It's what everyone at this table will see."

The silver-haired elder opened his mouth, and I held up a hand.

"Give it to the pack," I said. "Give it to whoever they pick. Don't put my name on a chair so you can feel like you paid something."

I walked out of the room.

Ronan fell in beside me in the hall, and he didn't ask, and he didn't look pleased either.

He looked careful.

I kept walking.

I climbed the east stairs to the second floor and turned down the short hall to the smallest room in the house.

The door was open.

Someone had put back the sweaters I had left behind.

Her bed had been made again, and her paperbacks were stacked on the shelf in the wrong order.

I stood in the middle of the room with my arms wrapped around myself.

"Nessa."

Slade was in the doorway.

Ronan stood on the landing behind him, and he gave me a look that asked, and I shook my head, and he stayed where he was.

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