"Tell us what is going on," added Arnie. "Why are the guards holding Noah?"
"Why?" Étoile mused, stepping away from the bomb as a telekinetic witch stepped forward. She made the tangle of plastic and wires disappear, before turning towards the struggling werewolf. "Noah Wilde, you are formally accused of being behind this assassination plot and are now under arrest by orders of the Witches' Council. You have purposefully tried to derail the inauguration of the High Council by means of my murder."
"You have no evidence! And no right to arrest me!" Noah shouted, half-laughing as he looked for support amongst the crowd. Several rose to their feet, but he looked away from them to Gage, who didn't move. "Gage? Gage, tell them! You have no evidence, Étoile!" he yelled, turning back to Étoile before darting a glance at Gage again. To anyone who didn't know him, Gage looked impassable, but to me? I could see the way Gage's head dipped, and his eyes narrowed whenever disappointment etched across his face. He was angry.
"I have evidence," Étoile retorted sharply, producing a slim envelope from her gown. The room hushed as she extracted the thick sheets. No, not sheets, I realised, but photographs. She held each of them in turn, first revealing them to Noah, and, as he blanched, to the crowd. In unison, we craned forward to see. "Here you are, handing the bomb to your associate."
"That could be anything!"
"Here is your associate, opening the package. It's clear what is inside."
"Manipulation!"
"And another showing your associate, planting the bomb, after using the security key card he stole."
"That's nothing to do with me!"
"Here are receipts for materials you recently purchased. Photos from meetings you personally held. More photos of you meeting a pack in Rockford, Canada, where you recruited your bomber. We have video evidence too, your voice is clearly identified as you plotted to make your move." Étoile showed several more photos before slamming them onto the long table. "Your guilt is abundantly evident."
"Where did she get this stuff?" whispered Kitty, nudging me as the High Council candidates continued to argue over Noah’s guilt or innocence.
I thought back to the day before, and the exchange I witnessed between Étoile and Gage. The information had to have come from him. Who else could have gained so much? Who else could have been trusted to access the information? As I thought more about it, I caught his eye and he blinked once, very deliberately. He knew that I'd put the pieces together. I gave him a shallow nod before returning my attention to Kitty. "I think I know."
"You did this!" Noah yelled, jabbing his finger towards Gage, before Kitty could ask me what I knew. "You set me up!"
"I played no part in it," Gage said, raising his voice so every last person could hear. "If you are innocent, Noah, it'll come out. But if you're guilty of attempting to destroy the High Council against pack wishes, you're on your own."
"They're setting me up! She wants all the power just for herself!"
"Take him away," said Hunter, his voice perilously close to losing his cool control. "Get the traitor out."
"Traitor?" Noah turned to Hunter, apparently finally realising he was out of options as his brethren stepped away from him, visibly distancing themselves in the eyes of all present. "If that's what I am, what does it make you? You're involved in this. We're partners."
Hunter shrugged, throwing his hands in the air like he couldn't believe any of it. "No more lies, Noah. Étoile, dispatch the werewolf. We must adjourn this meeting until a later date, once this has been dealt with." Hunter straightened his suit, then indicated to Irina to follow him from the stage.
"Please stay where you are, Hunter," Étoile said sternly before he could take another step. "You too, Irina."
Hunter halted in his stride. "What's the meaning of this?"
The whispers shuddered to a halt, leaving the room deathly quiet. "There is further evidence implicating you also with this attempted assassination," Étoile said, without any need to raise her voice, the whole room riveted on her.
"No, there isn't," Hunter replied, his voice suggesting his disinterest, and further emphasising it by shaking his head. "Not a single piece."
"If I go down, you go down with me," yelled Noah. His face was red and flustered as he gestured wildly and pointed a finger at Hunter. "I won't be your fall guy. You and that witch got me into this. It's all your fault!"
"Speak to me like that again, wolf, and I'll behead you myself," said Hunter, baring razor-sharp teeth. "Étoile, there will be no High Council sworn in this evening. We must conclude this inane attempt at reconciliation between the races as an utter failure. Alas, with this traitor, it cannot be done."
"On the contrary," said the old vampire, stepping forward. "There will be a High Council sworn in today, but it doesn't look like either of you will be leading your people if Étoile has evidence against you both. You have successfully proven a case of suspicion against Noah Wilde. What evidence have you to prove your allegations against the demon?"
"Plenty," Étoile replied, producing another package, which she held aloft. "Here is my evidence against Hunter. I'll explain in more detail later, but, in short, Hunter and Noah both had reasons for plotting my demise and they colluded with one of our own to ensure it would happen. All three wished to see the High Council derailed. That's where Noah's role ended. In our investigation, we found that Noah simply didn't want the High Council to go ahead, so he was happy to eradicate me, assuming that the Council would simply disband. Hunter agreed with everything Noah wanted to hear; there was just one problem: Hunter had his own agenda."
"Stories," yawned Hunter, his teeth still bared.
"Hunter always intended for you to be foiled, Noah," continued Étoile, ignoring him. "With me dead, Noah would have been a convenient fall guy. That's two eminent leaders gone in one fell swoop. Hunter planned to continue the High Council, and champion its progress, while lobbying for a lesser witch to lead my people. He offered the role of werewolf leader to the Rockford wolf, Tobias Grigg. Not only would that wolf be in his debt, but Hunter also planned to be the saviour of the High Council, thereby, gradually ensuring he would have all the power to himself. With all of us sworn to follow the rulings of the High Council beyond our own laws, Hunter could have made himself the most powerful supernatural creature of our time."
A commotion at the back of the stage had the crowd whispering again; and a moment later, Irina appeared, in the custody of guards. "We caught her trying to slip out of the rear exit," said one of them.
"I have nothing to do with this," said Irina. "Let me go!"
"I can't do that," replied Étoile. "We’ve obtained a rather large amount of evidence against you too. You were Hunter's right hand through all of this."
"No! I'm merely an assistant."
"And my soon to be daughter-in-law," Hunter added, stabbing a sharp pain deep inside me. "This ridiculousness must stop, Étoile. You have your werewolf. Let the rest of us go, including Irina."
"I swear, this is the last set of photographs," said Étoile, producing them from the folds of her coat. "You've been followed for some time, Irina. I have photos of you with the Rockford wolves, and we have sworn statements that you often perform magic for them. You knew that one of their wolves was coming to warn an associate of mine, and you killed him. Yes, I had the magic traced directly to you. Right now, I'm in a quandary as to whether to deal with you myself, or hand you over to the wolves, to be dealt with right alongside Noah."
"You can't do that!" Irina screamed, her hair whipping wildly as she strained against the guards' unrelenting grip. "They'll rip me apart. Evan!"
"I offer her no protection," said Evan, barely looking at her, or moving. "The marriage arrangement was being forced on me, and I would never have gone through with it."
"No! No!" Irina sobbed, attempting to break away again. "That's not true."
Hunter sighed, stepping away as she lunged towards him. "It appears that Irina was behind this plot with the werewolves. I
will handle her personally."
The shock and fear on Irina's face was palpable as he calmly betrayed her, her frightened eyes falling on Evan again. "Evan, don't let him do this. We will ally in marriage and lead the demons together. Together, we will be unstoppable. Have them arrest your father!"
"I never wanted to be unstoppable," said Evan, distancing himself from the pair until he was at Étoile's side, "and I will never be with you. All of this—" he waved to her and his father, "—was to stop you from doing the unthinkable. I will never align with the demons against the witches or any other faction."
"It's because of that little witch, isn't it?" Irina screamed, her face turning to pure fury as she scanned the crowd. "That pathetic, little witch you love!" Her eyes fixed on mine, and I shuddered, but held my resolve. I felt slightly relieved there was nothing she could do while the guards held her. "That's a problem I can easily fix."
"Stella, down!" someone screamed before I was roughly pushed to the floor and another person screamed. Moments later, I untangled myself from limbs and bodies as I peeked above the chairs. Evan blocked most of my view, with his back to me as he stood on the stage, his hands spread, looking down at Irina's prone body. A guard knelt beside her, holding two fingers to her neck. "She's alive," said the guard.
"And faking," his partner added. They proceeded to wind magic around her, binding her to them and apparently, extracting her magic too as she staggered to her feet. Blood trickled from her temple.
"What happened?" I asked, looking around, hoping someone knew as I grabbed Kitty's hand, and pulled her to her feet.
"She sent a stream of magic at you," said a witch from the floor.
"From her eyes," added another. "She would have killed you."
"What did it hit?" I asked, helping the witch get up as we all regained our composure. It hardly seemed worth sitting now, especially as the chairs were knocked around and the crowd scattered.
"Him," said the witch I supported, pointing to the stage. I turned just as Evan's knees crumpled. Before I could react, two demons were at his sides, supporting him, and Étoile too, whispering to them. Then, they half carried, half-dragged him from the room.
"Arrest Hunter and Irina," said Étoile, her voice carrying over the commotion, the empaths having all but given up on crowd control. "Noah Wilde, Tobias Grigg, and all the wolves of the Rockford pack."
She paused as a fight broke out amongst the Rockford pack, each trying to make an escape. None of them realised they had already been corralled into a corner before the show even began. Instead, they were simply herded from the room, surrounded by guards, and the door banged shut, leaving the stage much as it was at the start of the meeting, only significantly emptier and substantially bloodier.
"Originally, I planned to give a speech," Étoile said, walking around the half-empty table and taking her seat, barely a wisp of hair out of place, "but I think I'd rather just sign this." She plucked the pen from the table and added her signature to the document in the middle of the mess. "Who is with me?"
"I am," said Arnie, taking the pen from her and sliding the document his way. He added his signature and pushed it towards the vampire. Luke Fellows took it and signed also, moving the pen in large flourishes, which made me wonder in which century he learned to write.
Étoile held the paper aloft. "That's three races formally aligned. We will wait for the werewolves and the demons to select a new leader before we invite them to join. Until then, the High Council is still in force."
"Just a moment," said a female werewolf, someone I didn't know, but often saw around the building. "If you'll give us the liberty of a little space, we can settle our leadership issues before midnight."
"Before midnight?" Étoile arched an eyebrow as she waited for an explanation.
"We must dispose of our old leader before we swear in a new one," the woman reasoned. "And we have suitable candidates here tonight. Will you not give Noah a trial?"
"If he survives the leadership fight, no," she continued, "and it is clear there must be one. Guilty or not, Noah Wilde will never return as leader. We could forgive his recent transgressions, but we cannot forgive such self-serving behaviour, much less, the attempted murder of an ally."
"Tell my assistant what you need and we will accommodate you," agreed Étoile. "We will look forward to welcoming your new leader this evening." The werewolf bowed and turned, signaling for all the remaining werewolves to follow suit. When they left the witches, vampires, and shapeshifters mingling, I was uncertain whether to be elated at the progression of the High Council, and gossiping about the events, or just stunned into silence. Étoile stood, waiting until all eyes were on her again. If she had ever lacked confidence regarding her position as president, she surely wouldn’t now, I decided. She had shown true power and I knew every single supernatural would hear about it after this night.
"The meeting," she said slowly, scanning the crowd, "is now adjourned."
Chapter Twenty
Lying flat on my back on the spacious king-sized bed in my room, I stared up at the blank ceiling and wondered what the hell to do next. It seemed that all around me, activities happened, but I didn't feel like participating in any of them. I wanted to talk to Étoile and make sure she was as okay as she appeared; but after her abrupt dismissal, she left the room with Clare close on her heels. My next step was to talk to Gage, but he appeared to be caught in the middle of a furious argument with several of the werewolf contingent, their numbers half depleted by numerous arrests.
Instead, I walked back to the rooms with Kitty, leaving when she shut herself in her room, saying she wanted to be alone. She was still too upset over showing the idiot werewolf exactly where to plant the bomb, which could have killed our friend. That left me with one last person to check up on.
I finally ascertained that Evan was taken to a room where a doctor examined him, but when I passed by the open door, I found him with several sombre-looking demons. Our eyes locked for the briefest of moments, and he gave a subtle shake of his head before I hurried on, pretending I was walking elsewhere. But all that happened was I didn’t get to talk to Evan. That was further compounded when I managed to get lost in the maze of corridors.
Now as I lay here, I wished I had a ball or something to throw at the ceiling just to have something to do while I contemplated what happened and tried to determine how I felt about it all.
That Irina thought Evan still had feelings for me was confusing enough, but he protected me too, actually putting himself in the middle of us to absorb the blow. That utterly perplexed me because that was the Evan I used to know, the Evan I loved, not the one I knew from the past few months. Try as I might, I couldn't decide which one was the true Evan anymore. It was sheer madness to try and explain another's actions, which could only come from him; and I couldn't get near him at all.
As for Gage, I could only imagine what Noah's arrest might mean for the werewolves. Gage was their rising star, and I doubted I was the only one who heard rumours this evening that he could be next in line to lead an alignment of packs. I was also sure no one thought the day Noah was dispossessed would arrive so soon. Did that mean Gage would challenge him, as his successor? I wondered, and if so, what might that mean for us?
One thing was clear to me, there were two "us" options, and if I had to choose between them... I could always choose “neither.”
A knock at the door interrupted my thoughts and I slid off the bed Hastily straightening my clothing, I gave my appearance a cursory glance as I passed the mirror. Opening the door, I expected to find Étoile or a sobbing Kitty, maybe even Astra or Seren. Instead, filling up the entire doorway was Evan.
"We need to talk," he said. "May I come inside? I don't want to be seen."
I opened the door wider and stepped back, hoping my brief hesitation didn't show, as well as my annoyance at hearing he didn't want his visit noticed. Was his standing in the demon hierarchy still of ultimate concern? I could only wonder as I closed the
door and followed him. It wasn't too long ago that we stood in a similar room not so far away from here and ended things. The similarities between then and now occupied my mind as we both looked around uneasily. Finally, I took the overstuffed chair in the corner, and offered Evan the stiffer, more upright chair at the desk. He pulled it out, turned it around, and sat, leaning forward, with his hands clasped over his knees.
"We haven't spoken in a long time," he started, "not properly anyway."
I didn't know what to say so I remained silent and hoped I looked composed even though I felt shaky inside. Whatever Evan wanted to talk about, I wasn't sure I was prepared to listen. I also wasn't sure I could handle being in the same room when a sensation of longing rose from within me. I missed him. Not just because he was the first man I loved, and the first man I ever knew loved me, but because he was also my friend, my mentor, my protector. Losing all of those things at once when I lost him, left a huge hole in my life. The pain I had to endure during those first days without him was unparalleled.
"I know it doesn't seem like it, but I have been doing everything I could to protect you," he began again, looking at me. "I need to start from the beginning. When Étoile saw how Hunter was trying to draw me back into the family — his family — she asked me to let them pull me back in. She had her suspicions about him from the start, and so did I. I agreed that no stone-cold murderer could be that benevolent. He was a danger to everything the High Council stood for. He would have been a danger to you too eventually."
"Why me?"
"Witches look up to you. I've heard the rumours. They see someone who fought off The Brotherhood when she could barely control her own magic, someone who struggles to succeed again and again, even after the fight seems long over, and who managed to prevail over the likes of Eleanor Bartholomew and Georgia Thomas. They see a witch who has risen in the ranks, but seeks no power for herself."
Arcane Magic (Stella Mayweather Series) Page 23
