Eve’s POV
The summons arrived on Saturday morning.
Formal Conclave seal. Heavy paper. The sa courier system that had delivered every other piece of official correspondence over the last three months.
Eve opened it at the kitchen table with everyone watching.
Proceedings scheduled for Monday, April seventh. Ten o’clock. Main chamber. All parties required to attend.
She set the letter down.
"Two days," she said.
Vessa picked up the letter and read it twice. "Standard scheduling. No delays. No extensions." She looked at Eve. "They are moving quickly."
"Because they want it over with," Damian said from his position by the window. "The longer it drags out the worse it looks for everyone involved."
"Or they already know how they are voting," Damon said. He was leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. "And they want to get to the ruling before anyone can organize opposition."
"There is no opposition to organize," Vessa said. "Malachai is not fighting. The evidence is irrefutable. The Conclave does not have a choice here."
Eve looked at the summons. At the date. At the ti. Two days from now she would walk into the main chamber and present everything they had built over the last three months. The directive. The vote record. Sable’s testimony. The witnesses. All of it laid out in front of the entire Conclave.
And then it would be done.
"We should prepare," she said.
Vessa nodded. "I will brief you on chamber procedure. Damian should review the presentation order one more ti. We need to make sure every docunt is accessible and every witness knows when they will be called."
They worked through the weekend.
***
Saturday afternoon Vessa walked Eve through how the docuntation would be presented. Every detail mapped out with the precision of soone who had attended enough Conclave sessions to know exactly how the room functioned.
By sunday morning Sable arrived at the estate.
Eve t her at the door. Sable looked exactly as she had in the bookshop....fifties, sharp eyes, forty years of careful ordinary built into every part of her presentation. But underneath the ordinary Eve could see the tension. The thing Sable had been carrying since the night she knocked on Lilith’s door and said leave right now.
"Thank you for coming," Eve said.
"I said I would testify," Sable said. "I keep my word."
They sat in the study and went over her testimony. What she would say. What questions she might be asked. How to answer without giving the Conclave any gaps to exploit. Sable was calm through all of it. Steady. The kind that ca from having already made the hardest decision forty years ago and knowing that everything after was just details.
When they finished Sable stood up and looked at Eve for a long mont.
"You look like her," she said quietly. "Your mother. Not just the eyes. The way you hold yourself when you have decided sothing."
Eve’s throat tightened. "Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because it keeps being true," Sable said. She picked up her bag. "I will see you Monday."
Sunday evening the estate was quiet.
***
Eve found Silas in the library. He was at the window looking out at the grounds with his hands in his pockets.
"What is it?" Eve asked.
He turned. Looked at her. "Vessa is holding sothing back."
Eve crossed the room. "About what?"
"About your father," Silas said. "I have been asking her questions all week. About Aldric. About what he knew. About his relationship with Malachai before everything fell apart." He paused. "She answers most of them. But there are so she will not touch. And when I push she changes the subject."
Eve sat down in the chair by the window.
"What kind of questions?"
"Whether Aldric knew about the directive before it was executed," Silas said.
"Whether he was involved in any way. Whether Malachai used him to get information about the Seraphim Court." He looked at Eve. "She will not answer any of it. Just says it is complicated and we should focus on the proceedings."
"Maybe it is complicated," Eve said.
"Everything is complicated," Silas said.
"That does not an she gets to hide it."
Eve looked at him. At the tension in his shoulders. At the thing he was not saying but that she could read in his face anyway. He needed to know if his father had been complicit. If the Blackwood na had been part of what happened to her parents. If the legacy he had been carrying for six years was built on sothing rotten.
"After the proceedings," Eve said quietly. "We will ask her together. And she will answer."
Silas held her gaze. "You think she will?"
"I think she owes us the truth," Eve said. "All of it. Not just the parts that serve the case."
He nodded slowly. So of the tension left his shoulders. "After the proceedings."
"After the proceedings," Eve agreed.
She left him in the library and went to find Damon. He was in the training room again. Sa heavy bag. Sa controlled violence. She stood in the doorway and watched him work through combinations until he saw her and stopped.
"You should be resting," he said.
"I tried," she said. "I cannot sleep."
He pulled off his gloves and crossed to her. His hand ca up and cupped her face.
"You are going to be fine tomorrow."
"How do you know?"
"Because you have been fine through everything else," he said. "The hearings. The archive. The arbitration. This is just one more room."
"This room ends him," Eve said.
"Good," Damon said. Flat. Final. "He deserves to be ended."
Eve looked at him. At the certainty in his face.
"Co back to after," he said quietly.
"Like always."
"Like always," she agreed.
He kissed her. Soft. Then pulled back and rested his forehead against hers. "Go find Damian. He has been pacing his study for two hours and needs soone to tell him to stop."
Eve almost smiled. She left Damon to his bag and went to find Damian.
He was exactly where Damon said he would be. Pacing his study with a folder in his hand and that look on his face that ant he was running through every possible scenario and planning for all of them simultaneously.
"Damian," she said from the doorway.
He stopped. Turned. "Eve."
"Co to bed," she said.
"I need to review the presentation order one more ti."
"You have reviewed it six tis today," she said. "It is perfect. Everything is perfect.
Co to bed."
He looked at her for a long mont. Then he set the folder down and crossed the room. Took her hand. Let her pull him out of the study and down the corridor and up the stairs to his room.
They got into bed together. Damian pulled her in imdiately. His arms around her. Her face against his chest. The warmth of him settling over her like a blanket.
"I am afraid sothing will go wrong," he said into her hair.
"Nothing will go wrong," she said. "Vessa has checked everything. The docuntation is solid. The witnesses are ready. Malachai is not fighting."
"Sothing always goes wrong," he said.
"Then we will handle it," she said. "Like we have handled everything else."
His arms tightened. "I cannot lose you."
"You are not going to lose ," she said. She pulled back enough to look at him. "I am right here. I will be right here tomorrow. And I will be right here when it is over."
He looked at her. His hand ca up and cupped her face. "Promise ."
"I promise," she said.
He kissed her. Pulled her back in. They lay together in the dark and the quiet until his breathing evened out and she knew he was finally sleeping.
Eve stayed awake longer. Looking at the ceiling. Feeling the pendant warm against her chest.
Tomorrow, then everything will be over.
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