Sovereign (Silenced Part 2)

Part 37.

            My spell required several things. Most of which was easy to prepare in advance. The only real problem was the issue of timing. There were certain steps that had to be taken after the council members were inside the barrier. It was going to be tricky to accomplish without them suspecting. I hoped I would be able to excuse myself to the bathroom or maybe just knock them all out the way I'd done the soldiers in the field before. I had a plan and a back up plan but neither seemed to ease the knot in my stomach as I waited for their arrival.

I didn't have to wait as long as I thought.

It was close to sunset when they returned. Not bothering with a polite knock this time Henry and several of his guards barged in through the front door. He paused when his eyes landed on me and the edges of his mouth twitched in amusement.

"Miss Avi." He noted stepping further into the pack house. Several of the others flooded in behind him but the only one I recognized was the now furious looking councilman, Blake. He seemed to only have eyes for Henry as Henry spoke to me.

"We received notice that you'd fled." Henry said stepping around the couch to stand too close to my chair.

'Obviously I have not.' I signed

Blake huffed.

"What did she say?" Henry asked turning his cold eyes toward Blake for a flicker of a moment.

"Obviously she has not fled. She's right here." Blake said glaring back at him.

"Right well then, I assume you know what will happen from here?" Henry said.

I gave him a jerk of a nod.

"On with the pretenses then shall we." Henry said.

This time I held up my hand for him to stop and began to sign.

"She wishes to use the restroom before things can progress any further. Assuming of course that you intend to try her here and now with all of our member present." Blakes head tilted as he translated for me and for the first time since arriving his eyes stayed focused solely on me.

"You do know we have men surrounding this building right?" Henry said rolling his eyes.

"She has no desire to escape but as you so callously pointed out she is with child and doesn't wish to puke on your shoes." Blake translated again as I signed.

"Then by all means, but before you go allow me to present you with a gift." Henry said.

He held up what appeared to be an old necklace. The chain was clearly a dulled silver which would be annoying to my skin but irrelevant without a wound for it to fester in. The chain was nuisance but the crystal that hung from it drew my attention the most. It was a deep almost blackened red and something about it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.

"D-" Blake started to say something and I realized he had a hold of Henry's arm. 

Henry shoved him off and interrupted before he could finish his sentence.

"It would be wise for you to remain silent until the trial. I would hate for Miss Avi to be misrepresented because we had to make last minute adjustments to the reigning council." Henry growled.

"Not all of our members have arrived and we do not reign. This-" Blake started but was cut off again.

"Enough. Miss Avi." Henry gestured to me.

Blakes eyes narrowed and his jaw clinched but he didn't argue any further. 

Henry held the necklace up and without waiting for a reaction from either of us he dropped it over my head. 

I braced myself, expecting something terrible to happen or to feel some sort of spell pulling at me, but that nothing happened. It just sat heavy and warm against the center of my chest.

I looked down at it for a moment and then back to the two councilors before me.

'May I use the restroom now?' I asked and Blake translated.

Henry took a step back and I stood up.

I'd only managed to take a step past them when Blake decided to speak again.

"Whatever you think you are planning I suggest you consider carefully. We wouldn't want anything to hinder your ability to stand up for yourself during the trial." He said. The under current of words unsaid was clear but I couldn't decipher what he intended to imply. 

"Actually there's no need for a trial." A familiar nauseating voice spoke up near the door and Blakes hidden message was immediately forgotten. 

The guards in front of the door took a step to the side allowing one of the others to step forward.

"Attempting to kill a council member is an automatic death sentence, in case you didn't know angel." Drake smirked at me.

Seeing him here, in this house again, after everything he'd done, pulled at a rage I'd never felt before. He'd ruined my life. He'd murdered Quinn. He'd stolen my baby. And now he was here. 

I wanted him dead.

"Rylan." Blake said.

I didn't care that he was breaking rank by addressing me with my name and I didn't care about the warning he tried to instill in his voice.

I pulled forth all of the rage and pain and hatred that this man had caused me. I summoned it forward, coaxing it into a tightly wound mental ball of doom and then I shoved it at him with every ounce of strength I could muster.

The lights flickered. Drake flinched back and then his eyes widened in complete shock only a second before all of my pain, rage, and hatred that I'd planned to use to kill Drake slammed back into me. 

My entire body felt like it was plugged into a socket and lit on fire at the same time. Pain like I'd never felt ripped through me. The strongest of it burning through the crystal tied around my neck. I heard the scream. I couldn't even believe it was my own. It'd been so long since I'd heard it. And then it all stopped.

My body shook, my head dipped, and the last thing I saw before my eyes closed was the glowing red crystal that reminded me so much of blood.