Free Ferus : Book 6 of the Heku Series by T.M. Nielsen

entire Council, except Quinn and Dustin,
came into the room.
    “Now?” she asked, frowning.
    “Now,” Chevalier answered.
“Tell us everything you can.”
    Emily was too weak to
fight back, so she ate the steak dinner while she told the Council
everything she could remember, leaving out anything that she
planned on dealing with later. She ignored the hisses and growls as
she moved to her time with the Encala, and she was glad that her
neck was covered with gauze.
    When she was finished, she
looked over at Chevalier, but his face was turned away. She reached
out and took his fisted hand, smoothing it out gently, “I’m ok…
however, I owe them all a visit.”
    He looked over at her, “Let us deal with
it.”
    They all looked over when
Quinn and Dustin joined them in the room. Emily caught a glimpse of
Mark and Silas talking to guards posted outside of her
door.
    “What did they have to say
for themselves?” Chevalier asked angrily.
    Quinn glanced at Emily and
then turned to the Council, “They deny ever feeding from her. They
are claiming that the Equites that found her must have done
it.”
    “The Valle?” Emily asked.
    “No, the Encala,” Kyle
told her.
    The Council all turned and
looked toward the door. Emily glanced around them, but didn’t see
anything happen.
    “Mark, come inside,”
Chevalier said, and stood up. He turned to the Captain when he came
into the room, “Double up her door guards. The Council needs to
meet.”
    “With who?” Emily asked, gently rocking
Dain.
    “The Valle want to talk to
us, and I don’t trust them,” Chevalier said, heading out the
door.
    Emily watched him go and then laid down
after glancing at Mark, who was standing guard at her door.
    Once the Equites Council
was seated, Derrick showed in the Valle representatives, Elder Ryan
and four Imperial Guards.
    “What do you want?” Chevalier growled.
    Ryan sighed, “We came with
a peace offering, and a diplomatic solution.”
    “Peace offering?” Kyle
asked skeptically.
    “Yes… we give him to you,”
Ryan said, and turned to one of his guards. The Imperial Guard
hissed and blurred toward the door, but the other 3 Imperial Guards
caught up with him just as the Equites Guards flooded into the
room.
    “Why would we want one of your guards?” Zohn
asked.
    Chevalier hissed and then spoke, “It’s
Rasmussen.”
    The Ancient threw back his
hood and glared at the Equites Council, “You can’t keep me
here.”
    “Put him in a cell for
now,” Quinn said. “And new orders are that Emily is to be kept out
of the prison. She no longer has free access.”
    “Yes, Sir,” Derrick said,
and the Equites Guards pulled the Ancient out of the
room.
    Once things quieted down,
Ryan spoke, “Now the Valle wish to discuss an alignment of the
Equites and the Valle, in hopes to take out the Encala
together.”
    “Why would we align
ourselves after what you did?” Zohn asked. “You forced a member of
our Council to turn seven of our covens to ash, against her
will.”
    “We realize now that was
wrong. We apologize for taking it to that level and for the amount
of pain it caused her,” Ryan said.
    “Pain?” Chevalier asked.
    “Yes… we should have
stopped once she began to show signs of suffering, but things got
out of hand,” Ryan explained. “We now understand that she is not a
weapon and wish to return as her friends.”
    “She failed to mention the suffering part,”
Kyle said, narrowing his eyes.
    “We as Elders recognize
the mistake we made in breaking the alliance, and want to know what
we would need to do to restore it.”
    “That alliance was made by
Emily,” Quinn said. “She took it personally when it was broken, and
I’m not sure she would wish to continue it at this
time.”
    “Please, let me apologize to her.”
    Chevalier thought and then
called for Emily. A few minutes later, she came in through the back
council doors, being supported by Mark. The brighter lights in the
council chambers brought her