Chapter 184 Bring in Sandy Roberts

Chapter 184 Bring in Sandy Roberts
FREYA -

Freya felt the change in Jared from across the circle. It wasn't fear, not fully, but the smooth confidence slipped long enough to show the real him. His eyes fixed on the stone in Grace's palm, and his shoulders drew back.
One of the Council elders stepped closer to the edge of the circle. “Speaker?”
Grace's mother held out her hand, and Grace placed the stone in her palm with more care than Freya expected. “The Stones answered once already,” Grace's mother said. “Not to grief, or memory, but under Odin’s command.”
Jared's gaze snapped to Eric. “You knew about this?”
Eric stood outside the circle with his hands at his sides, his expression unreadable. “I knew enough to call the claim here.”
Freya leaned closer to Casey, keeping her voice low. “How does your father know all of this?”
Casey didn't look away from the circle. “I told him enough the day we found Sandy. The vision, Jared..." he looked to her then. "Your parents. What Sandy said. I'm sorry if I overstepped, but I won't lose you to Texas.”
Her fingers moved against his, as emotion welled up in her so powerfully that she felt tears sting the back of her eyes.
Her mouth opened, but what did she say to that?
Casey turned back to his father and said, "He said he'd take care of it."
Freya's words finally came back to her. “And he trusts me?”
Casey looked down at her again, his voice low enough that it stayed between them. “You're his Alpha's blood.”
The words pressed into Freya harder than she expected. She looked back at Eric, and at the way he stood facing the Stones instead of Jared. He looked different somehow. Stood taller, and something in his eyes shone in a way that had been missing before. "He seems different."
Casey's hand closed gently around hers. “Something changed when he found out who you were,” Casey said. "And he does trust you.”
Freya didn't know what to do with that, so she held onto his hand and watched Grace's mother step into the circle.
Jared recovered enough to laugh, but it came out thinner than before. “No one alive has seen one of those answer in generations. You're asking this Council to accept a relic because a frightened girl and her friends say it worked.”
Grace's mother turned the stone over in her palm. “A Vision Stone does not obey me. It doesn't obey anyone standing here.”
“Convenient,” Jared said.
The Council elder's face hardened and his voice echoed when he said, “Old law.”
The words settled over the hill, and Freya felt her father's ring warm against her chest as Grace's mother lifted the stone toward the circle. “If the land refuses,” the Speaker said, “then there will be nothing to hear.”
For a long moment, nothing happened. Wind dragged through the dry grass, carrying the smell of dust and wolves, and cold stone. The packs that had filled the hall now surrounded the Stones, close enough to see what happened inside the circle but no closer.
Freya stood beside Casey with every stare behind her pressing against the back of her neck, and all she could hear was her own breathing trying to stay even.
The gray surface brightened slowly, filling with pale light until the air inside the circle shimmered around them.
Freya's knees weakened because she wasn't ready to rewatch everything all over again, but Casey's hand stayed wrapped around hers.
The vision opened in broken pieces rather than a full memory. Texas darkness. Her father turning as Jared stepped up like family when he should have stayed in the shadows. Jared's smile, younger and crueler, as he said something Freya couldn't hear but felt in the way Lance's face changed.
The image shifted, and Lance hit the ground hard enough that a horrified sound moved through the wolves behind her. Freya couldn't look away. Her mother stood over Lance with blood on her hands, her face pale and furious as she faced Jared alone.
Jared reached for her, and the vision broke again.
When it returned, her mother was on the ground and Jared stood over her. Freya's throat closed, and the ring burned hot enough that she pressed her free hand against it through her shirt.
Casey moved closer, not in front of her, but close enough that his strength pressed warm along her side. At the edge of the circle, several wolves lowered their eyes, unable to watch.
The stone flashed brighter.
Sandy appeared next, younger, terrified, with a small child clutched against her side. Freya saw herself then, too little to understand why Sandy's hand shook as she held the phone to her ear.
Jared's voice came through this time, clear enough to make the air around the Stones go still.
“Kill the girl. No one's going to miss the whelp now that her parents are dead.”
Freya stopped breathing, and the vision ended so suddenly that the silence after it felt wrong. The light drained from the stone, leaving Grace's mother holding something gray and ordinary again, but no one moved. Even the visiting Alphas stayed frozen where they stood, their faces turned toward Jared.
Jared's face had gone white around his mouth before his expression twisted into a sneer. “Witchcraft.”
Grace's mother lowered the stone, and the word seemed to fall dead between the Stones.
“This is witchcraft that's being paraded around as Odin's command,” Jared snapped, louder now. “A Speaker's trick and a girl's grief shaped into whatever Eric Stiller needs everyone to believe so his son can solidify his Alpha claim.” His gaze cut toward Freya, sharp with desperation. “Look at her. Look at what they're doing to my niece all to justify a horrendous theft.”
Freya's fingers curled around Casey's hand, but the anger inside her didn't shake. It steadied, hard and clear, as Casey's warmth stayed beside her and the old pressure of the Stones held firm at her back.
Eric stepped forward. “Then let's hear from someone who was there that night.”
Jared's eyes cut to him.
Eric didn't look away. “Bring in Sandy Roberts.”