DARIUS
The council chamber emptied in hostile silence, but I knew the fight had only just begun.
The minute the last elder had walked out, my knees buckled. Karian stepped forward and caught me as I was about to roll down. Alpha Right invocation had taken what little I’d had left, and the silver poisoning continued to rip through my system.
Rhea instinctively advanced towards me, then caught herself. Uncertainty flickered across her face. Now we were alone, save Karian. No audience, no performance. Only the debris of what that confrontation had cost.
“You fool,” Rhea said, but there was no fire in it. "You can hardly stand let alone you've just challenged the whole of your pack."
“Not the whole pack,” I said faintly. “Only the half who is eager to torture our son.”
The word hung betw
