To ruin an Omega-Chapter 369: Bellerophon and the fly 2

ALDRIC

That was when the door opened.

I heard her before I saw her.

The sound of heels on stone. It was unhurried and it sure sounded deliberate. The kind of entrance that announced itself without a single word being spoken first.

My sister-in-law, Morrigan walked into the hall dressed in red.

The room reacted. I felt the shift in the air before I fully processed what I was looking at.

She looked completely fine.

More than fine. She looked like a woman who had slept well and chosen her outfit with care and arrived exactly when she intended to.

She found her seat along the wall and settled into it like she had simply been delayed by something unimportant.

Then she looked at me.

"Was that an accusation, brother-in-law?"

Her voice was smooth and carried easily through the hall.

"I did not believe what was being said against you," she continued. "I want that stated clearly. And I am certain many saw and heard. But to use me in service of a lie, in front of this circle, is a particularly cruel thing."

She folded her hands in her lap.

"I am here. Clearly not receiving treatment. So what lie is this?"

The hall went very quiet.

I felt the ground shift slightly beneath me and I kept my face still while it happened.

She had anticipated this. She had walked in healthy and composed and dressed in a color that made her impossible to ignore and she had cut off the line before I could use it. I did not know when she had figured me out. I did not know when Morrigan had decided on poison as her method, or how long she had been watching me the way I had been watching her. But she had. And she had struck well first.

It annoyed me considerably.

I held her gaze and she looked back at me with something that was not quite hatred but lived very close to it. She had wanted me to die painfully. She had wanted me to convulse in my cell and be found in a few hours maybe and have it mean nothing, be called nothing, just a man who finally ran out of time because he knew he was guilty and didn’t want to face that reality.

I intended to refuse her that.

The head elder turned back to me.

"You are still claiming poisoning?"

"I am," I said. "Whatever she took as an antidote, she recovered faster than I have. That does not change what is in my blood."

Elder Callum turned to confer with the circle. I watched Pryce lean in. He said something short and sharp and then glanced at me once. Saoirse nodded slightly beside him.

They were trying. I could see them trying.

But the room had watched Morrigan walk in looking like that. And the room was doing the math.

Then Madeline stood. Her father also caught my attention. He was smiling down at me. Quite pleased that a day like this had finally arrived.

I looked back at Madeline. Truly looked at her for the first time since they had entered. She stood straight with her hands clasped in front of her and her expression composed in a way that had clearly cost her something.

"I am a witch with a powerful healing ability," she said to the circle. "I can determine whether this man is poisoned and treat it accordingly. I believe he staged this for sympathy and to manipulate these proceedings." She paused. "But I want justice carried out properly. Not muddied by doubt. If he is sick, let me confirm it and remove it as a variable."

Elder Callum looked at the circle.

The room murmured.

One of the younger elders shook his head. "We do not know this woman’s gifts well enough to trust them here."

"The pack healers," another said. "We should send for them."

Morrigan’s voice cut through cleanly.

"When I was poisoned by an Omega we have now learned was working not for Gabriel but for Aldric himself, it was this witch who healed me." She looked at the elders without blinking. "Drop the prejudice and let her do her work. It is clear to me that someone is trying to delay these proceedings and I would like very much to know why."

The circle murmured among themselves.

I watched Pryce’s face. He was trying to object. The angle was there. But Morrigan had framed it well and the room had heard it and the two votes he needed on his side to carry any counter motion were not moving the way they needed to.

Callum was being careful and the other bitch seemed to be holding back. Did swh not know what she stood to lose?

His eyes cut to mine for half a second.

I kept my face still.

Elder Callum straightened.

"We will have the witch proceed," he said. "Her gifts are documented and time is not something we have in abundance today."

Madeline descended from the gallery without ceremony.

She stopped in front of me and looked at my face and then down at my hands. Her expression was unreadable. She raised her palms and the air between us shifted. A faint warmth spread from her hands into my chest, different from the fever heat of the poison. This was cleaner. More directed.

I looked down at her while she worked.

Now that I was close, I noticed she had her father’s treacherous eyes. Sharp and watchful even when the rest of her face stayed composed. I did not like her. I had never liked her. But I found myself thinking, with a clarity that surprised me, that she was going to be exhausted when this was over. Healing at this level drained mana significantly. Whatever she had left for the rest of this day, this was eating into it.

One less powerful witch to contend with when things moved past words. And they would.

I almost smiled.

The warmth spread deeper and the pale began to retreat from my nails in slow degrees. The tremor in my hands settled. The uneven pulse in my chest smoothed itself out and I drew a full breath for the first time in hours.

Madeline stepped back.

She swayed once, barely noticeable, and then steadied herself and walked away without looking at me again.

I looked up.

Morrigan was watching me from across the hall. Her expression was composed but her eyes were doing something else entirely. She had wanted me to suffer that death. She had planned it carefully. She had sat with me and pushed that wine on me. Even watched me drink it while she kept her face calm the whole time.

And here I was.

Still breathing.

Still standing.

Still here.

I held her gaze for just a moment longer than necessary.

Elder Callum cleared his throat.

"Are you well enough to proceed?"

I turned to face him fully. The strength was back in my legs. My hands were still. My pulse was even.

"I am," I said.

He nodded and shifted his attention down the line.

"And you, Beta Ronan?"

Ronan had not spoken since we were walked in. He stood slightly behind me and to my left with his hands at his sides and his face closed off in a way I recognized. He was still thinking. Still turning things over.

He nodded once.

"Good." Callum gathered the papers in front of him.

The door at the far end of the hall opened one more time.

An older woman entered. Her hair was white and she moved with the deliberate slowness of someone who did not believe in hurrying. The spiritual elder guide... What was her name again? I had not seen her around in months and she was one of the elders who stayed in the estate premises. Her presence shifted the weight of the room in a way that was difficult to articulate.

She joined the circle without a word and settled into the remaining chair.

Callum looked at her briefly and then back at me.

"The charges have been stated," he said. "How do you plead?"

I looked at him. Then at the circle. Then, because I wanted to, I let my eyes move across the room. The watching faces. The held breath. The people who had already decided and the ones who had not and the ones who were waiting to be told what to think.

They finally landed on the Omega who started this real mess. Fia.

"Not guilty," I said.

Callum turned to Ronan.

Ronan was quiet for a moment that stretched longer than it should have.

Then he straightened.

"Not guilty."

"Very well," the head elder said.

He set his papers down and looked at the circle.

"Let us begin."