Free Creche (Book II of Paranormal Fallen Angels/Vampires Series) by Karin Cox

myself, and for Sabine. Skylar’s motives eluded me. However, I had come to know her as a friend, and her look shamed me into silence.
    “Skylar Emmanuel, if it pleases you, tell the congregation why you thought fit to bring among us one you knew to be exiled.”
    Skylar bowed her head for a second but raised it again to speak. Her voice was proud and calm. “Shintaro.” She nodded at him and then in turn at the other Councilors, greeting them by name.
    “I come before your wisdom today, and your justice. I come to seek a return of one so long gone he has forgotten his mother.” Skylar paused to let the jitter of wing beats cease. “And his father.”
    A roar consumed the hall, near drowning out her voice in a melee of hissing, stamping, and beating wings.
    “Quiet!” Shintaro hammered on the table. “All of you will do me the honor of etiquette. Did all of you choose your own parents? Did any of you?” He glowered at them, and the hall hushed.
    “Does not he, too, deserve to live in the light and knowledge of the Cruximus ?” Skylar queried. “It is unjust that his mother’s sins are foisted upon him.”
    Shintaro nodded, considering her words. “Justice is a birthright of Cruxim. We are its beneficiaries and its enforcers, but you yourself know trusting him is a risk. What trust, what faith has he placed in you, Skylar Emmanuel, besides following you here—and fleeing from you?”
    “Trusting anyone is a risk.” Skylar stepped forward to pace the flagstones before the dais of Councilors. “But he, of all of us, has befriended one most Cruxim would fear to trust: a Sphinx. He, of all of us, has trusted his life to her. And he alone has survived what should mean instant death: the taste of mortal blood. Tell me why he cannot be the Cruor the Cruximus tells of? Tell me why he cannot be the Proxim to unite us all in a final battle to end them!”
    A murmur followed Skylar’s words just as an undercurrent tows the crest of a wave.
    Shintaro rubbed at the sweat beading his brow.
    The groan of a heavy chair being pushed back stole his attention.
    “What if this is nothing but self-interest?” Jania half-stood, her eyes narrowed.
    Skylar flushed at the accusation, but she held her head high.
    “We all know why you sought him out. Not for the prophecy of the Cruor foretold in the Cruximus, but for the Swan you were never able to let go. There was a reason his mother gave up her place in Silvenhall! Would you give up your place in Silvenhall for him ?”
    “Quiet!” Shintaro once more brought the gavel to bear. This time, his tone was icy as he turned to Jania. “There was a reason you did too, Jania, Proxim of Milandor. The Cruxim of Silvenhall will not abide a lecture on heresy from one from Milandor. Sit!”
    Jania stood for what seemed an age, her mouth pinched shut, her sapphire eyes boring into Shintaro’s dark ones. When she took her seat, Shintaro nodded and then tilted his head to the front to assess Skylar.
    “Proxim Jania’s accusation is unwarranted, but she nevertheless asks a relevant question. You ask that we should trust your judgment, Skylar Emmanuel, and yet that judgment may have been compromised. What assurances can you offer us?”
    “The Swan.” One of Daneo’s fists ground into the palm of his other hand as he hissed, “The Swan is fallible, whichever Sibyl has knit the feathers. If you want assurances that Swans, too, lie, let me testify to that.”
    What was this Swan? I could make nothing of his words, which would have been almost inaudible to the throng below, but as I opened my mouth to speak, Skylar seized upon them.
    “Yet you are not happy, Daneo.” Skylar kept her tone light, almost flippant. She came to stand before his spot at the table, lifting her chin to look up at him. She turned to find Kisana’s swollen eyes in the crowd and pointed to her. “Mother and daughter are not interchangeable in your heart after all. Oh, all Swans look alike, but it may be one