Chapter 6: The Elders' Hall

The Council sat in the old stone hall at the bottom of the hill, and I reached it before midnight.

Six elders in grey robes waited on the dais under the stone-circle banner.

The lamps were lit. They had been expecting me.

The oldest woman sat in the middle chair with her hands folded.

Her hair was iron grey and pinned flat, and her brooch was the Council's circle in pale silver.

Hester Quill had sworn me into my blood-vow three years ago, with the same folded hands.

"Sabine," she said. "You have made a great deal of noise tonight."

"Corbin Kettlewell says you paid him."

None of the elders moved.

"To keep me unmarked," I said. "For three years."

Hester Quill let the silence run for a moment.

"A modest stipend," she said. "To see you were not claimed by an Alpha who would have taken you out of our reach."

The words went through me.

"You paid a man to sleep beside me, and not to mark me."

"We paid a man to be kind to a grieving girl and to keep his teeth to himself." She did not blink. "He did one of those well."

Behind me, the doors opened.

I did not need to turn.

I knew the scent of him now, cold air and iron and woodsmoke.

Mathis Draycott walked down the aisle and stopped two paces behind my shoulder.

"Alpha Draycott," Hester Quill said, in a voice that had gone colder. "This is a Council matter."

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