Kristie Cook - Devotion

But I could never be with him, even after what Tristan had apparently done. It'd still have to be by in vitro …

Oh! Oh, my god.

That's it!

My breath caught as the obvious slammed into me twofold. Solomon's words echoed in my mind: The best stories–and the best lies–are woven around the truth. It is up to us to discover which is which. The traitor knew about this girl with Tristan's DNA and had intertwined that thread of truth into her lies to authenticate her claims. This wasn't Tristan's doing. He hadn't orchestrated the Amadis' downfall.

"Quiet!" Solomon bellowed once again.

"Martin, do you have a decision?" Armand asked, seizing the opportunity of silence.

Before Martin could answer, I jumped to my feet.

"Wait! You can't prove Tristan's betrayal with those results," I said. Everyone stared at me with raised eyebrows, including Tristan. I took two steps forward. "In vitro fertilization. The Daemoni could have taken–" I swallowed my embarrassment and pushed forward, holding Tristan's gaze as I spoke. "They could have taken Tristan's semen and created this girl without his knowledge."

Tristan's face showed a flicker of relief … or affirmation … or something. Could I be right? If he'd told me the truth–that he had no idea how Lilith could be his daughter–then this was the only solution. The one he hadn't been able to see. The Daemoni could have taken anything from him as soon as they captured him. They'd knocked him out with black magic, and he would have never known. He'd been telling me the truth!

This meant Lilith really was his daughter. And I'd have a decision to make. Which explained Tristan's expression. He felt relieved to see I believed him about being faithful … but worried about what this would do to us, if we made it out of here together. He'd said he'd raise someone else's daughter if he had to. Could I do the same?

My decision would have to wait. The crowd's noisy response drowned out my own thoughts.

Martin banged his fist on the table. "Enough."

"Is there a way to prove this?" Chandra asked.

"Of course not," Armand said. "And as such, we must proceed. We cannot take the risk this is another lie."

"You can't prove it's not true either," Mom challenged.

"You can't be certain either way," I added. "What happened to innocent until proven guilty?"

"This is not America," one of the Middle Eastern mages said. "Nor a democracy. Martin, what is your decision?"

"But she might be right!" someone said from the crowd.

"Which means the Daemoni are part of this," someone else said.

The audience let loose with another outburst, some members supporting me, others backing Armand, saying the risk wasn't worth their lives.

"Even if it's true, he could be working with them," Savio said. "They can produce all kinds of his offspring, and they get the boy."

"That's all we need to remember," Armand said. "More proof that Tristan is the traitor."

"Does your vote remain then?" Martin asked, looking up and down the table. Everyone nodded.

"We agreed at recess that he ought to be banished," Savio said. "We move forward with Owen and Alexis."

Martin rubbed his forehead with this thumb and forefinger. He opened his mouth to speak, closed it again. He looked at Tristan and then at me with blue eyes that darkened and softened with each heartbeat. As if to say he was sorry.

Tears sprang to my eyes.

"No. You can't," I whispered, holding Martin's eyes as I shook my head slowly. And when he didn't respond, I nearly shouted, "No! You banish Tristan, you banish me, too. You won't control me like this!"

I pushed one of the warlocks to the side and latched onto Tristan's arm.

"Get her out of here," Armand barked. "Get them both out of here."

Someone grabbed me from behind–another guard. I gripped Tristan's arm, holding on tightly. The guard yanked at me. My fingers slipped. The warlocks pulled on Tristan from the other side, and Tristan easily went with them toward the door.

"No!" I screamed, my hands held out toward him. "Tristan! No!"

I fought against the guard who carried me toward the opposite door, but he held me with all his strength. I yelled out a variety of profanities, letting the anger consume me before the pain did as I watched them take Tristan away from me. The current reality blended with the past, when he left me crying and begging for him to stay at the safe house. When he left me, left us, both Dorian and me. My heart cracked, and I knew when it broke into a million pieces again, it couldn't possibly be put back together a second time. Tears flowed down my cheeks. Please. No. Not again.

"Bree, you must say your piece now," Lisa the faerie whispered as the guard dragged me by. "This is the time!"

"Now or never, Bree," Jessica said. "Or everything will be for naught."

My eyes went wild. Bree? She's here?!

"Wait!" Lilith's witch stood up so fast, her chair fell over behind her. Everyone stopped and stared at her, including the guards holding Tristan and me, surprised by her clear and strong voice. "You are mistaken."

"Excuse me, old witch?" Savio drawled.

The woman's upper lip curled in a snarl at the insult. "There was no outside fertilization. The Daemoni didn't take Tristan's seed."

My stomach tilted as she looked at me. I'm wrong?! But … that could only mean … The old woman's milky eyes began to clear and change color. Her body straightened and lengthened several inches until she stood to nearly six feet tall. The wrinkles smoothed and the blotchy skin cleared to a golden tan. Her gray hair transformed into thick, wavy golden strands, and her eyes finally settled on a matching golden color. And my stomach more than tilted–it dropped. Is this Tristan's mistress?

"In fact," she said, her sparkling gaze still directly on me, "no one can take Tristan's seed except Alexis. The faerie stone is a fertility stone."

Her mouth turned up in a soft smile toward me. Of course she wasn't Tristan's mistress. She was the golden lady from his memories.

"You're a faerie?" Robin asked with shock.

The golden lady's lips pulled up in a smile. "Yes. I am Bree. And I must stop you from making this horrible mistake."

"What do you know about it?" Savio demanded.

"I know quite a bit about it," Bree said. "Much more than any of you. Did you not hear? I am a faerie! I may not be part of the Otherworld anymore, but I know exactly what is going on here, and you are about to destroy the Amadis."

"Explain yourself!" Julia demanded.

Bree's golden eyes sparked with anger at Julia's tone. "Just as you demanded in the Everglades, but you never gave me a chance. I will start with the girl, whom you also told me to explain. And I will tell you, and you will finally listen to me."

Her expression toward me softened and then, when she looked at Tristan, she smiled. She sauntered to the front of the room, all eyes following her.

Bree peered at each of the council members as she strode the length of the dais. "The girl has a name. Lilith. And she is my daughter." She turned to me again, her stunning gold eyes capturing mine, and I could do nothing but stare back, mesmerized. "But she is not Tristan's daughter. She is his sister."

My breath caught in my throat. I blinked. Then, as if we were all controlled by the same puppet string, everyone's heads jerked toward Tristan. I knew his face well enough to see the range of emotions play out–shock, confusion, anger and then rage.

"LIAR!" he bellowed. Then he disappeared.

Tristan moved so fast at the faerie even my eyes couldn't see him. The next thing I knew, the faerie held up her hand, and Tristan appeared, bouncing off an invisible wall she'd thrown up. He landed on his feet a yard away from her, and his eyes sparked so brightly with anger, I expected them to burst into flames.