Page 57 of Kissed the Mark
“Leandra is a wanted criminal,” Griseldaasserted.
“Wanted for murder!” someone shouted in thecrowd. There was a loud stomping of dozens of feet at theexcitement.
“We do not harbor criminals!” the secondwolf shouted. His voice boomed through the clearing, overwhelmingevery other noise. A chill crawled down my spine.
It was hard to discern who struck first.Maybe Francesca Gallo’s bolt of lightning hit the ground betweenthem to start it, or maybe a vampire had lunged forward at thewerewolves, which caused one of them to tear into him.
More wolves made themselves known to thecrowd. It wasn’t an even fight. The wolves turned, claws ripping atflesh. Vampires grappled with fangs bore. A half dozen flashes ofmagic burst through the air, leaving my vision spotty. One of theWoods Pack werewolves had a city werewolf pinned to the grass bythe neck.
Melanie nodded to me. With one hand on theold tree, I dug my fingers right into the earth, feeling the pulseof the living things around me. The trees groaned as they pushedcloser, crowded in on the circle of the mob with an audible buthardly noticed movement.
One of the vampires looked up when themoonlight disappeared behind the shade of the trees. The Woods Packwolves slid back to safety through the remaining cracks just beforethey closed completely, leaving a circle of trunks that touchedside by side.
Someone screamed. There was the smell ofsmoke as one of the witches set fire to the trees, and then anotherscream at that. One tree bounced under the weight of a climber.There was no way of escaping without going over, under, through,three things that weren’t likely to happen with the tools at themob’s disposal.
I quivered a bit with the exertion of movingall the trees. The wolves looked on in a mixture of awe and disgustat the deep trenches left behind, the tangled roots of the treesI’d pushed aside like a baby playing with blocks. Destruction hadbeen a familiarity lately. “What now?” I asked. Smoke billowed upfrom the circle of trees; they would all smother to death. Or burnup.
Delilah pressed her cane into the ground,her old jaw working. “Put the trees back.”
“Even if it releases them?”
“We are not executioners.”
With a concerted effort much jerkier thanthe initial magic, I pried the trees back apart. They settled intotheir old places; the trenches remained. Smoke dispersed, leavingbehind simmering wood. The grass was black where the fire hadripped toward the crowd.
People bent over, coughing. Some wereturning the other way, running for their lives. Melanie stood infront of me, as though to shield me from their wrath.
“Olympia Carter,” Griselda said, in a voicethat reached us all even without the megaphone. “You are anaccomplice.”
Any kind of reply died on my lips. I couldonly think of Leandra’s story, that she wanted me to pretend I’dbeen in her thrall the whole time. How could I pretend that whenI’d just done this, alone?
Griselda and Francesca made eye contact withme. Much of the crowd was gone now, people nudging others away,some of them likely to get medical attention. It was with muchrelief I noticed the lack of bodies, asphyxiated or battle induced.I did not like to be a murderer, intentionally or not, self-defenseor provoked.
“We do not harbor the vampire Leandra,”Delilah repeated, loud enough for all of us to hear.
Into my ear, Melanie whispered: “I’m goingto sneak her out now, so it’s true.”
She didn’t give me time to answer, to askfor a second goodbye. We had already been given that chance, and itseemed we wouldn’t get another. In spite of all the actionhappening now, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d see Leandra again.She would be out of the hut by morning, I was sure. These wolveswere nothing if not efficient.
“Hand over the bounty hunter, then,”Griselda said. “You can’t pretend not to have her. She has a lot toexplain to us. The council is waiting.”
Delilah looked over to me, and I understooda few things at once. Leandra had seen what I hadn’t: theexpectation, the whole time, would be that I’d throw her under thebus. Otherwise, I couldn’t have revealed myself here, and Ishould’ve run away with her. It seemed everyone else knew that Iwould choose myself over her—over anus—in the end.
Still, Delilah was giving me a choice: gowith them, or force the Woods Pack to take on the rest of thesupernatural population of Mayfair. In the end, it wasn’t a choiceat all. I stepped forward, baring my wrists.
A bounty hunter I had only seen in passingcame forward to claim me, a demon with purple-blue skin and spotsrunning down each side of her face. She closed the Guild handcuffsaround my hands and I slumped forward into her, drained of mymagic. I’d put many in these cuffs myself, but hadn’t known howawful it would feel—like my soul was being taken away. They weremeant to dampen any supernatural ability, and were considered 98%effective against all kinds of supernaturals.
I gasped when the demon removed my silverdagger from its sheath around my thigh—but of course the councilwouldn’t let me keep any weapons.
The wolves vanished back into the trees.Their encampment was safe, at least, and so was Leandra. I doubtedthey’d ever shake off the suspicion of harboring her, though. I hadto tell the council that I’d gotten her away first.
Delilah stood last, with just one other wolfwho had to be six-and-a-half feet tall. She nodded to me again.“Good luck, Olympia Carter,” she said.
And then they were gone, and I was beinghauled away.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
The Trial
