Chapter 98

• Dinner was nothing like what Cielo had expected. Every single person there was so tense that the slightest noise caused an uproar. Purely for her sanity, she took over the meeting and banned all questions. She walked them through the plan to defeat Damian and his beasts. Of course, she had kept some rather key parts to herself. If there was one traitor, there usually were more. Learning about so many council members questioning Cain's rule only reinforced that decision.
• Mara paced through her entire presentation, which was distracting, to say the least. She was helpful in covering blind areas and places that might have been overlooked. Surprise was going to be their main benefit, but she wasn't counting on it. Damian said he'd be there, he'd know they'd be prepared; she was just hoping he wouldn't realize the guests were going to be in on it. In a way, she felt this was becoming a sort of tradition. Anytime she had something important coming up in her life, she usually had some bloody fight to go with it. Each time she got closer to actually dying, so maybe this would be the trick.
• Still, after a long meeting, they adjourned late. Ruben never showed, and neither did Xander or Aron. That wasn't a good thing, but there wasn't a massive blood puddle outside her room so that was a plus. There was evidence of a fight though. She did help Cain into the shower and tried to track them down, but she found nothing. Ruben texted her that they were fine and just having a civil conversation with Xander as the referee, but she wasn't buying it. As long as they were alive, she'd deal with it later.