AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Especially now, when the idea of letting a thrall lock us up and keep us vulnerable is terrifying.
“If they can control whether or not we change, then that probably means they can make us change when it’s not even the full moon,” I point out. “Or give someone else the power.”
Nathan grimaces and gestures to my stump. “Hence.”
“Exactly.” I hold up my arm to further the point. “This wasn’t done by a werewolf in its civilized form. The man who did this stood in my sitting room and transformed before my eyes. And just yesterday—” Two days ago, who can say when one is so jet-lagged? “—a werewolf from the Greater London pack attacked the King. Using this.”
I motion to Xiao, who brings the pendant forward in a clear acrylic box. She places it on the table.
“Black moonstone,” I explain. “When the King merely held this pendant, he changed.”
One of the council members, a young East-Asian man who graduated school a few years ahead of me, motions with his hand and says, “It can’t just be the moonstone. My mate is obsessed with crystals and stones. I’m actually concerned about the combined weight of them crashing through our subflooring.”
A ripple of misogynistic chuckles goes around the table and I add the mental note that all those empty council seats should be filled by women.
“We have black moonstone in our house. Spheres, jewelry, trinkets… this has never happened to us,” he finishes.
“Then it must be enchanted in some way,” another council member puts in. “Who saw this spell at work?”
“I did. And my bodyguard, Xiao.” I turn and thank her and indicate she can take the box away. I didn’t even want to bring it into a room full of werewolves, but the prop has proved effective. “She can testify that black moonstone was found in a bracelet on the assassin who took my hand.”
“Transforming with the stone was one of the more disturbing experiences of my life,” Nathan adds. “It was unnatural and unpleasant. And it ruined one of my favorite shirts.”
I can’t help my small smile, so I cover it with a cough.
“Sartorial consequences aside, what does this mean for us?” Ryan asks. He’s a big picture guy and that’s going to be immensely helpful to us. Hannah already had him on the job, armed with a dossier of the classified information we got from Jonah. “In the interest of transparency, Her Majesty has named me to an investigative committee focused solely on this work of magic against us.”
“It was an act of magic against the king and the queen,” someone down the table corrects him.
“It’s an act against all of us.” Ryan pushes his chair back and stands, casting his gaze around the entire table. “As long as the thralls are experimenting on us in secret with their magic, all of us are at risk.”
“The hierophant already advised that this spell had to do with breeding.” The other white dude from our pre-London meeting speaks up. “Our king and queen were put under a binding spell. They were meant, specifically, to be paired.”
“We know more about that spell, now,” Nathan explains. “And we didn’t rely on a thrall for the information.”
“An independent human magician examined the spell and found that not only was it cast with thrall magic, it was cast on Nathan when he invoked the Right of Accord as a teenager,” I say. “And the second half of the spell was cast when I invoked the right. Decades later.”
“Must you phrase it that way?” Nathan mutters under his breath.
I shoot him a warning glance, entreating him to control his vanity, before I continue. “The magic is ancient. This suggests they’ve been working on this for a long, long time.”
“But the hierophant said that the spell had to be cast on both of you at the same time,” the other guy from our last meeting points out.
“And we’re taking the word of a thrall? When we know they’re working against us?”
My question makes everyone around the table uncomfortable. To doubt the hierophant, to question our most sacred ceremonial leader, is blasphemy.
“You have a thrall guarding you,” he counters. “In this very room. You must not be that concerned.”
“I trust Xiao. She saved my life when I was attacked by the assassin here in Aconitum Hall. She’s proved trustworthy.” The last thing I’m going to permit is widespread prejudice when we don’t have any idea who’s behind this plot. “Not all thralls are involved in this.”
“We’re more concerned that werewolves have tried to take our lives,” Nathan says. “It suggests that werewolves know about whatever the thralls have planned for us. And maybe those interests clash.”
“Are you suggesting these werewolves might be working against the thralls?” Ryan prompts. He can’t reveal everything, but I appreciate that he can steer the conversation in the right direction. “That perhaps these assassination attempts have more to do with the spell that was cast on Your Majesties and not mere political maneuvering.”
