of Raphael Alvarez. Raphael, say hi to the Tribunal.”
“Hello, everyone.” Raphael was awkward and had every reason to be. None of them had realized he was there, and he had heard their massive internal conflict. Fights like that in the Tribunal were not common, but they pointed to divisions among the group the public didn’t need to see. They tried to present a united front.
“I’m going to take a vacation so I can resolve the situation with him, then come back to work without getting him killed. Shit, I should have done it when the decision was made that I should keep him with me.”
“Well, this is embarrassing,” Callahan mumbled.
“Let’s just take it to a vote,” Corissa said, sighing. “Alvina and Oisin are unavailable, so their opinions on the matter are null. Majority wins at four votes. All in favor of Kaliya’s judgment that Eliphas should be executed?”
Five said yes. Both werewolves, probably pissed about what happened to Tarak and Wesley. Both vampires, who apparently hated the prison to begin with. Hasan, who was running by his own code. He was definitely an outlier, who the rest either loved or hated. Being the only werecat to fill one of the two seats for his kind, he made the Tribunal an odd number. He was literally the swing vote.
“You know she’s right,” the female vampire finally said, probably directed to the witches. “You know she is. You didn’t vote in favor because you’re being petty.”
“We didn’t vote in favor because it doesn’t matter. She’s pulled the naga privilege, and that massive power obviously needs to be curbed. We vote against out of principle,” the male witch snapped, hostility his number one emotion of the night. I had never seen or heard either of the witches this angry or this human, but tonight, their masks had fallen.
That sent a chill down my spine.
“We’ll speak on it another day,” Hasan said with finality. “Kaliya, deliver the judgment of the Tribunal.”
29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“Ah, shit. I forgot to tell them about Kartane,” I muttered. “Raphael, don’t freak out, but I’m going to text and drive.”
“Want me to hold the wheel?” He wasn’t surprised, which made me chuckle. I nodded as I turned on cruise control. We were going ninety, so I hoped he knew how to keep us steady from the passenger’s seat. He grabbed the wheel as I picked up my phone. I quickly punched in the information Hasan needed about Kartane, where to find him, and that he was innocent. I got a response immediately.
Hasan: And here I thought you couldn’t piss the witches off more than you already have.
I chuckled again, knowing what he meant. The witches were probably hoping from the very beginning their precious Eliphas wasn’t guilty, and his second had done all of this, but Kartane’s information for them would wrap all of this up in a tiny bow.
As the witches said, it doesn’t really matter. He tried to kill me, which gives me the freedom to kill him.
The witch tried to play a dangerous game with a snake, and now he was going to get bitten.
I put the phone back down in a cup holder, then grabbed the steering wheel from Raphael.
“Thanks.” I was used to saying that now. When this had all started, his willingness to help was surprising. Somewhere in the last day, I had grown used to it, and now, I just appreciated it.
Being old makes some of us forget how fast things can change. Not that I’m old.
Before we reached the prison, I made one more phone call.
“Kaliya. I haven’t heard any news all day. Do you know what’s going on?” Korey was professional again. Whatever hostility she had felt toward me in the morning was gone. I was glad to hear it. It meant her power wasn’t tenuous. She had probably spent the entire day dealing with wolves who might challenge her role and securing her position.
I was glad she hadn’t heard any news, which meant there was a high chance Eliphas was also out of the loop. Probably because the Tribunal hadn’t cared to tell them what was going on outside the prison, much in the same way most of the outside world had never known what was happening inside it. Because of their positions, they were active suspects. A good Investigator would have made sure the Tribunal took that into consideration. I suddenly wished I knew which Investigator they had called in to work on their end, but it was something I