Equites : Book 4 of the Heku Series (55 page)

Emily didn’t answer, but just watched
the flames dance in the fireplace.

***

Emily woke up suddenly when her
stomach tightened. She ran to the bathroom just in time, slamming
the door behind her. It’d been four weeks since Damon ordered that
she try to have a baby, and nothing in the palace had changed. She
had odd conversations with some of the council members, where they
demanded she tell them things about her health and well-being, but
she always stuck with the plan to tell only what Damon wanted to
hear.

Emily was just leaning back against
the wall when she heard a knock on the door, “Em?”

She didn’t respond. She didn’t want
Chevalier in the bathroom, but knew that Damon would be mad if she
told him that.

Chevalier stepped in and frowned, “Are
you ok?”

Emily nodded, afraid that if she
spoke, she would throw up again.

Chevalier sat down beside her and
whispered, “The flu?”

Emily nodded again.

Chevalier halfway grinned, “Damon’s
going to think you’re pregnant.”

Emily leaned over and laid her head in
his lap. He brushed her hair away from her forehead and felt the
back of her neck. Her head was pounding and she felt aches
throughout entire body.

“
You have a fever. I should
call the doctor,” Chevalier said, frowning.

“
Don’t,” Emily whispered.
“Please.”

Chevalier nodded, “Ok, I
won’t.”

Once Emily fell asleep, Chevalier
carried her into the bedroom. He glared when he saw Damon standing
in the room.

“
This is my bedroom, and as
Elder, you will ask to come in here,” he growled.

“
Sorry, Elder, I didn’t
know you were in here,” Damon said, eyeing Emily. “Has it happened
then?”

“
Has what happened?”
Chevalier asked, knowing full well what Damon thought.

“
Is she pregnant?” Damon
asked excitedly.

Chevalier grinned. He knew there was
no way that she was, but he wanted nothing more than to make Damon
look like an idiot, “Probably.”

“
That’s great! See, it’s
not hard to get obedience from her,” Damon said. He slapped
Chevalier on the shoulder and then went to tell the
Council.

Zohn and Maleth cringed when Damon
announced that Emily was pregnant. He had a huge grin on his face,
but the council members were uneasy. Chevalier took his seat and no
one congratulated him or even looked him directly in the eye. He
left word with Kyle, in secret, about Emily’s flu, and Kyle was
currently helping take care of her in his absence.

“
I say we tell the Valle
and Encala immediately. It may help keep peace with the factions if
we don’t keep the baby from them,” Damon said.

Quinn frowned, “I
disagree.”

Maleth nodded, “As do I.”

“
Why exactly would we tell
them?” Chevalier asked.

“
Control! To let them know
that we completely control the Winchester now,” Damon grinned.
“Once they realize she has no desire to act alone, they will
understand our hold on her, and will know that their quest to gain
power over her is futile.”

“
You mean to speed them up
in kidnapping her, torturing her, letting ancients control her, all
of those fun things they do when she’s pregnant,” Quinn said
bluntly. Chevalier glanced at him quickly, and wondered if the
Council was finally starting to sway away from Damon.

“
They need to see that this
Council is now in control again, that we aren’t being ruled by a
mortal. We can show them that by the forced pregnancy,” Damon
said.

“
Damn, you make it sound
like we…” Zohn stopped, he couldn’t even say it.

Chevalier sat back easily in his
chair, relaxed and enjoying what he was seeing.

“
You may have control over
Emily, but we still control the Equites and as such, the Elders
have final say in who is notified of the baby,” Quinn growled,
angry at how Damon was acting.

“
Of course, Sir,” Damon
said, somewhat calmer.

“
Tell them,” Chevalier
said, looking at Quinn.

Quinn frowned, “Seriously?”

“
Yeah, why not?”

Maleth saw a glint of life in
Chevalier, something that he’d not seen since this all started, “I
agree, tell them personally, Damon.”

Quinn shrugged, “Whatever, 2 to 1 says
do it.”

Damon grinned.

“
Go call them now, we’ll
wait,” Chevalier said, and Damon blurred from the
chambers.

“
She’s not pregnant, is
she?” Zohn asked, grinning.

Chevalier shook his head, “She has the
flu.”

Quinn chuckled.

***

Emily was feeling better by the next
morning, but she opted to act sick so she could stay in bed all
day, something that Damon had expressly forbid, unless she was
feeling ill. She held onto Alexis as long as she could before the
Nanny took her, and now she was left alone to think.

Emily kept perfectly still when she
heard the door to the bedroom open, then sighed when she heard the
voice.

“
Damon needs you in the
council chambers, sick or not,” the guard said. Emily didn’t know
him, and he was gruff and angry.

She slowly crawled out of bed, still
achy from the flu, and dressed quickly in the closet. The guard
took her arm roughly and led her down to the council chambers. He
pushed her into the room and shut the door behind her. She walked
forward, rubbing her arm where he had grabbed her.

“
Ah, there you are, Emily,”
Damon said with a grin. “Next time I’ll expect a faster
response.”

Quinn glared at him and whispered
something that Emily couldn’t hear.

Damon nodded and turned back to her,
“This fellow by you needs to be turned to ash, please do
so.”

Emily turned to the heku who was
cowering down on the floor beside her. She didn’t care anymore what
she did. The drive to protect the heku was gone. The drive to keep
Chevalier alive was all that she cared about. Emily narrowed her
eyes at him.

“
Do it!” Damon
growled.

Emily stared at the heku, but she
started to panic when he didn’t turn to ash, didn’t even scream in
pain.

“
I said do it!” Damon
yelled.

“
Damon…” Quinn said,
irritated.

Damon jumped the desk and took Emily’s
arm roughly, “Do it now.”

“
I’m trying,” she
whispered.

“
Do not defy me,” Damon
roared, and tightened his grip on her arm.

Emily looked back at the frightened
heku and her heart went out to him. The fear and anger that she
pulled from to turn someone to ash was gone. All she could feel now
was envy that his life was about to end, and her torment would
continue.

Damon stormed out of the room, pulling
Emily along behind him.

Chevalier stood, angrily, “That’s it…
you can banish me if you want, but I’m not going to watch this for
another second.”

“
I concur,” Maleth said,
standing.

Quinn stood, “You can’t banish us all,
and I suggest we deal with Damon.”

Zohn had been Damon’s biggest
supporter, and the Elders turned to him. They noticed the rest of
the Council sitting quietly in their seats. No one made to defy the
Elders.

“
I suggest we do it
carefully. If he gets word of our plans, he could seriously injure
the girl,” Zohn said. The Elders returned to their seats when they
heard Damon approach.

“
For now, do as he asks,
let the Elders handle this,” Quinn said sternly.

Damon walked in the room and violently
tore the head off of the small heku. He growled and sat at his
seat, “We have to do something about that.”

Zohn glanced nervously at the Elders,
“About what?”

“
The defiance by Emily. She
has to learn complete obedience,” Damon scowled.

“
She’s been sick, Damon,
maybe she’s too weak,” Zohn suggested.

“
Lies, don’t fall for her
lies,” Damon said. He began to look through the roster as the
Council tried to decide on a replacement for a recently banished
General.

The Council all looked up when they
heard a knock on the door.

“
Enter,” Maleth
said.

Emily’s guard came in, looking
terrified, “I can’t find her.”

Chevalier stifled a grin.

“
Can’t find who?” Damon
asked, his eyes narrowing.

“
Emily, I can’t find her,”
the guard said, shaking.

“
How stupid do you have to
be to let a mortal girl get away from you? Find her,” Damon
growled.

The guard ran from the room and the
Council heard him call for all available guards to search the
palace.

“
Where is she, Elder?”
Damon asked, trying to sound respectful.

“
How am I supposed to know?
You have her so afraid she won’t even talk to me anymore,”
Chevalier said matter-of-factly.

“
The punishment for this
will be severe,” Damon roared, and disappeared from the
room.

“
If you’re not an Elder,
get out,” Maleth said, and turned to watch the rest of the Council
file out. “Zohn, stay.”

Zohn nodded and sat in the chair by
the Elders.

“
We have to deal with this
before he finds her,” Quinn said hurriedly.

“
We better hurry then. He
has the entire guard staff looking,” Zohn told them.

“
Emily can hide well. We
have time to do this right,” Chevalier told them.

“
The only way to do it is
to replace him immediately. If we kill him before anyone’s been
chosen, that leaves us without the ability to revive. Though, it
seems like Emily may not be able to even ash at the moment,” Maleth
said.

“
Or she was faking not
being able to,” Zohn said.

“
No, she wouldn’t risk it,”
Chevalier said. “I’ve seen that look before. She was trying to turn
him to ash, and when she couldn’t, she started to panic. She’s
hiding out of fear for her life right now.”

“
I’m sorry,” Zohn said to
Chevalier. “I shouldn’t have backed him on this. I was mad at the
interruption in our trial, and what he said sounded true. Now I see
that he is wrong.”

“
I’m not the one that needs
the apology,” Chevalier whispered.

Zohn nodded, “Fine then, I suggest
Kyle.”

“
If we do that we lose a
good Captain,” Quinn said.

“
So we replace him with
Mark,” Zohn said. “I’ve been… thinking… about this for a while now
and that’s what I’ve come up with.”

“
That leaves a trusted
guard as the Captain,” Chevalier said, nodding.

The Council fell quiet as they heard a
call for more guards.

“
Is she ok?” Maleth asked
Chevalier.

Chevalier nodded, “She’s afraid, which
is more emotion than I’ve felt from her for weeks.”

“
It’s like he killed that
lovely spirit of hers,” Maleth said softly.

“
Kyle?” Quinn whispered,
and he appeared in the council chambers.

Chevalier stood up, “We want help
searching the… stables for Emily.”

Kyle frowned and nodded, “Yes,
Elder.”

The three Elders, Kyle, and Zohn hid
in shadows and then blurred out to the stables. When he left, Kyle
had a grin on his face and blood in his eyes.

The Elders returned to the council
chambers with Zohn to wait. The Council slowly reconvened to
continue the trials for the day. Several hours later, Damon blurred
into the room and sat down in his chair, obviously mad.

“
You still don’t know where
she is?” he asked Chevalier.

Chevalier frowned, “You’re questioning
an Elder?”

Damon scowled and silently turned back
to the prisoner on trial.

Damon froze when he heard a voice call
that Emily was in the loft of the stables. A maliciously dark
shadow fell across his face and he blurred from the room. The
Council paused only for a moment, before returning to their
prisoner.

Once the prisoner was taken back to
the cells, the entire room fell silent. The Elders and Zohn
listened intently as the fight in the barn ensued. The council
members all watched them, knowing something was happening, but it
wasn’t their place to ask. One lone person left the stables,
breathing hard and panting from exertion. When the Council doors
opened, everyone turned to see who had won.

“
It is done,” Kyle said,
stepping in and showing them the bloody dagger. His clothes were
torn and covered in blood, but he was grinning and he had a small
leather pouch in his hand.

Chevalier nodded, “Call off the search
for Emily. The more people that look for her, the harder she will
be to find.”