Page 37 of Hexes & Heartstrings (Shifters of Bastion Keep #2)

Having spent the morning casting an exhaustive number of charms and rituals, Bruin felt a painful tightness in the back of his head as he invoked a final Body's Mending , even despite Rosemary and Lux having both joined him as a coven and providing their own white light.

Under Teresa's supervision, he managed to help heal a few lacerations and set a few broken bones before she summarily dismissed him.

"We can handle the rest," she said, then looked over his shoulder. "Besides, it looks like you're needed elsewhere."

"Russ," he heard Lady Galina say. "Bruin. Come along, whelps. You're both needed in the Great Hall."

Bruin blew out a heavy breath, and he felt Rosemary put a hand on his shoulder. Nodding more to himself than anyone else, he picked up his witch's bag and turned to follow the Lady of the Castle.

The first thing Bruin noticed was that the rift had been sealed.

A flaming brazier sat centered on where it once stood, and he saw Russell's dad laying out a circle of protective candles; probably a secondary ward of some kind, in case the seam split before it fully healed over.

He'd seen the High Priest do something similar in the castle's sanctum, after Lord Wintersbane had slipped into the castle those many months ago.

The tables had been returned to their normal layout, and they remained occupied by guardians and staff. There was a rising murmur as they entered the room, soon quieted.

Obeying Lady Galina's gestures, Bruin formed up in the middle of the room with Russell, Markos, Ivar, Cadmus, Chelsea… all the defenders who had each done their very best to help win the challenge. Markos gave him what looked like an encouraging smile, but the man soon fell back into pensiveness.

Yeah, there wasn't much to be happy about.

As Lady Galina moved to stand before the High Table, leaning back against it with her arms crossed, Lady Yi stood up from her own table that she and her pack had to themselves.

Back in her human shape, Yi went to stand across from Bruin, joined by Arthur and the others.

Her expression radiated shameless self-satisfaction, like a favored cat who knows they're beyond reproach even after vomiting on a freshly-laundered bed.

Lady Galina seemed willing to let the silence stretch, and Bruin shuffled back and forth on his bare feet. The sound of conversations around the room rose and fell, and even Lady Yi seemed to be getting impatient, cracks appearing in her primly decorous stance.

"My lady," the tigress said at last. "Why bother drawing this out? It's clear that I won the challenge."

Growls began filling the room, and Bruin saw some of Lady Yi's pack drinking it in. Not all of them, though, some actually ducked their heads or muzzles, giving the room an embarrassed side-eye.

Bruin couldn't hold his tongue any longer. "You really think you deserve to win? After that final stunt you pulled?"

"You're one to speak, Consort," she snapped back, glaring at him. "How did you convince the whole castle to aid you? Bribery?"

"The rules only forbid us from accepting outside guardian and willworker help, nothing about castle residents. But I didn't actually have to do anything. Once word spread that it was you versus Russell, these amazing people made up their own minds about showing who they favored."

"And yet despite all that, I still struck the runt down with my own blade, before time, and fairly."

"I'd hardly call that fair. You only managed it because you had Arthur break one of Bastion's most important rules about not messing with the veil!"

"I did what needed to be done, to win this sham of a challenge."

"Your carelessness allowed in a powerful shadow!" Bruin gestured to the room, bouncing on the balls of his feet in his irritation. "The Great Hall is trashed, and there are broken tables and chairs and flooring everywhere, and people got hurt ."

She scoffed. "That happens every month from guardian roughhousing."

Bruin stalked forward until he was face to face with her, finding trouble talking around his too-thick tongue and his tusks. "Your zealotry put children at risk!"

"This is a fortress !" she shouted back. "They shouldn't even be here."

"Nay!" one of the gardeners interrupted, pushing back from his table. It was Mac, one of the groundskeepers that had helped Bruin set up his outside garden sanctum. "Nay, and fuck you for that. This does be no fortress, this does be a home , Lady. Our home!"

The man strode right past them both and up to Lady Galina, going down on one knee.

"Lady Usenko," he said, his head bowed. "Begging your most gracious pardon, my lady, but I feel it important to say that if she continues to stay, I may be forced into taking me some extended leave.

If Bastion Keep has chosen to allow a foreign noble the freedom to invite enemies within our gates, well, perhaps I don't need to be working where I can expect rifts to be opening up in the middle of dinner, now does I? "

"In other words, if she doesn't go, you will?" Lady Galina said, speaking at last. "I hope it doesn't come to that, but I suppose it has been a while since you've taken a vacation. Is there anyone else who feels this way?"

There was clamoring among the tables as other staff stepped forward, including the relative of the two kids that Russell had rescued.

"Aye, how dare she tell us to leave!"

"What gives her the right to look down on us? Are our lives not important just because we aren't her soldiers?"

"You've seen how she treats Russell. Russell! If her pack is going to bully him, who will she set her eyes on next?"

Loud grumbles, then loud growls, as some of the staff turned into their werebeast shapes.

"Enough," Lady Yi said. "Have you all grown this tired since I was last here? Have you all lost what honor you used to have?"

While the boos intensified, the werecrocodile that had punched Russell in the chest, Samson, slapped his thick tail against the ground and strode away from Lady Yi's group, towards Russell.

Suddenly on high alert, Bruin slid a hand over one of his crystal bracelets, making his careful way back to his group.

He needn't have worried. After the man gave Russell a long, considering look, he dipped his head. Samson then stepped beside Bruin's boyfriend, turning back to face his own pack with his arms spread.

"I side with Lord Consort Bruin," he rumbled. "A technical win at the expense of what Bastion stands for, of what a guardian should be… in my eyes, Lady Yi, that counts as a forfeit."

"Samson," she growled. "Return to your pack."

"No, I don't think I will," he said, then nodded his head past her to where others were looking at each other. "Come on, then, you all know this ain't right."

There were a few exchanged murmurs, and then two more from Lady Yi's pack joined him. Then others, a slow tide, until it was just Lady Yi, Arthur, and her fuming dog shifter friend remaining.

Lady Yi shifted into her weretiger form, a head taller than any of her pack, and she leaned her face in, growling at the werecrocodile.

He appeared unmoved, even when she darted forward for his throat.

But with seven other shifters beside him, the press of bodies prevented her from succeeding, and she had to pull back, lest she leave herself vulnerable.

As Lady Yi bared her teeth and claws, walking slowly back to her position beside her most loyal Bonnie, there seemed to be an expanding commotion at the front of the room. As several guardians turned that way, Bruin heard a very familiar voice.

"I think your pack has made their position clear," Sergiy called out.

Bruin reached a hand out, grabbing Russell's hand tightly as they watched their mate make his bold way forward, his black garments fine and form-fitting, looking no worse for wear from his recent tribulations. He moved easily through his parting subjects.

"Lord Sergiy," Lady Yi said in a courteous tone despite her flicking tail tip, sheathing her claws. "I see you are looking well. Have you recovered?"

"I've recovered enough to resume my duties as warlord, yes," he said dryly. "But we will discuss that after I pay proper respects to my mother."

But then Sergiy made a detour for Bruin and Russell, and Bruin nearly threw himself into those arms. His mate looked hale and in good humor, a pleased smirk gracing his loveable face as he reached out to take first Bruin's hand, bowing over it, and then Russell's, kissing his knuckles. Bruin heard Russell clap delightedly.

"I thought you were going to be gone for two more days!" Bruin hissed in a whisper.

Sergiy shook his head. "I decided yesterday morning to do my physical therapy in Town.

I wanted it to be a surprise for you both, and I see that you gave me one in turn.

Mom called me last night, explaining, and told me to take the first train back.

There was an unexpected delay, or else I would have been here in time to watch the whole thing in person. "

Trailing a hand along Bruin's arm, Sergiy turned and made his way to his mom. Bruin saw him bow deeply, receiving a rolling of the eyes in return, and then he hugged her with a grin, lifting his head to kiss her on her cheek. After a few whispered words, the two turned to address the room.

"My son shall arbitrate the final outcome," Lady Galina declared.

"Good morning, Bastion," Sergiy said. "I apologize for my recent leave of absence. It seems that a lot has gone on while I was indisposed. But I have returned, and it looks like I already have immediate business to attend to. Lady Yi of House Rhindon."

"Lord."

"My mate spoke on my behalf. You challenged his words, and my mother organized a competition to resolve the dispute. Right now, most of your pack seems to believe that you should forfeit. What say you?"

Lady Yi looked over at the group that was still standing beside Markos and the other defenders, then back to Lord Sergiy.