Mother gestures for him to go on.
“The humans are liars,” he hisses. “My guards and I have preternatural hearing, many times better than any of theirs. If there was a voice whispering in their ears, we would have heard it.”
“A salient point,” Mother admits. She turns to me. “Phillip? What do you think?”
I’m staggered by the sudden address. “You’re asking me?”
“You are my son, aren’t you? One of my two boys? Your opinion matters. So I must know.”
I flinch at how obvious Mother’s attempt is to disown James, and at the unnatural way she forces the ‘fact’ that she only has two sons.
“Leonardo might have a point,” I say, thinking. “But that doesn’t mean the humans are lying. Look at them! Have you ever seen them united with such conviction? Have you ever seen them with so much genuine fear in their eyes?”
I glance at Raul and Eleira, who have moved closer to each other.
“Something scared them,” I finish in a low voice. “What it was, I couldn’t tell you. But to ignore it now and call them all liars would have them quickly make an enemy of you. And despite everything, Mother, we need them on our side. The Haven would collapse if they revolt.”
“They don’t have the courage to revolt.”
I turn around in surprise. Smithson is strolling toward us, every cocky step a measure of his arrogance.
All my instincts go on high alert. There is something terribly rotten about the man.
By the way Raul tensed at Smithson’s unexpected arrival, I can tell my brother feels the same.
“If you want my advice,” the Captain Commander continues, addressing the Queen, “make an example of the boy. Show them what a true ruler does when challenged by an uprising. If you do not do it with a heavy hand now…” he spreads his arms, “…they will start to think you weak. And if that happens—well, that’s when the real danger sets in.”
He finishes his walk right at the Queen’s side and whispers something in her ear.
“You’re right,” she says finally. She leans across and kisses the older vampire on his cheek. “What I would do without your sage council, I have no idea. When I’m surrounded by fools and weaklings…”
She trails off. Then, without any warning, she thrusts her staff forward. The light singles out the human boy again.
“Brayson!” she calls loudly. “I stand by my original position. You are hereby charged with high treason and attempt at rebellion. Treason against your Queen is the highest crime a human can be accused of.
“There will be no trial. I sentence you to death, at the hands of my most loyal guards, who’ve done an admirable job in stemming this ill-advised uprising. Leonardo—you may take him now.”
The vampire guard surges forward and grabs hold of the boy’s neck. The other humans are so shocked by the pronouncement that none offer their help. A few yell weak protests from the fringes, but other than that—nothing.
Leonardo drags the human boy, kicking and screaming, out of the group of humans and onto the vampire side of the divide. He puts him in a headlock and readies to sink his fangs into his neck…
Eleira steps forward. “No!”
Her order alone would normally do nothing. But with the word I feel such a strong surge of power come from her, power that all vampires respond to, thanks to the overruling hierarchy, that Leonardo goes shock-still.
He looks up, his eyes burning with bloodlust. But they’re glazed over at the same time, as is what happens when a stronger vampire exerts her rule. Brayson stops struggling, too entranced by his unexpected champion.
Raul quickly runs to Eleira and takes her hand. I hope it’s to show her that she has his support, because if I know my Mother—and I do—what the Queen does next is not going to be pretty.
But Morgan surprises even me by regarding Eleira coolly. “You challenge me?” she asks.
There’s a current of danger beneath her voice.
Eleira stares at the Queen totally defiant. “There has to be a trial,” she says. “It’s the only way the humans will ever respect you.”
“And what makes you think she needs their respect, girl?” Smithson growls.
“Eleira’s right,” Raul says. “We have to have justice in The Haven. Doing something like this, acting in the spur of the moment, sets the wrong precedent. Justice has to extend to vampires and humans, if we’re to co-exist.”
“So my son mirrors his lover’s ideals,” Mother murmurs. “And you, Phillip? Do you side with them, too?”
I step toward the pair. “I do.”