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“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “We’ll be going home soon enough.”

“About damn time.” The elevator arrived, and she selected one of the lower floors but didn’t join us in the lift. “Secret?”

I held the door before it could close. “Yeah?”

“For what it’s worth…I knew you hadn’t run.”

I was too stunned to reply, so I let the door shut instead. Holden and Sutherland were silent the whole trip down, but my father had a goofy smile stuck on his face, the same one he’d had since we got on the plane back to L.A. I’d have asked what he was happy about, but I wasn’t sure he’d know the answer.

Outside the Tribunal chamber two wardens tried to insist I enter alone, but I pulled rank and forced them to let me bring the men along. There was no way in hell I was letting either of them out of my sight, not until this whole mess was resolved. As of right now I had to consider the council enemy territory. When I had assurances we were all safe and the warrants were called off, then I’d take alone time into consideration.

Eilidh, Galen and Arturo were seated in the same arrangement they had been the last time I saw them. Tonight Eilidh and Galen were dressed in matching emerald green, while Arturo had opted for a black suit.

“How kind of you to grace us with your presence, Secret.” Eilidh tried to sound bored, but her voice maintained an edge of malice.

“I wasn’t aware there were time restrictions on my mission.” I’d practiced what I would say to them in my mind, going over it a thousand times on the flight south. Now that I was actually standing in front of them, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to remember any of it.

“No, but we weren’t aware you would disappear without a trace.”

“My methods, unconventional though they may be, yield results. You wouldn’t have asked my council for help unless you wanted results, yet now you want to question how they were obtained?”

“Results?” Eilidh sneered. “The window still sits in San Jose. I see no results.”

“I’ve returned your warden.” I indicated Sutherland, who stood in front of Arturo.

“Hello,” he greeted.

“Wonderful. You’ve brought us a mad vampire. What a delightful treat.”

“Eilidh…” Galen didn’t threaten her, but his tone implied she should rein herself in. She was behaving like she was in charge here, but she wasn’t. This was his dog-and-pony show, and she obviously got away with speaking out of turn because she was Galen’s sister.

“Don’t Eilidh me,” she snapped.

Galen grabbed her wrist and squeezed. Though the expression on his face remained calm and pleasant, he had to be hurting her because she squeaked.

“I believe my sister was trying to ask why it has taken you two weeks to do what another could have accomplished in two days?”

I reached into my pocket and withdrew the crystal pendant, letting it catch the low light of the room, reflecting prisms onto the floor in a wide arc of rainbows.

“Your council was not entirely honest with me. I’d like you to start by admitting as much.” I closed my hand into a fist and returned the pendant to my pocket. “You claimed the window was what interested you, but that wasn’t true, was it?”

“We did want the window,” Galen said. “But I suppose you have uncovered our reasons for wanting it.”

“Maxime thought Eilidh wanted the window because she believed she’d be able to stand in the light it cast. But that wasn’t its power at all. The real power was in one of those thirteen crystals.” I patted my pocket. “The one I now have.”

“Are you trying to…barter with me?” Galen asked, sounding equal parts impressed and offended.

“I’d like to think of it more in terms of Let’s Make a Deal.”

Arturo must have been the only one who watched game shows in the seventies because he chuckled while the siblings remained stony.

“Please, tell me what you want that would make you behave so recklessly,” Galen demanded.

“I want Sutherland Halliston remanded to my custody. Permanently.”

“You are asking us to give you ownership of your sire?” This time Galen did laugh. “Unheard of.”

“No,” I said, cutting his laughter off abruptly. “You forget I’m here in Sig’s stead. I’m requesting you give his blood kin freedom to move to the East Coast council. I will make sure he arrives safely.”

“Why?” Eilidh asked. I could understand her disbelief. To her, Sutherland was a crazy, useless baby vampire. Certainly not worth trading for what I had in my pocket.

“Because he figured out what you were after from the start, and instead of taking it for himself he spent God knows how long recreating that stupid window so he could bring it back to you without being discovered. But more importantly, I want him with me because you have a traitor here, and I won’t leave any of my people behind.”

Eilidh’s mouth went slack while Galen and Arturo both shifted forward in their seats. “I beg your pardon, Secret, but do you know what kind of an accusation you’re making?”

“Yes.” The truth was I believed we had a traitor in the council at home as well, but they didn’t need to know that. “Moreover I’m not making wild assumptions. I know you have a traitor. My people and I were followed while we were in San Francisco, and we were attacked. The same person who attacked us had already seized Sutherland, which was why he’d gone off the grid. Now I know who was responsible for attacking me, and I know Alexandre Peyton was involved somehow. But for Peyton to know we’d gone from Los Angeles to San Francisco, someone here had to alert him. That same someone would have known Sutherland was my father, otherwise there would have been no sense in him being taken ahead of time.”

The Tribunal stared at me.

“Of course, I’m not suggesting any of you are responsible. But I am saying your Council Elders need to be looked at very seriously.”

“And what of Maxime?” Eilidh asked. “I notice he is not with you now. He knew you were moving. He knew who Sutherland was to you.”

“He knew after. And Maxime is dead. Don’t you ever suggest to me again he had anything to do with this.”

She went silent. Galen sat back in his throne with a thoughtful expression. “Is that all?”

“I want a full written pardon clearing myself, Mr. Chancery and Mr. Halliston of any wrongdoing.”

“Naturally.”

“And I want your assurances that if the traitor in your midst isn’t brought to me within a month’s time…I will be back. And it won’t be for a friendly visit.”

“Duly noted. Consider it done.” Galen shot Eilidh a glare before she could protest, rendering her silent. “The pendant, please.”

I pulled it out again and cleared the gap between us, placing it in his outstretched palm. “Does it really do what she thinks it does?” I asked as I withdrew.

He closed his fingers around it, keeping it for himself rather than passing it to Eilidh as I’d expected he would. “It does.”

“Then it’s not to be trifled with. Don’t make me regret giving it to you.”

“You have my assurances it will be used wisely. You and your people may go. I’ll ensure the signed documents you requested are ready for you upstairs, and I will be in contact with Sig in regards to the…security problem you claim we have.”

“I know you have.”

“Indeed.”

“Thank you, Galen.”

“A pleasure, Secret. Though you can understand why I hope to never see you again.”