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"I can't talk anymore," she murmured, already backing away from the open door and Nathan's concerned expression. "I have to go. I thought there would be more time. I have to see Kellan before he goes in front of the Council."
Nathan gave a slow shake of his head. "There won't be time for you to see him before he's brought to the hearing. The Council is assembling to meet him there within the hour."
"No." She swallowed, her throat gone dry. "No, this can't be happening. We need more time . . ."
Words began to fail her, fear swamping her. She edged farther into the bedroom, holding Nathan's apologetic, regretful gaze. She closed the door on him and sagged against it, her forehead pressed to the cool wood panel.
She had to see Kellan. And there was no way in hell she'd let him stand before that Council assembly without her there to help defend him. To fight for his freedom, with blood and blades, if it came down to that.
Tossing her dagger onto the bed, Mira headed into the bathroom and turned on the shower. She undressed and stood before the mirror, staring into the face of the woman she'd become.
Blood-bonded, in love.
Never so terrified in all her life.
She knew the reflection would be cruel, even before she removed her purple lenses and lifted her gaze to confront the gift of her Sight.
The vision appeared in no time at all. The same terrible outcome, playing before her eyes.
Kellan, dead on the floor in front of her.
She, weeping in grief-stricken anguish over his lifeless body.
Mira stared, horrified and heartsick, until the steam of the shower filled the room, breathing a thick fog across the awful vision she couldn't seem to escape.
Kellan knew, when the phalanx of heavily armed JUSTIS officers - four Breed and two human - came to retrieve him from his cell just before noon that day, that he couldn't be heading into anything good.
But the full impact of that suspicion didn't hit him until they led him into a cavernous, private hearing chamber at the GNC's headquarters building. There he found himself staring at a panel of all sixteen Council members, seated on a dais behind a broad U-shape judicial bench. At the center of the assembly was Lucan Thorne, looking grave in his role as chairman.
Most of the Order's elder members were present as well, the warriors and their mates seated on rows of benches below the dais.
But the thing that really put a jangle of alarm in Kellan's veins was the sight of Mira standing directly in front of the Council. Outfitted in black fatigues and combat boots, her long blond hair woven into a tight braid that snaked down her back, she was dressed for the hearing as though she'd come prepared for war.
What the hell was she doing?
Kellan nearly shouted it to her, but then she pivoted around to face him as his guards shoved him forward into the room. Her cheeks were flushed, eyes rimmed with red as she looked his way.
Her eyes . . . ah, Christ. Her eyes looked straight at him, no longer milky and unfocused, but bright behind the violet contact lenses and fixed squarely on him.
She'd been healed.
She could see.
He'd been afraid to trust the bond that told him earlier that day she was whole again, but now he felt a surge of elation - of bone-deep relief - to see for himself that either Tess or Rafe had been able to do for Mira what he'd been unable to with his blood.
Now he wanted to run to her and sweep her into his arms. He would have, if he didn't suspect his sudden break would invite the JUSTIS officers walking him into the hearing room to open fire on him and possibly Mira in the process.
The guards guided him forward, a pair of Breed males on each side of him, the two humans at his back. Kellan didn't miss the grim faces of the Order and their Breedmates nor the disapproving glowers of the majority of men and women seated on the dais. He was there to be judged - here and now - his guilt perhaps already determined, if the pall of heavy silence in the room was any indication.
And there was Mira, facing the Council on her own.
Even without the foreknowledge her vision had given him, Kellan understood Mira's presence in the hearing room. She'd come to plead her case before the judges. For him.
His beautiful, stubborn Mira.
His steadfast mate, standing with him even though he knew he'd broken her heart by turning himself in.
Pride and humility tangled inside him. He hadn't wanted her to be a part of this. And yet he knew there would have been no keeping her away.
