Page 11 of Bitten By the Fae
Then I nodded at the other Councilmen in the room who had arrived with their Seconds. My father and Aswad were theonly members with heirs of age and status to attend, yet Shade seemed to be playing hooky again. He couldn’t make it any clearer that he had no interest in taking over the Death Magic mantle from his father.Prat.
Silence fell as Tadmir entered, his white hair flowing down his back. “Apologies.” The Malefic Councilman dropped into his chair beside Raz, his second-in-command. “I wasn’t in the realm when the notice arrived.”
My father dipped his chin in acceptance of the apology, then focused on the male sitting at the opposite head of the rectangular-shaped table. “Well, get on with it, then. Why are we here, Councilman Aswad?”
Those two final words dripped with disdain, thickening the air with unveiled animosity.
My twin stiffened beside me, just like half the damn board.
The Elite Bloods and Death Bloods had been at odds for centuries, never seeing eye to eye with how the Midnight Fae Council ran itself. Unfortunately for Aswad and his dark line of necromancers, my family had no intention of stepping down. I accepted the ascension rites on my eighteenth birthday, hence the inky black vines writhing across my skin. They fueled my veins with more power every day, waiting to unleash on my twenty-fifth year.
Ergo, the ticking time clock on my life.
And the dwindling minutes on my priceless freedom.
“Well?” my father prompted, his patience clearly at an end.
The Death Blood actually appeared paler than usual as he cleared his throat. “Shadow has taken a mate not of the Council’s choosing.”
I could’ve heard a pin drop after that announcement.
My eyebrows actually hit my hairline.
What?!
“And there’s more,” the Death Blood Councilman continued. “She is not a Midnight Fae but an Elemental Fae.”
Phoenix fires, I thought, my jaw on the fucking ground. Of all the things for this meeting to be about, I never in a million years would have guessed that.
Tray seemed just as startled beside me.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Council went up in literal flames as magic lashed across the obsidian stone table.
Aswad deflected the incoming blow with his wand, sending Tadmir’s burst into the high ceiling above, where my father trapped it beneath a web of energy that sizzled across my skin. “Stop,” he demanded, his single word laying down the law without fail.
Malik of Elite Blood had led the Midnight Fae Council for over a thousand years.
Ignoring him earned the harshest of penalties.
I knew firsthand what he could do, had sat through countless trials where he stripped other Midnight Fae of their lives for infractions far less potent than the one Shade had just committed.
The bastard had been promised to Tadmir’s oldest daughter, Cordelia.
To take another mate against the Council’s wishes not only broke the laws of our kind but it also issued a massive insult against the Malefic bloodline.
“Excommunication,” Tadmir hissed.
“How bonded?” Svart asked instead, his Warrior Blood energy swarming him in an inky cloak of impenetrable magic. His kind excelled at defensive arts. The complete opposite to the Malefic Blood, who favored offensive talents.
“First level,” Aswad said, taking his seat with a sigh. “And we don’t even know if it’ll hold. She’s not a Midnight Fae.”
“Which doesn’t make the infraction any better,” Lima muttered. My betrothed’s father was clearly not amused, his black irises narrowing at the Death Blood across from him. “What did he have to say for himself?”
“Nothing of importance,” Aswad replied.
“Meaning he’s not even apologetic,” my father translated.
I nearly snorted. Shadow, a.k.a. Shade, was never apologetic about anything. The arrogant dick fancied himself untouchable, even on Academy grounds. His taking a mate against Council wishes didn’t surprise me in the slightest.
