My Mate's Last Message Wasn't for Me novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: The Speaking Stone

Niles walked to the stone slowly, and the whole Hall watched him go.

It was a flat grey slab set into the floor in front of the council table, worn smooth by a hundred years of boots.

He stood on it with his hands at his sides.

His uncle said, sharply, "Niles. You owe this Hall nothing but silence."

"Sit down, Elder," said the thin elder. "You have had your say."

She turned to Niles.

"Did you wind this scarf around Seren Strangways's neck on moon nights?"

"Yes."

"Did you know it was veil-wool?"

"Yes."

"Against whom was it woven?"

He swallowed.

"Against Cormick Vaux."

The great room made no sound at all.

"Why?"

Niles looked at his uncle, and then he looked at me.

It was the first time he had looked straight at me in weeks.

I held his eyes and did not look away.

"My first week at Hollowmere," he said, "my uncle took me aside after the freshman registration. He said one of the new girls had a scent the moon had set apart."

"Which girl?"

"Seren." His voice cracked on the name. "He had a nose for it, from his years on the council. He said the heir's mate had walked in, and that she did not know."

"And what was the family's wish?"

"That she never find out." He said it to the floor. "If the heir took a mate, the regency ended. My uncle said the Ormonds had held the pack together for eleven years, and a ferry pilot's daughter wasn't going to take it from us."

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