As much as they comforted her, she hated it, hated that she needed it. She hated that she didn’t deserve them, and that soon they would be taken for her. Most of all, she hated herself for her weakness. For her desire to hold onto them just for one minute more.
“Really, Councillor Argrum,” Mrs Hardinger protested. “She’s been answering questions for four hours now, surely she could have a break and something to eat. You didn’t see the geasen breaking, Melody was tortured in that dome for forty minutes. Despite what you think, the poor child has been through a hell of a lot, and she’s cooperating with everything that you’ve asked of her.”
Councillor Argrum only frowned before sighing. “Yes, I suppose so, I could do with a break and a meal for myself. Ms Bestia, I suggest …”
But Melody’s voice rose in a shout. “Canticum, my name is now Canticum and I wish never again to be associated with those terrible women.”
He was taken aback by her vehemence. “Yes, my um ... yes. Very well, Ms Canticum, I suggest that you take a break and get something to eat. Be aware that I am not remotely finished with you.”
The obnoxious man gathered his notes and hastily shoved them into a satchel that she hadn’t noticed, before leaving, slamming the door behind him.
“How are you Melody?” Mrs Hardinger asked her gently, crouching in front of her and holding her hands.
She looked at the older woman, noticing lines around her face that hadn’t been there before. Melody remembered that she wasn’t the only one grieving, Mrs Hardinger and the provost had been very good friends.
“She’s really gone, isn’t she?” Melody couldn’t help but ask. Maybe she’d been mistaken, and they’d healed her, and Melody had just been too overwhelmed to ask earlier.
Mrs Hardinger hiccuped and then pulled Melody into her arms. “Yes, love. The wound was too extensive, although your dragons tried very hard.”
Melody’s eyes flitted to the other side of the room. When the questioning had become intense, the councillor had needed to order them all to sit off to the side or leave the room. The shifters were incensed by his attitude toward her, but all of them had needed to hear what she said, so they’d complied, but there had been rumbles all afternoon whenever they thought he was disrespecting her.
The men crowded around her, finally free to offer her the comfort that their beasts had been clamoring to give. Melody had heard them in the background as she’d been grilled, growling and mewling in their anger and distress. It was still hard for her to realise that she was finally free to acknowledge them. That she didn't have to be afraid of them anymore.
Dean and Asher were practically wrapped around her, hugging her from each side, even as Mrs Hardinger held her from the front.
Melody was safe.
Finally safe from the horrors of the last twenty-one years under her aunt's callous care. It was surreal and all too real at the same time, her brain switching back and forth from relief to disbelief.
The first sob took them all by surprise, but Mrs Hardinger was only a second behind her, and the two of them released something that had been poisoning them inside. The anger and pain, the betrayal of all that had been important to them—their very right to live in freedom and safety.
The loss of the provost, a woman who was so much gentler than her tough exterior presented was tremendous. Melody had lost a confidant, a friend, a counsellor and a hero. She could only imagine how Mrs Hardinger felt, having lost a friend who had been by her side for decades.
The door opened and Melody raised her head, only to see Toby enter, tears streaming down his face. It was then that she realised she hadn't seen Jonas.
"Jonas!" she gasped suddenly. "Where is he, how is he?"
Melody met Nick's eyes, but he lowered them quickly. None of the others would look at her either, and Mrs Hardinger only sobbed harder. Toby came to kneel behind his witch, wrapping his arms around her shoulders and resting his forehead against the back of her neck.
So, Jonas was gone too.
"How," she asked, huskily, the emotion clogging her throat.
"He was crazed, Mel. He ripped into anything and everything, and two wolves ended up taking him out," Dean murmured in her ear.
Melody gasped. "Were they students?" It would be even worse if they had, their guilt would be overwhelming, even if nobody else would blame them. She had seen Jonas fighting a wolf twice his size and winning.
"No, they came with your aunt," Asher told her, the growl in his voice betraying his anger.
"Did any of them survive, the shifters that came with her?" she had to know. These were shifters she knew, many that she’d broken herself.
"I'm sorry," said Nick. "Did you know many of them?"
"All of them, Nick. I lived in the cellars with them, remember? Most of them were ones that I’d defeated. She wouldn't have brought the weaker shifters with her, only the strongest."
"Then how many more would you say were back at the coven, Ms Canticum," asked a deep voice, announcing the return of the councillor.
"They had about a hundred and twenty, give or take. There were several pregnant women, and quite a few children under the age of fifteen. They didn't start training them until they were fifteen, and they wouldn't set them to fighting until they were eighteen. How many did they bring here?”
“Twenty-five,” Justin told her.
“Then they’d have at least another forty back at the compound that were fit enough to fight. Out of the rest, probably another forty who were not in peak condition or were still green enough
