Ruptured: The Cantati Chronicles by Maggie Mae Gallagher Read Free Book Online Page A

driven into my coffin. I should just go dig my grave in the common yard. It was to be exile for sure. Never mind the hundreds of lives I likely helped save, nor the countless missions I had engaged in that had protected the very laws they held so dear.
    “And your majors. Did they commit treason with you?” I felt faint as she threw down a gauntlet I had not expected. Why penalize my men? They had only been following my orders. Granted, I had been removed from command, but that was a tiny technicality. The Council could punish me all they wanted, but my men were off-limits. They evidently did not understand the brevity of the mission we undertook. They lived because of us.
    I glanced around the room at the stone faces before me. Yes, I had willfully denied the Council and butted against their system, but never at the cost of my men’s freedom or their lives.
    I swallowed my pride and pleaded with the Council. “No. Please don’t punish them. They were following my orders. Do with me what you will, but leave them out of this.”
    “Your men will be dealt with,” Amelia stated, as if their sentences had already been decided.
    I paled. How could I be so stupid that I put my men at risk?
    “I’m sorry. Please, they had nothing to do with this. Send me into exile or imprison me, but reassign them, put them on latrine duty. No one should be banished but me.”
    Amelia held up her fine-boned hand, magic pulsing from her palm.
    “Silence.”
    I could not speak if I tried. The Coven Mother had spelled me with a flick of her wrist.
    “The Council has agreed that you are henceforth banned from Cantati Forces. You shall be transported from Council chambers to your room, where Cade McDonnell awaits your presence. That is where you will remain until you’re with child. If, for any reason, you must leave your room, you shall be accompanied by armed guards. Is that understood?”
    In all the commotion, I had forgotten one thing: my womb was far too valuable for them to toss me into the Desert. Power. I had it and had failed to use it. Amelia flicked her wrist and removed the charm.
    “Yes,” I blurted out but stayed further words. My guys’ lives were far too precious to me to cause them further harm. The Council had me, and by the gleam in the Coven Mother’s eyes, she knew it. Even if she were bluffing, she knew I would never intentionally risk their lives.
    “You are dismissed. Guards, take her to her room.”
    Four soldiers, supplied to the hilt with weaponry, surrounded me. They were ready to lead me to Cade.
    “Oh and Alana,” Amelia purred with an edge of ice belying the sugary coating.
    “Yes?” I shivered. She had trumped me in every way possible. What further recourse could she have?
    “Any further infractions, and the Council will expel your entire squad into the Desert in your stead.”

Chapter Six
    That bitch!
    She utilized my softness for my squad to control me, to force me to submit to their decree that I allow Cade to impregnate me. I hoped the Coven Mother burned in hell for this one and let her know it with my glare.
    “Good, I see we understand each other,” Amelia replied.
    “We do.” I turned away from her, rattled by the strength of the woman’s hatred for me and fueled by the urge to retaliate. If not for the threat she posed to my men, I would have given in to the urge to punch her until I felt better.
    I marched toward the door, and the guards raced to catch up.
    “After you.” I let the first two pass as we walked into the hallway. It was not every day that a prisoner galloped to their punishment. Which was why the men at my sides continued glancing my way, as if they expected me to sprout horns and a tail. It was mere self-preservation, for not only myself but my men. Amelia had upped the ante and called my bluff better than any cardsharp. She knew I would not risk the lives of the men who served under me.
    The trek to my room was way too brief. Before I could turn the knob on my door,