Gabel did not stand to greet her. “What nonsense brings you here, Oracle?”
“I am here for Oracle Gianna.”
“You mean Luna Gianna,” Gabel corrected, voice having a dangerous edge that shaved a few layers off her skin and mine. “As much as Anita may have tried to prevent that from happening.”
Thessa cocked her head.
I didn’t buy her feigned innocence. “You didn’t know? That I was in SableFur a month ago? Anita wanted me to leave Gabel.”
Gabel’s expression clouded. “If that old bitch is so worried about me being the Dark Comet, bringer of Destruction, she’s doing a damn good job provoking my anger.”
Thessa’s attempt at not knowing evaporated. To me, in a clipped tone, she said, “You were not supposed to tell him. The vision was not for sharing.”
I tossed my hair, in no mood to humor her. “Ah, and that is what I didn’t tell Anita. I’d already had the vision of the pup-ring and the house. It was very entertaining listening to her feed me snippets of a dream I’d already had. That’s how I know it wasn’t her vision, it belonged to someone else.”
Thessa’s lips thinned. “You are to come to Shadowless in two days time to be judged for violating your vows of silence and secrecy. If you are found guilty, you will be stripped and dishonored. If your Alpha still wants you after that that is his concern.”
“I have not violated any vows,” I snapped.
“Very doubtful, given Alpha Gabel knew Marcus was consorting with Aaron of IceMaw,” Thessa said dryly. She gave Gabel a meaningful look.
Gabel’s fingers dug into the wood of his desk. “Get out.”
Thessa didn’t budge. “She will be expected in Shadowless in two days time to defend herself. If she doesn’t show up, she will be marked guilty. It is not a crime, Alpha Gabel, in the sense she needs to be punished. It’s just dishonor. The Luna of IronMoon will be a disgraced Oracle who violated her vows. If you both do not care about that, fine.”
“She never violated her vows. Do you think I am such an idiot I cannot figure out for myself what it means when another male says he will stop at nothing to have my mate for himself?” Gabel growled.
“Two days. Shadowless. If you fail to appear no one will be surprised, nor will anyone really care.”
Gabel’s fingernails splintered the wood. “Crawl back to Anita, you corrupt bitch. Tell her that I know what this is. Tell Magnes, while you’re at it. Tell him I know he’s using the Oracles to pull my teeth because he doesn’t have the courage to come for me himself. I’m not playing along.”
“This has nothing to do with Alpha Magnes,” Thessa said so dryly I actually believed her. Could Anita have crafted circumstantial evidence and moved the Oracles against me while her true motivations remained hidden?
Perhaps the Moon was even guiding her into the trap.
Gabel surged to his feet. He tore a hunk of the desk with him, and flung it off his elongated fingers. It missed Thessa’s head by inches and smashed into the wall. “If it is a monster you want, SableFur, it is a monster I will give you! Shall I send you back to SableFur bone by bone?”
“Gabel,” I interrupted him. “If you kill her it will just make things worse.”
“I doubt the Moon will begrudge me one corrupt Oracle,” Gabel snarled.
“I still have my gifts, Alpha,” Thessa said, holding up her unnaturally pale forearms in demonstration. “Be careful who you call corrupt.”
“And my Luna still has hers.”
“If that is the case, she will be given a chance to vindicate herself.”
“Oh, vindicate herself. You mean after you say she’s guilty. This isn’t a trial. It’s an execution. Will I get your body as collateral against hers? That pale skin of yours will make a lovely canvas on which to paint.”
Thessa recoiled.
Time for Thessa to go. “Leave. Or else you will go home in that little box. Gabel’s temper is well... his temper.”
Thessa left with haste.
“Dammit, Gianna!” Gabel shouted. “You know what Magnes is doing!”
I rubbed my head. “An idiot could see what they’re doing. They’re also going to win, Gabel. Unless you plan on having a disgraced Luna. If I can see it, you can!”
Gabel snarled, “Of course I do, but—”
“Gabel, the only advantage I’m going to have inside SableFur is if Magnes doesn’t know I know his secrets. You can’t run your damn mouth!”
“I am not letting you go. I issued that challenge to Magnes.”
“He won’t answer it.” I rolled my eyes, frustrated. “Do you really think you’d stand any chance against the full might of SableFur?”
He tore off another piece of his desk. “You’ve already given up!”
“I told you I haven’t, but I know I’ve been found guilty! They won’t let me be innocent! You can’t have a disgraced Luna, and you’re not ready to challenge SableFur for my honor! We already know Magnes is dishonorable. How do we fight that?”
Gabel’s expression was terrible. Inside, he crumbled, piece by piece, the horrible choices leaders have to make, and the even worse sacrifices, and his refusal to accept there was not a way out of this. “I don’t know, buttercup. But I’m going to figure it out.”
It was a very long two days. Gabel seethed, insisting that he would not be forced to give me up. He raged when I packed a bag the night before because I wanted to at least have some panties and a change of clothes.
“No!” He flung my bag against the wall. The contents spilled out. “You are not leaving! I am not giving you up!”
I picked up the clothes. Gabel hadn’t come up with any solutions he had shared with me, and had only become more frazzled. He knew when he was getting backed into a corner, and I worried it would drive him insane. It had also required a few more sets of stitches since Flint let him work out the burning stress, and Flint could apparently take on anything this side of the living world, up to and including the Dark Comet.
Actually, Flint had a few scratches and gashes. Ana had stitched up the first set, but Crazy Doctor did the other.
“I made him uncomfortable,” Ana had told me.
“Ana, he’s made it clear he’s not into you.”
“I know, I know! And I was very professional, but he said he could smell it. Oh the fuck well, what can I do about that? The guy is fucking hot, and ink gets me boiling.” Ana had pouted.
“Welcome to life with werewolves.”
“No privacy,” she had muttered.
Now I picked up a pair of panties. Gabel yanked them out of my hands and flung them away. He grabbed me, blue eyes churning and roiling, the Bond howling. “No, Gianna. I won’t. She can’t make me.”
“You can’t have a dishonored Luna,” I told him. “The Gabel Romero wanted could, but not you. You know that. You’ve killed in the name of honor. I have to be held to at least the same standard as Marcus.”
“The truth is its own defense!” he raged. “Do you want to go? Why aren’t you going to fight?!”
“I’m an Oracle, and I know the Moon’s will. Twice now She’s taken me beyond the Tides. You and I are Her servants. We each have our part to play.”
He grabbed my right wrist and raised it to his lips. The bruises were still there, dark violet and red. “I will fight this, Gianna. You are my Luna, and you are coming back with me. I will not give you up. The Moon did not hear my vows to make me give you up. That is not the way of things!”
If anyone could resist the Moon’s design, it would be Her Comet. I smiled at him. Fair enough, if he succeeded in defying Her, I was not under any mandate to sabotage him. “As you say, my Alpha.”
“We have a pack to run, a kingdom to build, and pups to raise.” Gabel nipped the inside of my wrist, “I have no time for the Moon’s divine designs.”
“Even if this is the way to my crown?” I baited him gently.
Gabel didn’t hesitate. “Not if it means divine handouts and giving you up. I will win ou
r kingdom myself, and not as a prize for being the lapdog of a goddess!”
I slid my hand out of his grasp and around his neck. “Let me finish packing, Gabel.”
“Packing? No—”
“It is an Oracle matter. You have to let me take my tools. It will be humiliation if I show up without them, and confirm my guilt.”
He scowled. “They will know about the bowls. That will not help things, I suppose.”
“I don’t have to present my tools, but I have to have them just in case I’m asked. And yes, not having my bowls is a very bad thing. I will be faulted for not having protected them more carefully. Most Oracles don’t have workrooms where they can safekeep their things. We are supposed to be very careful.”
“You were careful.”
“It will still be seen as my fault. I have to bring what I have.”
Gabel growled.
“It’ll only take a minute. Wait for me in the bath.”
“The bath?”
I waited for him to realize what I meant.
“Oh,” he said. The promise of splashing about thoroughly distracted him and dissolved his sour mood, and he went to fill the tub.
I fetched my bag of runes, the bag of RedWater fangs, and after a moment of consideration, the smaller tourmaline spear. I also took the larger chunk of obsidian.
My thumb rubbed the tip of the spear. I hadn’t paid much attention to the smaller one, but yes. I’d need it where I was going. And the large chunk of obsidian, which slumbered quietly in its velvet, almost ready to be made into a bowl, full of secrets and truths to be revealed.
The rough tip of the tourmaline reminded me the Oracles couldn’t punish me more than I’d tolerate. I always had the option to return to IronMoon, disgraced or not. The smear forgotten in time, and if I had been any other she-wolf, or a less prominent Luna, being a fallen Oracle would be only a little ugly blemish. My bowls would be shattered, people would assume the Moon had stripped me of Her gift, and for a while it would be disgraceful, but in time it’d fade.
But for the Luna of IronMoon, disgrace wasn’t an option. Gabel styled himself as an Alpha of kept promises and honor, and a disgraced Luna could not rule at his side. He could not be seen to have benefited from a corrupt Oracle whispering forbidden knowledge to him.
I had two options: admit my guilt and atone for my sins, or to maintain my innocence and pursue vindication. For either I had to return to the oversight of a senior Oracle. If I chose vindication, it challenged those who had accused me, and I would have a limited amount of time to pass four specific tests to prove the Moon’s favor. If I admitted guilt, I’d have the rest of my natural life to atone and try to regain my gifts.
Most did not choose to pursue vindication, and true vindication was rare. The Oracles were the ones who determined if the four tests had been passed—and it was in their interest to say the tests had not been passed. I’d need to expose no less than Anita’s corruption, and possibly Magnes’ shameful past. If I chose vindication, Anita would know I could prove myself. I had revealed to Thessa I had seen the pup-ring.
My “retraining“ would be horrible. If I succeeded in vindication, I’d dismantle the SableFur from the inside... and I’d be able to throw the gates open for Gabel.
But if I chose atonement, Anita could hold me the rest of my life, saying I had not atoned enough for my sins.
If I failed in either, I’d die. Horribly. Gabel would probably die as well, and the Moon’s anger would not be answered.
I tucked the tourmaline into the velvet, carried everything back downstairs and went to join Gabel in the tub.
Flint Was Right
Shadowless had been chosen because of its proximity to the SableFur border while still being in IronMoon territory. It wasn’t neutral ground, but it was the best possible compromise. There was also that small detail of Shadowless being in SableFur’s pocket, but SableFur didn’t know IronMoon knew that detail. Probably not many of Shadowless knew about the attempt to make off with me from my own vow-making.
When we arrived the SableFur Oracles were already there: Kiery and Thessa, plus three acolytes. A cluster of Shadowless stood around on the front porch of the house, including my father and Alpha Jermain. This had nothing to do with them, but they were just there to watch.
Well, wasn’t this just cozy.
Flint had come with us to handle Gabel. The Oracles had not been expecting to see him, with his tattooed torso on display in the bitter winter cold.
Gabel clutched my hand so tightly my fingers went numb, and his fingers trembled. His teeth ground together. His ocean blue eyes were the brightest thing in the wintry world just then, too bright, almost wild.
“I have nothing to confess,” I told him under my breath. “I have committed no crimes. Let me go, Gabel. You know your Luna cannot duck an accusation like this.”
He pried his fingers off my hand. I gathered myself, then stepped apart from the IronMoon. I crossed the snow between us until I was right in the center. I was supposed to go all the way over to Kiery, but I refused to do that much. I knelt in the snow, but did not bow my head. “I am here.”
Gabel’s snarl reached me through our Bond.
Thessa scowled openly at my defiance and disrespect. Elder Oracle Kiery didn’t care, and simply said, “You have violated the vow of silence, and revealed a vision to someone other than the wolf it belonged to.”
I raised my voice very slightly. “I have never done such a thing.”
“Alpha Gabel only knew about the MarchMoon’s duplicity because you revealed their involvement with Aaron of IceMaw to him.” Kiery’s tone was bland, as if I were a stupid criminal to even try to talk around my guilt.
The rabid she-bitch from MarchMoon had to have played a part in this. With great care, I chose the words of my defense. “I did not ask the petitioner wolf his name, nor his pack. His question, his answer. No one else’s.”
“But Gabel knew he was MarchMoon.”
The implied stupidity angered me. “Are you dense? Lord-Alpha Gabel demanded he reveal who he was before the petitioner met me. One does not enter the IronMoon den without giving a name and pack rank. The MarchMoon put him onto their scent by showing up at all. I never had to tell Lord-Alpha Gabel anything! It was there to be pieced together, the MarchMoon offered it freely!”
Kiery was not impressed. “We do not believe that Gabel could have put together the MarchMoon’s duplicity without your help. He was too aware of their every move, too suspicious, too quick to put together evidence that we could not piece together without knowing key facts he should not have known.”
“What does SableFur have to do with this?” I asked. “How do you know what the MarchMoon knew? How do you know about the vision? I have never told anyone what I saw, save the wolf who asked!”
Kiery refused to answer my challenge.
Even so, a tiny little grain of guilt twinged in my heart. I had never told Gabel anything, but my reactions to certain provocations had put him onto one scent after the other. Aaron, at Anders’ party, had been one such thing. But wasn’t that unavoidable? I had been Bound to him. Of course he would have sensed such things.
Kiery said, “Regardless, we are certain that you betrayed information to him in some fashion.”
“No. That is not true.” Guilt nettled me even a little more. There was no prohibition against Oracles taking mates, but most never did, or they traded their Oracle mantle for a family. The inherent conflict, the realization they couldn’t truly, and completely, keep secrets from their mates. I pushed the prick of guilt away. I had done everything in my power to honor my vows, it wasn’t even like I had chosen Gabel, dammit!
There was no evidence I could offer of my innocence without betraying my vows. I couldn’t tell them Magnes was Gabel’s father. That Anita had to know who Gabel’s mother was, that Anita knew who Gabel was, and if they were looking for corruption, they were looking in the wrong place.
I had nothing to exonerate me.
Oh, there was such a cruel irony to this! And this was how the Moon would make it come to pass: bid Her Oracles to do this. Had She even sent them visions of what they must do and say to make things come out the way She designed?
My faith crumbled for a second. What if I had seen a lie? What if I was not the one in the right?
Tears sprang in my eyes. For a moment it was more than I could bear.
Gabel’s expression was terrible. Helpless and furious, his hands limp at his sides. Flint stood at his arm, but his gaze was on me, calm and jungle-green, and in my head I heard the song, his song, calling a Queen to battle.
But my body shivered, and the Bond howled, and everything began to hurt as the moment crashed down on us, as we both knew what was about to happen, what had to happen.
“She is guilty, Alpha Gabel,” Kiery said. “Whatever she revealed to you violated her vows, and the manner in which you were told is of no consequence. We take from her her Oracle rank and her honor, and leave her marked in disgrace. She broke her promises.”
And that was how the SableFur applied leverage to Gabel: they used his honor against him.
Gabel exploded, “I know what this is, Oracle!”
“It is exactly what it looks like.” Kiery didn’t relent. “She is still your Luna and your mate. She also is an oath-breaker.”
“It’s not true!” I shouted without thought. “It’s not true!”
Gabel lunged. Flint snared him and hauled him backwards several steps. Gabel resisted. Flint grabbed him by the back of his neck and yanked Gabel’s head down to his own, lips moving and speaking something I couldn’t hear.
There was no way, no hope. Gabel could fight the SableFur, but he couldn’t fight the Oracles. The MarchMoon. Damn them! Had it always been a trap? The SableFur knew more than they should. Was Aaron working with them after all? Or had the SableFur somehow pulled a string within MarchMoon, spinning both IceMaw and IronMoon to its use?
Gabel fought. Inside he tugged and yanked and the Bond howled, even though physically he stood, head bowed and Flint spoke to him in whispers. I shivered.
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