Chapter 14: Maeve's Testimony

Maeve Quinn arrived at the Council under a hood, a limp, and three Frost guards. Nora saw her from the upper gallery and almost forgot how to breathe. Maeve had a bruise at her jaw and one hand wrapped in linen, but she was alive. When she looked up and found Nora, her eyes filled with tears she did not allow to fall. "She should not be here," Darius said. "She came anyway," Nora replied. The hearing chamber had changed overnight. The moon relic remained covered by a silver cloth. Rowan stood with his lawyers. Iris sat behind him in blue silk that could not hide the fear in her throat. Elder Callum had been allowed a chair, which seemed generous for a man whose accounts were bleeding lies across every table in the room. Councilor Venn called Maeve to the witness stand. Maeve walked with her chin high. "State your service." "Personal maid to Luna Nora Ashford for four years. Laundry keeper for the west wing for six." Iris smiled thinly. "A maid." Maeve looked at her. "The kind who cleans what ladies spill." A few clerks pretended not to hear. Venn placed a vial on the stand. "Do you recognize this?" Maeve's face went white. "Yes." Nora gripped the rail. "Explain." "Three winters ago, Miss Iris gave me a sleeping tonic and told me to mix it with Luna Nora's evening tea whenever Alpha Rowan was away. She said Luna Nora was sick with grief and needed rest." Rowan turned. "Iris." Iris stood so fast her chair scraped. "She is lying." Maeve did not look away. "The tonic did not make her sleep. It broke her heats. Every time Nora's wolf tried to rise, she cramped until she could barely walk." The chamber went silent in a way that hurt. Nora remembered those nights. The fever. The shame. Rowan's cold disappointment when the healers found no child. Iris sitting by the bed, smoothing Nora's hair, whispering how sorry she was. Darius's hand closed around the back of Nora's chair until the carved wood cracked. Venn asked, "Why speak now?" Maeve lifted her bandaged hand. "Because last night Elder Callum's men came to my sister's farm and asked where I had hidden Nora's old laundry books. When I refused, they broke two of my fingers." Elder Callum rose. "This is outrageous." Maeve reached into her cloak with her good hand and pulled out a small brown ledger. "I kept everything," she said. Nora's eyes burned. Maeve opened the book. "Dates. Tea deliveries. Iris's visits. Fever sheets. Bloodstained linens after the cramps. Every month the Luna was called barren, there is a record." Iris's face had become a mask. Rowan looked at Nora then, and for one impossible second, horror crossed his face. Not regret. Horror that he had been fooled, or that the proof existed. Nora hated that she could still tell the difference. Venn accepted the ledger from Maeve. "This testimony will enter the custody record." "It will not," Rowan's lawyer snapped. "This is a custody hearing, not a grievance trial." Darius finally spoke. "The mother was chemically harmed while under Blackridge protection. It concerns custody." His voice did not rise. It did not need to. The lawyer sat down. Maeve turned toward Nora. "I am sorry, my lady." Nora shook her head. "You saved me again." Maeve smiled through pain. Then the smile vanished. Her eyes widened at something behind Nora. Darius moved before Nora understood. Glass shattered above the gallery. A black-feathered bolt struck the rail where Nora's hand had been. Another flew toward Maeve. Maeve dropped. Blood spread across the witness stand. Nora screamed her name as Frost guards drew steel and the Council chamber erupted.