Page 97 of Flock This

He snorted, calling me a liar, suggested that even with that barrier, he’d understood exactly what I’d said.

Worse, I peered around to find everyone else staring at me too. My cheeks heated, because I could read the questions they had and even if I could have answered, I had no fucking idea what I’d say.

“So you’re here to interrupt our proceedings?” Ruben asked, his tone the same despite the show of the man’s power.

“Not exactly.”

“Yet you’re doing exactly that. As I said already, only those with standing can speak here.”

“Oh, baby boy, I’ve got standing.”

Ruben narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think you do. There are four council seats, each already filled.”

“This is the amusing and exhausting thing about you all—you forget so quickly. Even those who have long lives still don’t remember properly. Instead, you use all those terrible itions. Traditions, superstitions, circumcisions. Wait, no, that’s not one. Well, it is—who wants to lose their foreskin?” He frowned as though distracted, before shaking his head and returning to the topic at hand. “Why are there four seats?”

“Because there are four clans.”

“Are you sure? Have you actually read the old books?”

Ruben’s cheek twitched, but otherwise, he showed no outward signs of annoyance. “Yes, I’ve read many of them. They show the original four clans—The Graves, the Weres, the Minds and the Natures. Each clan holds a seat, and only the heads of clans are permitted to speak here, save for a Justice to act as arbitrator.”

The man chuckled, then walked toward me. He reached through the barrier as though it didn’t exist at all, stroking his finger along my cheek. He went down, over my jawline, then paused when he touched the marks at my throat, the ones Kelvin had left.

He turned his head, nailing Kelvin with one of the few serious looks I’d ever seen from him. “You left a mark on my Crow.”

Kelvin didn’t shrink in the least. Instead, he stared back, his voice every bit as dangerous. “And I’d do it again.”

The man made a soft tsk sound before moving past me and to the crystal. The blue had faded away after I’d stopped touching it, so it appeared clear again.

“Do you know where this came from? Each of those little crystals on your table, they were taken as shards from this one, are just bits from the whole, but do you know where this came from?”

“The records don’t say,” Ruben admitted.

“It comes from the old world, from where the Old Ones came from, from where I came from. It is one of the few things brought when we fled.”

“We?”

The man nodded, a smile tinged in sorrow on his lips. “Yes. We. The Old Gods. The ones whose power tainted this world and made you all.”

“You’re trying to tell us that the stories of the Old Gods are true?” Galen asked with so much disdain, he made his feeling perfectly clear on the matter. Then again, he’d never been the type to accept or believe in anything above him.

“The stories got twisted over the years, but like all stories, they’ve got some truth to them. We came and created you all—sometimes on purpose, sometimes on accident.”

“But there were four.”

“There were four who wanted to play this little treaty game, but there were more than that.”

“Good luck proving that,” Kelvin muttered, crossing his arms. “You can say whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean there’s a speck of truth to it or that we should believe you.”

The man flashed an even wider smile before setting his hand flat on the crystal. When I’d done so, the color had filled it slowly, as if poured in from me, but this time? The moment he’d touched it, the room shook. Even the air electrified, causing my hair to stand on end. The barrier around me fell, freeing me.

Still, he didn’t seem surprised, suggesting he knew what would happen. The shaking continued, so strong that I struggled to keep myself upright. When I tripped, I expected to hit the ground. Instead, strong arms caught me, and I turned my head to find Ruben supporting me.

The council table shifted, as if no longer made of anything solid, reforming into a new shape. Still a table, but rather than the four seats it had always had, it now had five sides. In front of the new seat was a small crystal, like the others, but colored blue.

The same blue as my hair.

The man removed his hand, then shook it hard. “That always sort of stings, you know?”

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