Chapter 384: Hearing
A soft scuffling sound pulled Inez out of her short power nap. She opened her eyes blearily and saw Killian walking around in the room; he was putting what seemed like takeout bags on his working table. She pushed herself off the couch and yawned, her eyes shooting toward the clock on the wall.
"You are up early?" spoke Inez with a hint of tiredness in her voice. Even though she somehow managed to sleep in the office, with her awkward posture, she didn’t get much sleep. She sat up straight and looked at Killian, who was busying around with the takeout bags.
"I was thinking about making some bacon and eggs for you but—" he pointed at the blob of black, charcoal mess on the tray sitting on top of the dustbin. "I think you would rather have the takeout."
Inez looked at the burnt object on top of the plate and pursed her lips before nodding. "I wish I could have said that I can eat it, but unfortunately, the power of love only works in books."
Killian chuckled as he took out the bacon and cheese sandwich with the extra pickle toppings and handed it to her. "Unfortunately, it doesn’t."
Taking the paper plate from the man, Inez slid down the couch and went to brush her teeth before stepping out of the bathing room and returning to her seat. "Did something happen while I was passed out?"
"Nothing out of the order," replied Killian as he took a bite of his own twisted criss-cross match of seasonings and toppings. Inez had a very good feeling that chocolate peanut butter, along with cucumber pickle, could never taste good but the man and his sense of taste were way too broken for Killian to even realise that he was eating a monstrosity. "Seth told me that they will be holding the hearing in a day or two and asked me to be prepared for it."
When Inez heard about the hearing all of a sudden, a kind of chill trickled down her spine. A part of her wanted to act nonchalant as if she didn’t care about this hearing, but somewhere, Inez knew that she cared. She swallowed the bite that she had taken and nervously commented, "Oh? Do I need to prepare something?"
"Not you." Killian shook his head. "Since I took you away from the prison, the responsibility of proving you innocent lies with me. So, it’s on me."
"I am sorry." Inez didn’t know what else to say. If she had been careful or at least told Killian where she was going, then he wouldn’t be dragged into these murky waters because of her. Remy would certainly not leave her alone, and her past as someone who ran away from her old pack was not going to help her.
"It’s not your fault." Killian’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. And Inez turned to look at him; only then did she realise that she had been staring into the air, at nothing in particular. No wonder he was looking at her as if she were a fight-or-flight risk. She was. But there was no need for him to frown that hard.
"But if not for me—"
He placed his finger on her lips.
His expression was thoughtful as he said to her, "There is no such thing as ’if’; what has happened, it has already happened. We cannot do anything about that; what we can do is think about what we can do now. So better stop worrying about the what-ifs, alright?"
Inez tried to nod even though she felt that the nerves were stretched way too tight.
"You are nervous."
It was not a question. She knew it from the tone of his voice. "I am not scared if that’s what you think.... It’s just that I am feeling queasy." Then, in an attempt to change the topic, she questioned, "Where are the rest? Did they not return from Silver Dawn Pack?"
She took a quick scan of the office, and when she didn’t see Scarlet, she asked, "And where is Scarlet?"
"I asked Scarlet to return to our pack last night," replied Killian, with his arms crossed in front of him. He leaned against the wall behind him and explained, "She looked exhausted after yesterday’s ordeal, and I didn’t have the heart to ask her to keep squatting outside. As for the others, they are hunting down the perpetrator from last night."
Inez was still in the process of feeling sorry for her sister when Killian’s sudden change of words caught her off guard. She turned to look at the man and questioned, "Hunting down? They all went to hunt down the witch? Can they even do that?" Tracy, she could understand, but what about Finn and the others? They had no skills when it came to hunting down witches.
"I don’t know about Dominic or his beta. But Lycans have extremely strong defence against witches and their magic. They will be fine," he said vaguely, and Inez suddenly felt the same feeling of dread climb back up on her spine. She wondered if Killian had no idea what his beta and the rest of them were doing. However, Killian didn’t seem overly worried, so maybe everything was alright?
"I thought the witch was hard to find with all of her vessels scattered here and there." Inez’s brows furrowed. Yesterday, Tracy told her and Killian that Morga had a separate vessel, which she was possessing to keep her soul intact; in a way, she was an inch away from immortality.
"Indeed," Killian nodded as he agreed with her. "But you know an angry witch’s fury is hard to control. Tracy is furious with what happened last night, and I don’t think she is going to listen to anyone after last night. But don’t worry, she is a big girl and knows what she is doing. So she will be fine. Alright?"
Inez’s shoulder visibly sagged with relief, and she exhaled slowly.
Looking at the clock on the wall, she asked, "Shall we return to the pack?" After all of that excitement, she needed some rest.