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“Hi, Muraco,” I said, hoping that I didn’t sound too nervous, but that was a pipe dream at this point.
“The others here are the alphas of the Canadian, French, and Eastern E
uropean packs.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said, wondering when the shoe was going to drop. The last time I’d been in front of this many alphas, I’d been on trial.
“We’ve got quite the situation on our hands.” Donovan moved to the TV and my gaze shifted to the images behind him. Someone at the station had had way too much fun picking the worst possible images out of the police footage, and they scrolled past in a terrible montage.
The wolves looked terrifying on screen. Teeth out. Faces frozen mid-growl. Circling and slashing with their claws.
Then Cosette flashed on screen. They’d slowed down the moment her sword materialized and the freeze-frames showed her gracefully lunging through the air, glowing a pearly white shade that wasn’t anything close to human.
Finally my face appeared. My hands were full of glass vials and my skin looked pale. Afraid. Probably because I had been.
I’d seen the footage yesterday, but that didn’t make it any easier to watch now.
“We can’t undo what’s been seen. We’ve been discussing what our next step should be for the last twenty-four hours, and Cosette advised us to bring in a human element before we come to a final decision. As someone who was once human, but is now of our world, we’re hoping you can provide some insight.”
Everyone was shouting at once. The room got so loud, I couldn’t distinguish one voice from another. It was as if the air was suddenly thick and hot to breathe in. I reached up to tuck a piece of hair behind my ear, but noticed my hands were shaking and hid them under the table. This was part of the vision. It’s happening… I said to Dastien.
Even if this part is happening, it doesn’t mean the rest will. I haven’t had an Orangina or broken any kind of bottle, right? So the visions aren’t necessarily connected.
That made me feel a little better, but not much. I’d rather have nothing from the visions happen.
“Some of those here want to go back.” Donovan’s commanding voice brought me back to the discussion. “They want to pretend this didn’t happen. Cover it up.”
Everyone looked at me like I had some magic answer. I pressed my hands against my thighs as I thought. “I don’t think that will work. I mean, humans aren’t stupid. The video speaks for itself.”
“I still think we could play it off as a hoax.” The Canadian pack leader—Joseph’s dad—spoke up. “My son is a huge movie fan, and the effects they have these days are amazing.”
“What do you think?” Donovan said. “Can we make this disappear? Will humans believe it’s some sort of a stunt?”
I looked back at the news. The footage was a little grainy, but not that grainy. “This is just my opinion…” I wasn’t sure why it mattered what I thought, but I guessed I was the only human—or former human—they had access to.
“Go ahead, chica,” Muraco’s voice came through the speaker. “They need to hear what you think. That is why you’re here.”
I cleared my throat. “I think it’s too big. The cops had families. I guess Cosette could wipe their minds and whatnot, but it’s too much. So many people saw it on TV or knew people who were personally affected by it. It’s already too late too get rid of the video. Once it’s online, it lives forever. And you want to come out to the humans eventually, right?”
“Aye,” Donovan said.
“So say you somehow manage to cover it all up. You find every human that saw the witches drop dead at the movies and the Whataburger, and every person that was in contact with the cops. The rest of the humans buy the story that this was just a well-constructed hoax. It becomes a legend. And then, five years down the line? Ten years? You decide you want to go public. This will come back. They’ll realize you lied to them. That you tricked them. Why should they trust you then?”
“But would you not say this already looks bad?” Lisabetta’s accent gave her words a pleasant sing-song sound, even with the hard subject matter. “We burned many homes and disposed of bodies. It is bad, no?”
I couldn’t deny that. “It’s bad.”
“See?” She threw her hands in the air. “You see? This is why we must cover it up. She agrees.”
“She didn’t say that,” Jackson said.
“You think we should cover it up, no?” Lisabetta’s command brushed against my skin, but I shook it off.
What do I do? I asked Dastien. She’s doesn’t want my real opinion. She wants me to agree with her.
Tell the truth. That’s all you can do.
Yeah, but the truth was going to get one of the Seven pissed at me. “I don’t know.”
