Chapter 17 · Blood on Trial

The council chamber smelled like old stone and older blood.

I stood in the center of the room with my hands on my stomach. Not protective. Just there. The baby was moving again and I didn't know if that made this better or worse.

Dorian sat at the head of the table. Ten other vampires lined the sides. Seraphine was three seats down on his right. She hadn't stopped smiling since I walked in.

"You're saying the Wren bloodline is extinct." That was Lord Caska. Silver hair, cold eyes. "So how is she here?"

Edwin stood next to me. He'd insisted on coming. "The records were incomplete. One branch survived."

"Survived." Caska's lip curled. "Or hid."

"Does it matter?" I said.

The room went quiet.

Dorian's eyes cut to me. "Iris."

"No, really." I looked around the table. "My family's dead. Your family killed them. Does it matter if one kid got away three hundred years ago?"

Seraphine leaned forward. "It matters because that child grew up. Had children. And now one of them is carrying the heir to our throne."

"Half-heir," someone muttered.

I felt my jaw tighten. "You mean half-human."

"Half-hunter," Seraphine corrected. She wasn't smiling anymore.