“Um, if there’s a prophecy about me, I’d sort of like to know what it is.”
“Ah, therein lies the rub. For how can you manifest your destiny if you know what’s to come?” He touched my cheek. “I’m afraid your future is not yours to know.”
“That seems unfair.”
“Such is life.”
Great. Calliope had told Sig—a man she despised openly for breaking her heart—what would happen to me, but neither of them was willing to tell me. That probably meant it wasn’t going to end well.
Was I surprised?
No.
The kind of life I led wasn’t one that came with old-age benefits. I’d known a long time ago the chances of me making it to my thirties, let alone retirement, were slim to none. Making it this far, considering everything I’d seen and done, was startling enough.
“I’m supposed to get married,” I sputtered, not having a better response on the tip of my tongue.
“Who’s stopping you? Though I hazard to remind you it didn’t go so well the last time you tried.”
I socked him on the arm, which was about as effective as punching a brick wall.
“You swear to me once this is over you’ll let the vampires help me?”
“I do.”
“Fine.” I made it seem like I was yielding because it gave me the illusion of control, and sometimes it helped to pretend like I was making my own choices.
He bent down and kissed me lightly on the forehead, then tilted my chin up again and pressed his mouth to mine. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, so I didn’t feel the need to wriggle free of it. Something about it felt right and appropriate in a way that had nothing to do with romance.
Sig’s natural gift for setting those around him at ease took hold, and the tension that had been building in me since I first walked through the council’s doors began to melt away.
At least if I was walking into an ambush, I’d be relaxed.
Holden returned with the others in tow. Sig gave Sutherland his instructions, and my father nodded politely before leaving us.
“So much for getting in and out,” Clementine observed. “You’re not really good at stealth missions, you know.”
I almost laughed. She was more right than she could have guessed. I could get in undetected without much difficulty. It was getting out I hadn’t mastered.
It was too late to start trying now.
“You will be present as Secret’s entourage,” Sig announced. “It will show the council she has those who are willing to stand behind her, even in difficult times such as this.”
Reggie lifted his hand. “I seriously didn’t sign up for this.”
“But you are here now, and you will do as I say. Unless you’re inclined to disobey the direct command of two Tribunal leaders.” Sig raised an eyebrow in challenge, and Reggie dropped his hand, easily defeated.
I felt bad for the two wardens. They had agreed to come along in order to help us find the necromancers, and now they’d been sucked into a political coup. They couldn’t have imagined anything like this would happen when they’d followed Holden the previous evening.
Leaving the Tribunal chamber, we followed Sig through the dank stone halls to a much larger space, one I was familiar with but the others might not be. The elder council’s judgment hall wasn’t a fun place to be. I’d come here once to argue for Brigit’s right to be a warden, and I’d felt like I was the one on trial.
This time, I would be.
Without knocking, Sig swept into the room with a commanding aura draped over him like a cloak. If anyone knew how to make a grand entrance, it was Sig.
Inside the room, fourteen vampires fell silent, all eyes turned to us.
Aside from the twelve members of the elder’s council, Juan Carlos had taken his rightful position on the Tribunal seats kept in this hall, and Arturo was sitting beside him, in a chair I’d never seen before. It was on the same level as the three Tribunal seats, but not identical.