Seth grinned. “Don’t go falling asleep on me.”

“No guarantees.”

I didn’t fall asleep though. Minister Telly eventually started to address the crowd in heavily accented English. I couldn’t place where he was from, but his voice carried the same lilt Seth’s did, just with a hell of a lot more authority.

“We have several urgent issues that must be addressed during this Council Session.” Telly’s voice rang through the building. “Most importantly, we are here today to discuss the… unsavory situation that has arisen over this past summer.”

“They’re going to talk about Kain, aren’t they?” I perked up, eager to see how the pures would handle this.

Seth shrugged. “There are a lot of things they could talk about.”

Telly paced the length of the dais, the long green robes trailing behind him. Raising one arm, he signaled to the section of the theater underneath us. I strained forward, but Seth got a handful of my sweater and held me still. Two Guards eventually came into view, escorting a woman dressed in nothing but a gray tunic that ended above the knees. She didn’t even wear shoes. They brought her to stand below the center of the dais, and then forced her to her knees.

Apprehension blossomed in the pit of my stomach. The dark-skinned woman wasn’t a daimon from what I could tell. She looked like a normal half-blood—perhaps a Guard or a Sentinel. Her legs were toned enough for someone who’d spent years training and fighting.

She lifted her head defiantly, and a hushed murmur carried through the crowd of pures.

“Kelia Lothos.” Telly’s upper lip curled. “You have been accused of breaking the Breed Order by having inappropriate contact with a pure-blood.”

My eyes widened. Caleb had told me about her—and her pure-blood boyfriend, Hector. I twisted back to Seth. “Seriously? Their most pressing issue is a half having sex with a pure?”

Seth’s amber gaze met mine. “So it seems.”

Shaking my head in disbelief, I turned back to the drama unfolding on the floor below. “Damn Hematoi.”

“How do you plead?” Telly demanded.

Kelia started to stand, but the Guards forced her to stay down. “Does it matter how I plead? You have already found me guilty.”

“You have the right to tell your side.” Minster Diana Elders rose, slowly approaching the center of the dais. An open kindness marked her expression, softening the set of her lips. “If you feel that you are not—”

“It is not her fault!” A voice cried out from deep within the audience as a pure in green robes came to his feet. His complexion was swarthy, much like Jackson’s. “She has done nothing wrong. If anyone is to blame, then it is me.”

“And so it begins,” muttered Seth.

I ignored him, transfixed by this pure-blood coming to Kelia’s defense. This was better than watching daytime soaps.

Telly drifted to the left of the dais. “Hector, no one here holds you at fault. Halfs can be just as beautiful as pures… and as manipulative as any daimon.”

Hector—Kelia’s pure-blood lover—pushed down the aisle. “Yes, she is beautiful, but manipulative? Never. I love her, Minister Telly. That is of no fault of hers.”

Telly scoffed as he came to the edge of the dais. “A half-blood and a pure-blood cannot fall in love with each other. The idea is as absurd as it is disgusting. She has broken the law. Perhaps she should have thought of that before she acted as a common whore.”

“Do not speak of her like that!” Hector’s face flushed with anger.

“How dare youspeak to methat way.” Telly drew himself up. “Proceed carefully, or your next action might be mistaken for treason.”

Kelia twisted around. Concern and fear filled her eyes—and so did love. My heart twisted for her—for them. “Hector, please don’t. Just leave.”

Hector’s dark eyes fell on Kelia, mirroring the same emotions displayed across her face. “No. I can’t let this happen. You’ve done no wrong. I should have never—”

“Hector, please leave,” Kelia begged. “I don’t want you to… see me like this. Please!”

“I’m not leaving,” Hector said. “You’re not guilty of anything!”

“I’m guilty of loving you!” She pulled her arms free of the Guards. They seemed too stunned by the explicit outpouring of emotion to do anything. “Don’t do this! You promised me you wouldn’t do this!”

Promised what?What Hector was doing was heroic, romantic, and swoon-worthy. How could she not want the man she loved to stand up against the entire Council for her?

Hector rushed down the main walkway, and the Guards finally snapped out of it. They positioned themselves between the half and pure.

Hector halted, his hands clenching at his sides. “Stand down.”

“Are you going to allow this to continue, Minister?” asked Lucian, speaking for the first time since the session began.

Telly exhaled slowly. “Kelia Lothos, how do you plead?”

The crowd of pures watched, excited and horrified, eager to see how Kelia would respond. But it was Hector who did.

“She pleads not guilty.”

An elderly female Minister stood. The red robes swallowed her frail body. She reminded me of the Crypt Keeper I’d faced when I was seven. “Enough. Sentence the half to servitude and remove this pure from the session!”

A clap of thunder insidethe building sent me back from the railing into Seth. Above us, the air started to thicken and darken. As impossible as it seemed, dangerous-looking clouds began to form—and they were coming from Hector. He was using the element of earth, the electrical power creating an indoor thunderstorm.

Hector met Telly’s stunned gaze. “I will not allow you to take her.”

Chaos broke loose on the floor below. Hector surged forward, and the cloud above us flashed with lightning, filling the air with an electrical charge. The ministers came to their feet, full of shock and anger.

“Please! We can discuss this civilly!” cried Diana. “Can we not—”

Another crash of thunder drowned out her words. I pressed my face into the gap between the slats for a better look at the what was happening below. Unsurprisingly, the Guards who’d held Kelia back didn’t look willing to attack a pure. We were trained from birth to never do so, not even in extreme cases like these. They moved back warily as Hector grabbed hold of Kelia, pulling her to his chest.

“The half-blood is found guilty!” Telly shouted. “Seize the half and send her to the Masters! Remove the—”

Hector thrust Kelia behind him as the cloud cracked, shooting streaks of lightning throughout the room. Pures shot from the benches, pushing at each other as they hurried out of the way. Worried for Aiden, I searched him out in the madness. He stood in the center beside Laadan, his expression a steely mask.

“I will kill anyone who dares to take her.” Hector’s voice was low and steady.

“You would stand against your own kind—for a half-blood?” Telly’s face was pale with anger.

Hector did not hesitate. “Yes. I would for the womanI love.”

Telly backed off. “You have sealed your fate.”

I didn’t understand those words. Pures were neverpunished for messing around with halfs. About the only thing they were ever punished for was using compulsion or other elemental powers against other pures, but…

The cloud continued to darken, and Seth pulled on my arm, but I held onto the slats of the balcony railing.

“Guards!” Telly ordered, and Guards from every corner descended in a flurry of white. All of them were halfs, except one.

The pure-blood Guard had eyes the color of rich soil. He stared at Telly, his fingers wrapped around a Covenant dagger. The other Guards reached the two lovers,

managing to break Kelia from Hector’s hold. She screamed and fought them, breaking loose once to only be tackled to the floor.

Overhead, the cloud darkened even more. A bolt of lightning snapped from the cloud, striking the floor near Telly. “Take him down!” said Telly.