Chapter 16: The Wolf Law

"By the Wolf Law," the eldest Elder said again, "the Crown must seal the sentence."

He turned his head toward the black coat at the foot of the Altar.

"Prince Lucian, say the word, and the hunters take him."

Two hundred people looked at Lucian.

So did I.

He stood with his burned palm open at his side, and for a moment he looked as if he could not hear.

Ronan's fingers were still around mine.

He did not squeeze them, and he did not let go.

Lucian walked up the three black steps.

He did not come to me.

He went to the dais where the crown lay on its cushion, and lifted it.

The red jewel was a dull stone in his hands.

"The Crown," he said, and his voice carried without effort, "belongs to a man who took his betrothed's mother's stone out of her grave.

"It belongs to a man who bled her for three years and told the Court she gave gladly.

"I won't seal a sentence with it."

The eldest Elder's face went slack.

"Highness, you are not yourself."

"I'm more myself than I've been in three years."

He turned to face the whole hall.

"Hear me, all of you," he said. "I renounce the Crown of Hallowmere, and my place under it, and the right to speak for this Court."

A sound went through the Court, a gasp and a murmur at once.

Lucian set the crown on the Altar beside the silver bowl.

The moment he let go, the jewel woke.

It flared deep crimson, as it had for me at the feast, and light ran over the black stone.

Then he went down on his knees.

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