Chapter 38

Sienna’s POV

I’d spent nearly the entire night awake, planning new, fresh ideas that could make Nightwind more appealing.

When a knock sounded at the front door just after nine o’ clock, I bristled. There was literally only one person who would be coming by at this time.

I sighed, taking a few slow, deep breaths to calm myself. Just the thought of her out there on my porch enraged me, and that wasn’t a good start.

“Yes?” I said, exhaustion creeping in the moment I saw her face.

“I felt it was only fair to let you know that the Elder’s have requested to meet with you later this morning.” She beamed at me, knowing her announcement would take me by surprise.

“For what?” I asked, calm and collected.

“I’ve been updating them on your progress.” She spoke so innocently, but she was absolutely the polar opposite of innocent.

“I’m sure you’ve said such stellar things,” I jeered, hardly able to stop myself.

“The absolute most.” Her eyes twinkled, telling me all I needed to know. She knew that what she’d said would put me in a terrible position.

And now the Elder’s wanted to see for themselves.

“Well, I’ll be at the meeting whenever I’m summoned. Anything else?” I wanted her off my porch and out of my face so badly.

“Mmmm, no.” Mia gave me a quick shrug, turning away and skipping down the path back towards the obliterated main square, which was just visible in the distance.

I shut the door, sliding my back along it, resting my head on my knees.

Of course, Asher chose that moment to come out and find me.

“Sienna?” he asked, his approach careful, gauging my mood.

I looked up to him, immediately knowing he was fully aware that I hadn’t slept a wink. He always knew.

In fact, he knew an awful lot about me.

“Mia says the Elder’s are summoning me in a few hours.”

Asher came and slid next to me on the floor by the door. “I guess I’m not surprised at that. She always did say she was going to.”

“You would know,” I mumbled, trying to stop my jealousy from spiking too far and embarrassing me.

“This is weird for me too, you know.” He did sound conflicted, but that was expected. A girl from his distant past had just shown up unannounced.

He probably thought he’d never see her again.

“Is she why you want to divorce?” I asked after a long beat of silence, the question having eaten away at me for so long now.

“No,” Asher said back, and for some reason, I believed him. She wasn’t the reason.

The question hung in the air, and I knew he wanted me to ask him.

So why do you want — need? — to divorce?

I just couldn’t bring myself to ask it.

And then the opportunity passed me by.

Asher stood up, brushing his hands on his pants. “I’ll go with you when they call.”

“I should do it alone.”

“I don’t agree with that.” He looked down at me, and I admired his boldness. A small part of me saw a leader buried somewhere in him, unable to be set free.

“Fine.” I didn’t have the energy to fight him on the subject, so if he wanted to come, he could. “I guess it presents more of a unified look.”

I was nervous, though I didn’t want to say it.

“It’ll be okay,” Asher said softly, stepping closer to me.

“What if they strip me of my title? Take away my pack?” That was my deepest fear. Mia would have presented the worst possible case of my performance, highlighting every little mistake — adding in some of her own lies, too, surely.

“They won’t.” Asher shook his head, squeezing my hand. It was all the comfort I needed.

When the summons came an hour or so later, Asher and I headed down to the capital, the Elder’s main building looming over us.

My heart raced in my chest, but all I could do was my best.

We stepped through security, soon seated in a barren waiting room, void of any color. It felt like the doctor’s offices I’d gone to as a child, so sterile and lacking life.

It absolutely did not help my nerves.

“Sienna Hawke?” A receptionist called out, hovering outside a large wooden double door.

I was the only one in the waiting room, so my identity was obvious. Still, I stood up, shakily calling out, “That’s me!”

Asher followed me to the door, and to my horror, the receptionist held her hand up at him. “They’ve requested Miss Hawke by herself. Please make yourself comfortable out here while you wait.”

“Asher…” I croaked out, reaching for his hand, needing the last minute reassurance.

I reached for him like he were my safe place, my rock, my everything. Sometimes it really felt like he was all those things.

“You got this.” He leaned in, giving the top of my head a gentle kiss, his lips brushing against my ear. “Just be the brave woman I’ve always known you to be.”

I let out a shaky exhale, following the receptionist into the Council’s designated meeting room. The space was huge, also void of color or any personality.

I guess that told me a lot about the Elder’s taste in decoration.

The receptionist placed me in the single chair on one side of the table, another five seats on the other side, there to gang up on me.

“Thank you,” I practically squeaked to the receptionist, mortified at my lack of strength. She probably pitied me.

Her heels clicked away, leaving me in the deafening silence of the room, waiting all alone.

After a few excruciatingly long moments of my ears ringing, a door on the opposite side groaned open, and five of the Elder’s Council members approached.

I shoved myself to my feet, doing my best to stop my palms from profusely sweating.

“Thank you for seeing me,” I nodded to them in respect, bowing my head until they approached and sat themselves down.

“Sienna Hawke,” the oldest one across from me spoke. “You may sit.”

I did as they said, plopping back into my chair a little louder than I intended to, the sound of my body thudding in the silent room.

“We bring you here today to review some of the notes our inspector has left with us,” a Council member to my right announced.

“Right. Mia,” I acknowledged, trying so hard to keep myself from looking sour at the mention of her.

“She’s one of our most trusted inspectors, and she has brought up a lot of concerns about your leadership.”

Right, well, I expected this.

“This hearing is mostly meant to be a warning,” another member to my left said, my eyes darting over to them.

“A warning?” I gulped, the sound echoing throughout the room.

“We do not believe you’re on track to pass your final inspection in a few months. Nightwind recently burned, did it not?”

How was that a fault in my leadership?

“Did I not handle the aftermath well, sir?” I spoke up.

“It was fine,” another member said, the one in the middle clearing his throat.

“We want you to be fully aware that we’re looking into options to replace you if worst comes to worst,” he said, and my stomach dropped out of my body.

Replace me?

It was my worst fear coming true, slowly but surely.