Jace had a reason for his concern besides just nerves.
But before anybody else voted one way or the other, before Sebastian could even intervene, Cyrus stopped, smiled, and tapped one of the offending clan members on the shoulder.
The man jerked, snarled, and spun on a dime.Well, at least he’s now facing the right way, I thought.And pulled Jace back against me, in case this got ugly.
And it was pretty much guaranteed to get ugly, because you didn’t pull something like this in the middle of Clan Council if you didn’t want to fight.
“Oh, it’s like that, is it?”Ulmer said loudly and transformed, just that fast.Cyrus hadn’t yet, and he put out an arm to indicate that the rest of us shouldn’t, either, but I didn’t know how long that was likely to hold, as his own eyes were suddenly a lot lighter and brighter.Wolf eyes, peeking out at their next prey.
Only I wasn’t sure that the math exactly mathed in this case.Rand was a big clan, and it looked like every one of them was here tonight, seriously outnumbering us.If we’d been on our own, we’d be dead.
But we weren’t on our own, something they knew very well.It was the reason, other than enjoying a good fight, that Ulmer was already in wolf form, despite being a member of another clan.Because, as pathetic as we might be on our own, we were sponsored by someone who very definitely wasn’t.
Someone who had just stood up and walked down the steps of the dais to back up his brother, but stopped at the foot, still halfway across the space, to let him handle this.However, it had just been made very clear that Clan Arnou stood ready and willing to assist the fledgling Fireborn.And that was making everyone unhappy.
Every clan here was allied with either Rand or Arnou, and many with both, as they were two of the oldest and most prestigious of all the clans.And nobody seemed to have expected this any more than I had, because low-voiced, rapid conversations were breaking out everywhere, as people realized they might have to choose sides.Immediately.
A civil war had been threatening for a while now, with half of the clans sick of supporting the Silver Circle in the current war, sick of Sebastian’s reforms to Were society, sick of anything and everything that threatened their positions.
I just hadn’t expected it to come to a head tonight.
And neither had Cyrus, who was looking pissed but also perplexed.Was this a political ploy, meant to start a schism, or a son grieving his father and doing something stupid?And was his clan really behind him, or being forced to go along with it, or prove themselves divided and leaderless at a vulnerable juncture?
“Bleddyn of Rand,” Cyrus said, his voice ringing out in the echoing space.“You have had a month to challenge, should you think it needful, yet you leave it so late?”
“No challenge,” the sneer was almost palpable.“Such a ‘clan’ doesn’t deserve the honor!”
“Such a clan?”Cyrus didn’t elaborate, but he didn’t have to.His expression was eloquent as he swept his eyes over the disgraced Rand.Which was the only one of the two of us to have lost a leader recently for treason, for cheating in a challenge, and for then losing said challenge anyway, along with his life.
Bleddyn caught the insult and flushed puce, which was dangerous for more than one reason.He was a big man, standing at least six-foot-five and possibly a shade more, bald, paunchy, and yet as heavily muscled as all Were men, and some of the women, were.He looked like he was in his late thirties, but heading for a heart attack in another ten to twelve, or possibly tonight if he didn’t calm down.
Of course, if he didn’t calm down, it wouldn’t be his heart that killed him.
Annnnd he didn’t, but his target wasn’t Cyrus.
“You insult us by bringing this… thing… into a council session,” he said, the beady brown eyes fixing on Jace.“You pollute this company, insult these elders, show yet again that your clan—bothyour clans—have no regard for tradition, the rule of law, or even common decency!”
“Decency?”Cyrus said silkily.“I wasn’t aware that was a concept your bloodline understood.”
And shit, I thought.
That’s a new tux.
But there was nothing for it now, because either man’s words were tantamount to a challenge, and there would be blood drawn tonight.
Cyrus still hadn’t Changed, but it was imminent.I could see the dark hair, slicked back with pomade in a vain effort to keep the curls contained, suddenly perking up, could smell the flood of musk on the air—smelled good, smelled right, smelled like a clan leader about to protect his family—could see the light of the wolf eyes spilling over enough to stain the collar of his soon-to-be-in-shreds tux.Yet he held it together a moment more, giving Bleddyn’s clan a chance to rein him in if they were going to.
Meanwhile, I tried to pull Jace back out of the danger zone, but his shoulders were rigid with fear, and it was like he was rooted to the spot.He’d lost his brother recently, his only family, and had had to watch him die.He’d found a new family since, but years of living on the streets, of fighting for every scrap of food, of having no one in his corner and no one he could trust besides Jayden, and then to suddenly not have him there anymore—
It was a lot.
He wasn’t used to feeling safe yet, and this wasn’t helping!
They needed to keep their goddamned politics away from my kids, I thought savagely.
But Bleddyn clearly didn’t think so, and his clan appeared to agree with him, or if they didn’t, they weren’t doing anything about it.
It was infuriating my wolf, who snarled internally.
