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A rousing round of applause broke out from the local villagers, most of whom had family that worked in the castle. I smiled as the nobles looked a little confused before joining in, their stuttering claps giving me hope that they could accept the changes I was about to implement.
When an expectant silence fell again, I glanced briefly down at the floor to steady my thoughts. A hand slid to my nape, squeezing lightly in support, and I shot Liam a grateful smile as several shocked mutters sounded from the watching witches.
“I have tried to tell my story to each of you, and I am sure many rumours are spinning, but let me make a few key things clear.”
I gestured at my mates. “Shifters are not the enemy of witches. They are not a threat unless they are attacked, and want nothing from you apart from to be respected and left to govern their territory.”
I saw Noah give the crowd a cheeky salute in my periphery and had to bite my cheek to stop myself from grinning widely.
“Secondly,” I continued after a beat. “Yes. I killed the Queen. And even the gods agreed that she deserved it.”
Some of the crowd glanced warily at each other.
“But I refuse to let there be anymore death. We have all lost enough because of her obsession with power, and it ends now. The dead have been buried, and we must look forward now.”
“The people are suffering,” I continued. “The poor are getting poorer, and the portals closing has made everything ten times worse. But we can fix this if we work together.”
“Work together?” called a voice, and I searched the crowd until I found the speaker.
Richly dressed with a haughty look on his long face, I recognised the man as one of the nobles who had travelled down from the northern settlements.
I nodded to him. “Yes. The responsibility for power must be shared.”
Turning to the throne, I summoned my magic and directed it towards the wooden chair that represented so much suffering. Gasps and screams echoed through the room as flames burst to life, engulfing the throne within seconds and burning it down to a heap of blackened ash as I silently watched. Something in me shifted in that moment, a knot of tension that I hadn’t even realised that I was still hanging onto loosening and falling away.
She was gone, really gone, and I was finally, truly free from her control.
Zeke made a move towards me as he sensed my roiling emotions, but I shook my head quickly. Liam had already comforted me once, and the last thing I wanted was these people to think that I needed holding up. Or worse, adopt some bizarre notion that I was under the control of shifters.
I turned to face the gaping crowd. “I am not going to sit on a throne.”
“Then who will?” shouted a healer from the nearest village, a suspicious frown on her face.
I smiled and raised my hand again, conjuring vines and manipulating them to shape several large seats that sat in a semi-circle on the raised platform.
“You will. You will elect a council who will represent the people. You will rule yourselves and work together to fix the realm. There will be no Queen, no one with more power than any other.”
A stunned silence ruled until a timid voice spoke from the back of the crowd. “And what will you do?”
I smiled. “I’ll help, if you wish, but I’m not staying here. I’m going home.”
I felt the guys’ elation through our bonds as the room burst into chatter. The three of them had known my plan, of course, and even helped me figure out how it could work, but I knew that they couldn’t wait to get back to the Pack Lands.
“My one stipulation!” I called, grabbing their attention again. “Is that the council must represent all of the people. There must be men, women, nobles and workers. Every person must feel that they have a voice. That includes shifters. There must always be a seat for the Pack.”
“And will you sit in it?” called a red-faced blacksmith, his hands blackened from his workshop.
I laughed lightly. “While the rumours I have heard might beg to differ, I am just a witch. It isn’t my seat to take.”
Liam winked at me and sank into the seat on the outer edge of the set, kicking out his legs and looking every inch the arrogant alpha asshole that he was. I rolled my eyes at him and faced the stunned crowd again.
“So, that’s it. Over to you. But I’ll be watching.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Cordelia
Sturdyhandsgrabbedmywaist as I tripped on an exposed tree root and began to fall, twisting me up and into a solid body as I squeaked in surprise. My hands gripped at his thin t-shirt to help steady myself, the chest beneath my hands shaking with silent laughter as Zeke grinned down at me.
