Chapter Forty

Confirmations and Machinations

It’s all true…

The words buzzed around in my head. I had been all but positive that Zo had attacked Milly—who else could it be? But now I knew for sure. I felt a rush of rage that left me shaking as I stared at her. If I hadn’t been too angry to move I might have crossed the floor and slit her throat right on the spot, plan be damned.

While I’d been imagining Zo collapsing to the floor in a geyser of blood, conversation continued around me.

“You admit to these charges, Fledgling?” Sybele asked.

“I do, Lady,” Zo said, her voice perfectly calm. “And I will accept his trial by combat. Everything I’ve ever done was so Elder Greer would know who it was that would do anything and everything to stand by his side. I will gladly accept the consequences for that.”

That snapped me out of my visions of red fountains, and I rolled my eyes. Not sure if it was really allowed, I snapped, “Everything you did was for your own selfish purposes. It had nothing to do with Ira.”

Zo opened her mouth to retort but Sybele rode over her. “That’s enough. You have done far more than disrespect an intended, at the time, Beloved. You have disrespected House honor. Doing serious harm to townspeople is forbidden, and you know that. Challenge has been given, and I will allow the challenge to be answered. But know this, fledgling. If you win the challenge, there will still be the House’s justice to face.”

Nodding in agreement, Zo flashed the quickest, smug little grin. Oh, how was I going to love swiping it off her face.

“Fledgling Zo Williams,” Sybele said. “As the accused, you may name your weapon.”

“Let him choose the weapon.” Zo nodded her head at me. “I’ll choose the terms.”

Sybele looked at me.

“Swords,” I said instantly.

“Swords it is,” the Lady said. “Do you accept?”

“I do,” Zo said, then continued, “we will fight in the dueling circle in the great hall. The winner walks out of it unaided.”

“Do you accept?” Sybele was asking me this time.

“Yes,” I said coldly, looking at Zo. “I really, really do.”

“So be it.” Sybele looked out over the assembly. “We will reconvene in ten-minutes time in the great hall. Combatants, I suggest you prepare. Go.”

“Don’t you ever do that to me again,” Ira demanded as soon as we were down the hall and out of earshot.

I looked at him. “What?”

“Fighting Sybele was not the plan,” he said tightly.

“The plan was flawed, so I made do.” I shrugged. “That’s the reality of the mission, Ira. Sometimes complications arise, and you have to overcome them.”

“Lady Sybele is not just some complication,” he fired back. “She could have killed you.”

“But she didn’t.” I stopped walking to turn and look at him face to face. “I told you, I’m fine. A little ego bruised, but otherwise fine.”

He reached for the slashes the Lady had given me, and this time I let him. His fingers hovered over them, tracing the lines.

“Gods,” he whispered. “She could have taken your ear off.”

“But she didn’t,” I said again.

Actually, she could have taken my damn head off when she gave me those marks. I’d been totally off guard, too busy making sure Ira wasn’t losing his mind, and she’d caught me. If she’d wanted me dead in that moment, I’m pretty sure I would be. It wouldn’t be smart to tell Ira any of that, however.

In a gentle voice I said, “With your blood-father gone we had to change tactics. I mean, come on, you’re asking your House to accept a hunter as one of you. Really, there was no way that was going to fly, Primus or not. All of them have heard hunter horror stories I’m sure, and stories grow over time. Now I’m a real person to them. They’ve seen me bleed, seen me covered in dirt and sawdust. Now they have a way to wrap their minds around the whole ‘hunter’ thing.”

Ira shook his head. “There had to have been another way.”

Sighing, I said, “There wasn’t. When you introduced me, the first thing Sybele thought was that I was a spy. For all the House knows, I could be using you as a way to kill them all.”

“You couldn’t kill them all,” he protested.

“And now they know that.” Willing him to understand, I went on. “That’s why I had to fight Sybele. Now it doesn’t really matter whether I’m a spy or not. They know that if I try anything, she can stop me. Hell, they just watched her run literal circles around me. It had to be done.”

“I still don’t like it,” he muttered.

I rolled my eyes. “I thought you House vampires were supposed to be good at this whole politics thing?”

His hand snaked out and wrapped around my wrist, sending a nice pulse from my bite-mark to my groin.

“Watch yourself, Beloved,” Ira murmured, husky voice flowing over me. “You might be late to your fight if I have to break your ass for insubordination.”

“Can’t fight with a woody.” I was trying for nonchalant, but my teeth were clenching.

“We have ten minutes,” Ira teased, but let me go.

I shook my head at him, and started walking again. “Come on, have to get my sword from the car.”

I walked back into the House moments later with a tank-top thrown on over my armor, my wakizashi held in my hand. The great hall was bigger than the assembly room, though it also had the big wooden tables. They were pushed closer to the edge of the room, and I had no idea if that was in preparation for the fight or the norm. Two large circles were etched into the floor. One was bigger, which the various House members were crowding around, and one was smaller. Zo was standing on the outside of it. There was a plain looking English broadsword in her hand.

Someone had moved Sybele’s chair, or she had one in every room because her perch looked the same to me, complete with her napping humans at the base of it. She beckoned me forward, and I went. Ira stopped at the large circle, squeezing my hand for luck. I stopped a few feet away from Zo, on the outside of the inner circle.

“It might be worth mentioning,” Sybele began, “that combatants are allowed only their clothing and the agreed-upon weapon. No hidden weapons, no armor of any kind, nothing.”

Zo had a look on her face like she thought that would get to me. I shrugged, pulled my tank-top off, stripped off my armor, and walked back to hand it to Ira. It was clear on his face he thought about protesting, but in the end he didn’t. While I was there, I pulled my sword free and handed him the sheath. Pulling my shirt back on, I retook my place.

“We are here to settle grievances,” the Lady went on in a tone that said this was ritual. “Two sides have been heard, and now the Gods’ justice will win out. May the Dark Gods bless you both, and spare their winner. Combatants, enter the circle and take your places.”

A step a head of me, Zo stepped into the circle and headed to the far side of it. Following her lead, I went to the other end.

“On my word,” Sybele said solemnly.

“Go!”