“Don’t forget when Port asked her if she would strip her marks rather than die with her Marked if that’s what the tribunal ruled,” Kallan grumbles.
“What did she say?” Knox asks.
“She said she would strip her marks.”
“Can you even do that?” I ask, leaning forward.
“I mean, they must have a way; otherwise, why ask that question?” Sabin responds.
“So Port is the guy who was all glarey?” I ask, recalling the younger looking Sentinel from the throne room who didn’t look too happy to be there. He was the only other male on the tribunal aside from Sabin.
“That’d be the one,” Becket confirms as he leans over and tries to steal a piece of cheese from Torrez’s plate. Torrez growls at him and slaps his hand away.
“So what’s your Sentinel’s deal?” Bastien asks.
I ignore the itchy dislike that crawls up the back of my neck when Suryn is referred to as my Shield’s Sentinel...again. I don’t like her, but Siah was right when he reminded us that trusting the magic is what’s most important. Her magic marked them, and like it or not, there’s fuck all I can do about that right now.
“She’s twenty-three. Her dad, as we all know, is Sauriel, Adriel’s brother. But her mother used to be Sovereign over the Sentinels. She died when Suryn was nine. What’s interesting is that Suryn is supposed to be the Sovereign. I guess Sentinels are matriarchal. Leadership passes from mother to daughter unless there isn’t a daughter, in which case the people elect a new line for leadership.”
“Huh,” I comment and lean back into Ryker, raptly listening as Enoch goes on.
“Well, they thought Suryn was too young, so herauntis filling in until Suryn comes of age after her awakening.”
“So the current Sovereign is her aunt?” Siah asks, and Enoch nods.
I shake my head and can’t fight the smile that breaks across my face. I put a hand over my mouth to hide it, but it doesn’t stop the giggle that leaks out.
Enoch turns to me. “What?”
His question makes me laugh a little harder, and I try to stop. “Nothing really, it’s just your dad is going to slip into a happiness-coma when he finds out you were marked by the next leader of the Sentinels. I can just picture his face now,” I tell him as I try to swallow down another giggle. “How many times do you think she’ll stab him the first time he tries to make her do something she doesn’t want to do?” I ask no one in particular, and then I completely lose it.
Elder Cleary is a manipulative ass, and I can’t wait for him to meet his son’s new mate. Well, that’s if her people don’t sentence all of us to death first.
Everyone bursts into laughter, including Enoch. He tries to hide it, but I catch the smile and shake of his shoulders before he gets a hand over his face and shakes his head. The fact that not even Enoch can deny his father’s thirsty ways amuses me to no end. As much as I dislike Suryn, I almost want to start rooting for her and them to work out just so I can sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch the shit go down between her and the elders.
“Well, I guess that explains Sauriel’s comment about the Sovereign condemning her own blood,” Ryker observes, and Enoch nods, still working to pull his features into a more stoic mien.
“After the tribunal established her history, they asked to see her runes, and that was about it,” Enoch finishes.
“What did they ask you guys?” Valen calls over his shoulder as he follows Torrez’s lead and fills up another plate of food.
“Pretty much the same stuff,” Becket shrugs. “Where we were born, how we met, how we ended up here. They were more interested in you than they were in us really.”
“How so?” I ask.
“They asked all of us what we knew about you. How we met. How you met your Chosen and us. How you marked everyone. What your abilities were...shit like that.”
“Did you tell them what she can do?” Bastien asks, the accusation in his tone clear.
Becket and the others bristle.
“What do you think?” he challenges.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking,” Bastien grinds back.
“We kept everything as basic as possible,” Enoch defends. “We didn’t make her vulnerable, Bastien. The truth iswedon’t know everything Vinna can do. We stuck with what we know.”
“Meaning?” Knox presses, and Enoch rolls his eyes and gives a frustrated huff.
