Page 117 of The Blood Witch

She did this. It was all falling apart around her, and it was her fault. She’d alienated him when she needed him. When the council needed him.

“Not my problem,” Silas told her. “Offer the position to someone else. This isn’t my fight.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” she challenged.

“It means exactly what I said. This isn’t my fight, Witch. I never agreed to form this council, and I sure as shit won’t die for it. Find someone else who will.”

Alice blinked at the envelope.

He was scared. He really, truly thought someone had killed Kellos, and he was scared they were coming after him.

“You’re a coward,” she said, voice flat. Emotionless.

Silas snorted. “Yeah, maybe. Maybe I am a coward. But I’d rather be a coward than a corpse.”

The letter crumpled into a ball in Alice’s hand as she clutched it harder, her fingers curling around the words she would never dignify by reading.

“What did you mean by that?” Callum asked. There was no anger to his words, no judgement. His voice was curious and gentle. “About not dying for the council?”

“Someone is killing council members,” Silas said. “Haven’t they toldyou? First Kellos, then the Vamp, and who knows who’s next?” Then, as though realizing who he was speaking to, Silas glanced away.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Silas said, more to the ground than to the new deSanguine seated at the table. “But you’re a fool if you don’t see the connection. Two council members dead in under a week isn’t a coincidence. It’s a pattern.”

“Stranger things have happened,” Kallista offered. But even she sounded skeptical, now. Alice’s heart beat a little too hard in her chest.

“My father killed himself,” Callum said, frowning. “He wasn’t murdered. He… he slit his own throat.”

Silas’s laugh held no humor at all. “And you believe that?” he asked, sneering. “Yeah, because that’s such a normal way to commit suicide, isn’t it? Tell me something honestly, Vampire. How was he acting before he killed himself? What was he doing?”

Callum blinked.

“He had a meeting with theenfant de sang,” he told them, voice distant, pain weighing heavy in his words. “He was running late… Winston said… Winston said he collapsed and started acting strangely. He wasn’t making any sense and… he ordered him to leave, to find me. To protect me.”

“And does that sound like a man about to kill himself?” Silas asked, voice cold.

“This is ridiculous,” Alice interrupted, not giving Callum a chance to answer. “No one is killing members of the council. You have no evidence to support any of this.”

Silas turned those sharp, yellow eyes on her.

“Then I hope you’re next,” he said, lip curling in disgust. “And I hope whatever Witch replaces you isn’t so blind to the truth.”

No, not disgust, Alice realized, finally recognizing the emotion in the Shifter’s eyes.

It was hate.

Her chest tightened in panic. How had she misjudged him so completely? How had she let it get to this?

Silas turned, moving toward the exit, and Alice quickly leapt to her feet.

“You can’t do this,” she objected, taking a step toward him. Her fingers twitched, reaching for a blade she no longer wore.

Silas stopped in his tracks. “What are you going to do to stop me, Witch?” he asked, voice low and dangerous. He turned and took a step toward her, and for the first time since meeting him, Alice could see the predator under his skin. “Will you arrest me? Kill me?”

Power roiled inside of her, drawn by the challenge in his voice, but Alice fought against it. He was right. There was nothing she could do.

She’d already lost this battle.

Silas smirked, staring her down. “That’s what I thought.”

---