Chapter 185 A Phone Call

Chapter 185 A Phone Call
FREYA -

Jared’s reaction lasted only a second, but Freya saw it. His eyes cut to Eric, and the color that had already drained from his face seemed to leave the rest of him. His shoulders locked before he forced them loose again, and when he smiled, it came too late.
A whisper moved through the wolves gathered beyond the circle.
Freya stayed beside Casey, her fingers still wrapped around his hand as two guards moved down the trail toward the healer vehicle waiting near the trees. She hadn’t noticed it before, not really. There had been too many strange faces, and too much cold rolling off the Stones after the Vision ended. Now she couldn’t stop looking at it.
Jared laughed once, but the sound came out dry. “I've heard of Sandy Roberts. A drunk who's tried her hardest to expose our way of life. What's next? More charades? You're really dragging some injured human into this?”
The Council elder turned his head slightly. “Are you objecting before she speaks?”
“I object to Alpha Stiller parading half-dead women and frightened girls through old rocks, and making a spectacle of a Gathering that has no place for either.”
Eric didn’t move. “You can object after she answers the Council's questions.”
The doors of the healer vehicle opened, and Freya’s breath caught before Sandy was even brought out.
She came in a wheeled medical chair with blankets tucked around her legs and one arm held close against her stomach. A bandage cut across the side of her head, and bruises darkened one side of her face in ugly shades of blue and yellow. Her eyes were open, but barely, and the healer walking beside her kept one hand on the back of the chair like she expected Sandy to tip sideways at any second.
Freya’s stomach twisted.
She didn’t forgive her aunt. She didn’t know if she ever would. Sandy had hidden her, buried her parents, and made Freya feel unwanted in the only home she had.
But seeing her mother’s sister broken beneath a blanket, with blood still dried in the thin cracks near her hairline, made the anger boil in her veins.
Jared had tried to erase her too.
Casey’s thumb moved once against Freya’s hand, and she held on tighter.
The guards stopped Sandy at the edge of the circle. The healer leaned down and murmured something to her, and Sandy blinked slowly before her gaze found the Stones. Then Freya.
For the first time, Sandy looked away first.
The Council elder stepped closer. “Healer, is she lucid enough to answer?”
“For a few questions,” the healer said. “No more. She needs to be returned to care immediately after.”
Jared’s mouth curved. “How convenient.”
The elder’s eyes sharpened. “You will not interrupt the healer again.”
For a moment, Jared looked like he might argue, but too many wolves were watching him now. He lifted one hand in a graceful little motion that made Freya want to claw the smile off his face.
The elder faced Sandy. “Sandy Roberts, do you understand where you are?”
Sandy swallowed. Her voice came out rough and thin. “The Gathering.”
“Do you understand that you have been called as witness under old law?”
Her fingers worked weakly against the blanket. “Yes.”
“Were you with Freya Roberts-Calder the night Lance Calder and his Mate died?”
Sandy’s eyes flicked toward Jared as tears gathered along her lashes.
Freya felt Casey go still beside her.
The healer touched Sandy’s shoulder, and Sandy jerked like even that small contact hurt.
Sandy looked back at the elder. “Yes.”
A murmur moved through the crowd, and Freya kept her eyes on Sandy’s face. She wanted to see the lie if it came. She wanted to hear the truth and hated that she needed it from the same woman who had spent years keeping it from her.
“Did Jared Calder call you that night?” the elder asked.
Sandy’s mouth trembled. “Yes.”
Jared’s smile thinned. “This is ridiculous.”
The elder didn’t look at him. “Did he tell you Lance Calder was dead?”
Sandy closed her eyes.
“Ms. Roberts,” the elder said, voice colder now. “Answer.”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Freya’s hand pressed to the ring beneath her shirt before she realized she'd moved. The metal was warm again, steady against her palm, and the heat of it made her think of her father’s handwriting.
If I don’t return, and my daughter survives...
“What was discussed?” the elder asked.
Sandy’s eyes opened, and this time, she looked at Freya.
Freya felt the look touch something inside her that she'd shoved away for as long as she could remember.
The locked doors. The cold meals. The sneer when Freya would ask about her parents. The way Sandy had hated her and protected her all while hiding the truth.
“Freya,” Sandy said.
Jared stepped forward before anyone could stop him. “Careful, Sandy.”
Casey moved with Freya, and the guards nearest Jared shifted at the same time. Eric’s command slid through the cold air hard enough that several wolves lowered their heads.
“Stand down,” Eric said.
Jared stopped, but his eyes stayed on Sandy. “You have always been very good at surviving. Don’t pretend now that you were some helpless saint in Texas.”
Sandy’s face went gray beneath the bruising.
Freya felt something inside her answer and press close beneath her skin. The Stones behind her seemed to draw in the cold, and the air around the circle grew so still that the first uneasy murmurs carried clearly.
Jared saw it, and his gaze snapped to her. For the first time since the Vision Stone, his mask cracked wide enough for hatred to show through.
“This is what I mean,” he said, louder now, turning to the Council. “Look at what they've brought here. A girl with unnatural powers, standing beside Eric's son while everyone pretends this is some kind of justice.”
Casey’s hand slid from Freya’s fingers only so his arm could settle along her back, warm and solid without pulling her behind him. The pressure of him steadied the wild edge moving through her skin. His power rose with hers, not covering it or choking it down, but moving beside it the way Casey had run beside her ever since their first Dream Drift.
Freya lifted her chin, and the wolves closest to the circle lowered their eyes.
Jared didn’t. His lips peeled back. “You had one job, Sandy.”
The words struck the Stones harder than a shout. Sandy flinched, and every face turned toward her.
The Council elder’s voice cut through the silence. “What job?”
Jared’s jaw locked as a sneer peeled across his face.
Sandy stared at him for one long moment, and whatever she saw there made her fingers stop moving against the blanket. When she looked back at Freya, tears had finally fallen over her lashes.
“He told me to kill Freya.”