Page 49 of Depths of Desire
I frown. This isn’t the news I wanted to hear. “Is there anything else? Any other way this could work in his favor?”
Kael flicks his hair out of his eyes again, giving a small shrug. “Well, he could also claim that you’re holding his fiancée hostage, which would throw his whole blowing-up-the-ship move into a different light. If the Council assumes you’re doing this out of revenge for him sinking your ship… that won’t go over well.”
I drum my fingers on my desk. “Usually they stay out of disputes like this. If I went and complained that he blew up our shipments, they’d just say, ‘Tough. Deal with it on your own.’”
“Yes,” Kael agrees. “But if he was engaged to Luna beforehand, and the destruction of your ship is now being linked to you taking her in an attempt to stop him from marrying her and filing that contract… it falls under a different category. An occurrence the Council won’t look favorably upon.”
“So once again, you’re telling me he’s got all the cards.” The rage boiling inside me makes me want to throw something.
Kael nods. “In this case, he does.”
“So, he could pull both of those plays and go before the king’s Council?”
“Yes,” Kael nods.
“And what recourse do I have?”
“Very little, I’m afraid. The only things stopping him from marrying Luna? Well… two things. One, if you can prove that he only wants to marry her because she can repel magickal creatures, then you might have a fighting chance. But theCouncil? They don’t really care. Vampire marriages are usually about alliances or some kind of gain. So I don’t know how far that will get you.”
“And the other option?”
Kael clears his throat. “If Luna already has a prior engagement. If she was already engaged to someone else—or married—then he wouldn’t have a claim.”
“And how would that work?” I ask, the wheels already turning.
“Well… if, for example, Luna’s parents had her engaged at a young age, but she chose someone else as an adult, there’s an argument that could be made. You could say Luna didn’t realize she was engaged, and that she already picked someone else—and that her adult choice supersedes the old agreement.”
He pauses, then continues. “The other option is if Luna married someone else. A human marriage, although not as strong as a vampire contract, would still matter—because Luna is human. The Council would have to take that into account. And since her parents are human and the blood contract wasn’t written, there’s a clear argument to say a human marriage holds weight.”
My mind skips from one idea to the next. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
Kael exhales. “Scuttlebutt is that Malrick has already requested to meet with the Council.”
“So he’s going forward with it.” My gut churns.
“Yes,” Kael says, “but you know as well as I do that just because you request the Council isn’t a guarantee they’ll meet.”
I can tell he’s holding something back. “What is it?” I ask.
“He only needs five members of the Council to meet, which means your father won’t get a seat. Malrick can choose five who are likely to favor him.”
“Shit,” I mutter. “I hadn’t thought of that.”
Kael nods. “Yeah. If he picks five who already lean his way, he could definitely sway the decision.”
“So the thing to do,” I say, “would be to get my father working on this—see if he can get people friendly to our family, or at least neutral, into that group of five.”
“Exactly.”
“Anything else?”
Kael hesitates again.
“What?” I push.
“I think you should know… there are rumors.”
“What kind of rumors?”
