Proditor : Book 5 of the Heku Series (38 page)

“
I don’t remember the end
of the trial,” she told him.

“
They were found guilty,”
Chevalier told her.

Emily smiled slightly, “That much I
figured.”

“
We split up their
sentence, 10 years here, 10 with the Valle, and they finish their
lives with the Encala.”

Emily sighed, “I can’t get the ring to stay
on.”

“
That’s because I have to
put it on you to get it to stay… you’re the one that broke the
bond, so I’m the forgiver,” he explained.

“
What? I didn’t though,”
Emily said, panicked.

Chevalier reached over and grabbed the ring
off of the bedside table, and slipped it back onto her finger. She
felt the familiar weight as it sealed back into place.

“
Stop getting engaged and
it won’t happen again.”

“
But I…” Emily’s words were
cut off by Chevalier’s lips.

Allen cleared his throat as he stepped out
of Alexis’ room.

Emily turned toward him, “Good morning.”

“
Carry on, just taking her
down for breakfast,” he said, and ushered Alexis out of the
room.

Emily looked at Chevalier, “That’s just
wrong that he knows…”

“
You have to stop looking
at him like a 10-year-old,” Chevalier chuckled.

“
Well… he is
10.”

“
Not entirely,” he said,
and then cocked his head to the side slightly.

“
Seriously?” Emily asked.
“We just spent an entire day in trials, and now they want you
back?”

Chevalier grinned, “Never a dull
moment.”

“
I’m staying in bed today,”
Emily said, and rolled over onto her side.

Chevalier kissed the top of her head and
then left in a blur.

She burrowed deeper into the bed. It felt
incredible after the hard bed with scratchy sheets she had on the
compound. The palace was also a lot quieter than the constant noise
of the compound, with the sirens and drill alerts.

“
Emily?”

Emily sat bolt upright in bed and pulled the
covers up. She looked, wide eyed at the familiar, “Sam?”

Sam smiled, “It’s not that easy to kill a
familiar.”

“
Where have you been?”
Emily whispered, frowning.

“
I gave you time to forgive
me.”

“
You’ve been gone for
years… where were you?”

“
Watching over
you.”

“
Mark!” Emily called
out.

Mark and Kralen appeared in her room,
“What’s up, Em?”

Emily turned around and looked where Sam had
been, but he was gone.

Mark growled and crouched slightly when the
scent caught him, “I killed him!”

“
I thought so, too,” Emily
said, and scrambled out of bed. She threw on a robe and then looked
under the bed.

“
Who are we looking for?”
Kralen asked, crouching slightly.

“
Where did he go?” Mark
asked, and started going through her room.

“
I don’t know,” Emily told
him, standing up from the floor.

“
What’s that smell?” Kralen
asked, wrinkling his nose.

“
It’s a cat, find it,”
Emily told him.

Kralen nodded and started going through the
closets and adjoining rooms.

“
Sam, I order you to come
here this instant,” Emily said, and Mark turned towards her to wait
for him.

After a few minutes, Emily sighed, “Why
isn’t he following my orders?”

“
His scent is fading. He’s
not here anymore,” Mark told her.

“
A window was open in
Alexis’ room,” Kralen said, coming back out.

“
I killed him,” Mark said
again.

“
He said it’s hard to kill
a familiar, and that he’s been watching over me for years,” Emily
told them.

“
That’s highly disturbing,
let’s get the Elders involved,” Mark said.

“
No!” Emily put her hand on
his arm. “Let’s not.”

“
If this is the cat I’m
thinking of, they need to know he’s back,” Kralen said. “He turned
traitor by going to the Encala.”

“
Can I order
you?”

“
Can you order them to
what?” Quinn asked, stepping into her room.

“
I order you two not to
tell,” Emily said quickly, unsure if it would even work. “Let me
handle it.”

Mark and Kralen nodded and returned to their
posts outside of her bedroom door.

“
You do realize that I can
order them to tell me, I outrank you,” Quinn told her.

“
Please don’t, just let me
do this,” Emily asked.

“
Is it
dangerous?”

“
No… just
personal.”

“
Very well, but I could
change my mind if I feel it’s necessary.”

Emily smiled, “Thank you.”

Quinn turned to leave.

“
Wait,” Emily said,
frowning. “Why did you come?”

Quinn smiled, “To see why you frantically
called for Mark.”

“
What are you going to tell
them?”

“
That you said it was
personal.”

“
Thank you,” Emily said,
and then shut and locked the door when he left. She quickly got
dressed. It was nice to be back in jeans and a t-shirt that fit,
and she slipped on her cowboy boots, then tied her hair up and went
to get her gun, but it was missing. She remembered that Zohn took
it from Exavior the day before.

Emily headed out of her room and heard
footsteps behind her on the stairs. She turned to face the two
strange heku guards.

“
Who are you?” she asked,
frowning.

“
The Cavalry has training
today, we’re your guards,” the shorter one told her.

“
Good news, you get the day
off.”

“
No, Ma’am, Elder’s
orders.”

Emily frowned and ran down to the back of
the council chambers. The Council all glanced at her quickly, and
then turned back to a group of heku in the trial area.

Emily walked over and knelt down by Zohn. He
turned to look at her.

“
I need my gun back,” she
whispered.

Zohn reached into his pocket and pulled out
the black 9mm and handed it to her. The Council chambers fell quiet
while the Council all watched them.

Emily pulled the slide back and put her hand
out, “Bullets, too.”

Zohn frowned and handed her a handful of
bullets.

“
Now call off the guards
for a few hours,” Emily whispered.

Zohn raised an eyebrow, “No.”

“
Come on, just two
hours.”

“
You said it wasn’t
dangerous,” Quinn reminded her.

“
It’s not, just…
please…”

“
No,” Zohn said again, and
glanced at Chevalier, who shrugged.

“
Zohn…”

“
No”

“
Fine,” Emily hissed, and
then walked out, slamming the door behind her. The guards
immediately fell in behind her as she went out to the stables. They
watched as she brushed, bridled, and then put a saddle onto the
sleek brown thoroughbred, Keith’s fastest racing horse.

Emily deftly slid into the saddle and smiled
at her guards, “Ready for a run?”

They nodded, and Emily walked the stallion
out of the stables. She brought him up to a canter through the
city. There were too many twists and turns to get the racing
stallion into full speed in the city, but she knew that out in the
open, she would be able to outrun the guards easily.

It had been 3 months since Emily was on a
horse, but she quickly fell back into it and was soon running
through the open meadow, ducked low to help pick up speed, while
her heku guards fell behind. She hit the trees at over 40mph and
let the horse go, taking whichever path he wanted to through the
winding paths of the woods.

Emily emerged on the other side of the trees
and led the still galloping horse down through the open field
toward the road. There, she headed back along the shoulder of the
road, her guards long gone. When she reached the other set of woods
to the east of the palace, she slowed the horse down and followed
the familiar path back to the Durango. Sam was already waiting in
the passenger’s seat for her.

Emily dismounted and tied the stallion to a
tree before sliding into the driver’s seat and shutting the
door.

She turned toward the familiar, “You have a
lot of explaining to do.”

“
I’ve done nothing wrong,”
Sam said calmly. “When Mark shot me, it was a sign that you didn’t
currently want me around, so when I healed, I kept watch over you
from a distance.”

“
The entire
time?”

“
Yes, the entire time, even
during your two months away, though…” Sam frowned slightly. “I
couldn’t come to the V.E.S. compound, so the last three months I
waited for you here.”

“
You just… watched
me?”

“
Yes”

“
Then before that… how dare
you go to the Encala about me,” Emily whispered,
harshly.

“
I apologize for that. I
truly believed they could help you.”

“
You betrayed
me.”

“
No, I told them nothing
that could hurt you. Everything I told them would have helped, had
you taken their offer.”

“
They are the enemy. You
going to them at all was betrayal.”

Sam shrugged, “Not if I had your best
interest at heart.”

“
So why come out now?”
Emily asked. “Why not stay in hiding?”

“
I thought it’d been long
enough,” he told her.

“
You don’t think Chevalier
is going to have issues with this?” Emily asked, raising an
eyebrow.

“
Oh, I know he
will.”

Emily sighed, “Can you get onto Island Coven
unnoticed?”

“
Yes, I’ve done it
before.”

***

“
Sir,” one of Emily’s
guards said, walking up to the Council as they visited outside of
the palace.

Chevalier grinned, “She ditched you.”

The guard nodded and looked at Zohn
nervously.

“
Damnit,” Zohn
scowled.

“
Now come on… even I saw
that coming,” Dustin said. Dustin was the new Coven Liaison Officer
from Powan.

“
How, exactly, did she get
away?” Zohn asked, ignoring how Quinn and Chevalier
chuckled.

“
She went out on horse. We
thought we could keep up, but that’s one fast horse,” the other
guard said anxiously.

“
She has a horse than can
outrun a heku?” Zohn asked, frowning.

Kyle grinned, “Those horses she inherited
from her ex-husband are racing horses. They can run faster than any
of us.”

“
Where did she go?” Zohn
asked them.

“
We lost her outside of
town. She was headed out west,” the guard told him.

“
How long ago?”

“
It’s been about two hours
ago. We’ve been looking for her, but her scent cleared out quickly
with the wind.”

“
When you find her, send
her to my office,” Zohn hissed, and headed back inside.

“
We’ll go back out,” the
guard said softly.

“
No use, here she comes,”
Kyle said, watching out to the east.

They all turned and saw Emily racing back
into the city. She pulled the stallion into a trot as she
approached them. She wasn’t sure if she was in trouble or not, and
stopped in front of the waiting heku.

“
What’s up?” Emily asked,
biting her lip slightly.

“
Elder Zohn wants to see
you in his office,” the shorter guard said, irritated.

Emily frowned, “How bad?”

Chevalier chuckled, “We’ll go with you, come
on.”

“
I’ll take the horse. I
want to see just how fast he can go,” Kyle said, taking the
reins.

Emily slid off of the horse and took
Chevalier’s hand. She smiled slightly at Quinn, and they all headed
in to Zohn’s office. She held tightly to Chevalier’s arm as he
knocked, and then opened the door when Zohn called to them.

“
Sit,” Zohn said, and
leaned back in his throne-like office chair.

Emily sat down and took a deep breath, “Let
me have it.”

Zohn sighed, “I thought we had a deal.”

“
We did, and I’m sorry, but
I needed some time alone.”

“
What part of agreeing to
guards did you not understand?” Zohn asked.

“
What’s up with you and
guards? Why do I even need guards?”

“
Because you do. Now... how
can we rectify this?”

“
Easy, I’m going back to
the island for a while,” Emily told him.

“
You are?” Chevalier
asked.

Emily nodded, “My arm hurts, my hand hurts,
and my head hurts. I just want to lie around, and swim in the pool
for a while. Stress free…”

Chevalier smiled, “I like that idea.”

“
I’ll send a handful of
guards with you then,” Zohn said.

“
Since when do I need
guards on the island?”

“
She really doesn’t,”
Chevalier said. “It’s safe there.”