CHAPTER 59: THE BLOOD TEST
HAZEL'S POV
The air in the council chamber had turned completely stagnant, heavy with the stench of bureaucratic cowardice and old secrets. Marra sat across from me, her posture a little too rigid, her eyes a little too wide as she spun her fragile web of lies. She was performing for an audience that desperately wanted to believe her, giving the council a comfortable exit strategy—a way to bury the truth under a neat pile of political convenience.
I wasn't about to let them.
"I demand a blood truth ritual," I said, my voice cutting through the murmurs of the room like a blade through wet fabric.
The reaction was instantaneous. A collective intake of breath rattled through the elders.
