Chapter 24

"What the fuck?"

The question rings loud in the sudden silence. Fox turns to the remaining cherubs, holding his sword threateningly.

"My husband!" one of the cherubs wails, but that's not despair in her voice. That is outrage. Like she can't believe we would defend ourselves against his mind-control. "How dare you!"

Ace bounds over in his wolfman form. "Mother! He literally used mind control on all of us. How else was the Reaper supposed to react when his entire family was in danger?" Ace sounds just like his mother and just as offended.

The woman rears back, face full of disgust. "I am not your mother. I don't even know you!"

Ace sighs. "Mother, it's me. Your youngest child. I've been invested by the universal force of good to be the werewolf leader."

Bellamy, Edovard, and Akile join us as Ace's mother looks him over and shakes her head. "No."

Ace sighs and shifts back to his cherub form. "Yes."

His mother's face clears. "Talia."

Ace's face falls. He was angry; that one word defeated him. "I told you. It's Ace."

The woman shakes her head, looking away. "I named you Talia. I've called you Talia for eight hundred years, I am not calling you Ace."

I place an arm around Ace, Fox lifts his blade, holding it under this idiot's chin, and Bellamy pushes both Ace and Akile behind him, stepping into that woman's very personal bubble. Bellamy puts his mouth next to her ear and whispers. I don't know what he says, and it doesn't matter either, because the result is exactly what I need to see.

The woman pales, all the blood drains from her face, and her hands start shaking. She darts a glance at Ace, and then looks away before giving Bellamy a jerky nod.

She swallows hard and stammers as she says, "I-I-I'm sorry, Ace."

That's it. That's all I have the patience to hear. A forced apology is fine, but hearing her call Ace by the name he's chosen is what I needed. Bellamy turns away from the woman and wraps his arm around Ace like me. "You're a Foxily now," he tells him.

I grin at them both, typing into the chat, I decided he was my newest little brother yesterday.

Bellamy eyes that. "I'm not calling him Uncle Ace."

I roll my eyes. Of course not. He hasn't picked his forever name yet. Just call him Uncle for now.

"Absolutely not," Bellamy hisses.

"If everyone will please return to their seats or report to medical. We have a ceremony to perform before anyone else interrupts."

We all turn to where Zile is calling the room back to order. I don't think anyone is seriously injured, and as everyone returns to their seats, my observation is proven right. Well, there's one casualty, but the guards pick the body up and take it away along with the widow, who I'm not sad to see the backside of.

Once everyone is reseated and quiet, Zile stands, announcing loud and clear, "I hereby revoke my oath as Speaker of the Council."

As soon as the words leave their mouth, the world changes. I couldn't tell you how, but it"s different. Even I, a human with a bit of elf, feel the change.

Alexie stands as well and repeats the revoking. "I hereby revoke my oath as a member of this council."

The world changes again.

It's creepy and good at the same time.

Each councilor behind the bench repeats the oath, and the world keeps changing. As soon as they're done, they file into the audience, and Akile and the other new councilors take their places.

"I hereby swear on the magic of my investment that I will lead this council, dedicated to maintaining the universal balance between Good, Neutrality, and Evil."

The world shifts. It changes so dramatically that I lose my footing, caught by Fox who helps steady me. Things are the way they should be, they're better than they were before; the world is right. Holy shit, the world is finally right. I hadn't even known there was something wrong until it was right. It's like I've gone my whole life in constant pain and suddenly I'm pain free.

And it only gets better with each new oath made by each new councilor.

Holy fuck, we just changed the world.