The sound of my sister slapping her own forehead echoed around the room. Apparently that hadn’t been what she meant for me to do.
Duchess Hedri’s smirk widened. “Then a Seer’s testimony would be useless. What a shame. But I think my mirror has provided ample evidence of your crimes.”
The assembled jury muttered amongst themselves. They were all fully aware of the truth about this situation. Whereas it had been easy to pretend not to know about the body swap, it was hard to deny this. Furthermore, how would we explain it to Sherda? An Arahasnorcourt didn’t even have the power to dismiss charges of treason based in Sherda.
“Wait.” The door flung open. Ari stood in the doorway. He was wiping his mouth, and his eyes were rimmed in red. He must have actually thrown up. “I’m Ari of South Sherda. I’m still alive, so no one can be convicted of my murder.” His tone tried to make a joke of it, but his voice wobbled. There was nothing funny in his shattered gaze. “I can testify that those images are fake. If I say the duchess is innocent—”
“You can’t!” I leapt up. The rest of my words died in my throat as I realized anything I might say would be an admission of guilt.
Ari flinched. “Please don’t make this any harder for me. Just let me speak.”
“I won’t!” I could tell from the duchess’s sudden frown that Ari’s lie wasnotaccording to her plan. Ari had the power to completely and utterly screw over whatever twist ending she intended. But at what cost? Ari had been chasing revenge ever since he was a small child. To deny his parents’ murders would emotionally destroy him.
My head hurt. This damn heavy hat was giving me a headache. I wrenched it off, yanking out several hairpins and letting my curls fall down over my shoulders. “This has gone too far. Duchess Hedri is guilty, and I’m not her.Shemurdered Ari’s family.” I pointed at the smirking killer.
“But—” Ari began.
I grabbed his wrist. “I promised you the day we first met. You’ll have your revenge.”
“You’re more important to me,” Ari said, so quietly I almost didn’t hear it. “I released you from your oath. Now I release you from any sense of obligation to help me fulfill my revenge.”
I squeezed his hand. “I never needed to be forced to help you. And I’m not going anywhere. Worst-case scenario, we can flee to Conollia together.” I glared in defiance at the stunned jury.
The duchess smiled. She’d wanted me to make this confession. That must have been the entire point of this strange game. But why? What did she gain from switching our identities back, right afterconfessing to deadly crimes? There was something I must be missing. It nagged at me, lurking at the back of my mind, a thought not quite finished.
Before I could quite figure out what was happening, the Living Shadow erupted from the floor and stabbed Duchess Hedri clean through her borrowed chest.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Asad whimper escaped my lips as I watched my real body hit the floor. I’d tried to resign myself to being stuck like this forever, but deep down, I still wanted my own body back. I might have hated it and hurt it at times, but it had been mine.
The Blood Duchess, inmybody, stared up at the ceiling, her eyes glassy. A pool of blood spread around the sword impaled through her heart.Myheart. Oh, Sun God, my body was bleeding out!
The terrifying tyrant had gone down so easily. I could barely think through my panic.
The other Twelve (well, formerly twelve) Avengers materialized out of the shadows, holding weapons. Nine total, including Ma’qas.
“She’s still breathing! Finish her,” Durnip cried. He advanced with a dagger. The entire courtroom wisely took this moment to evacuate. The Conclave’s Gifted Knights vanished as easily as everyone else, apparently possessing no loyalty. A picture tumbled off the wall as someone knocked into it. In the stampede, I could barely see or hear what was going on.
“Kaine, Alzira, cover me!” Ysabel vaulted over the pew railing. “I’ve got to heal my sister’s body.”
Why? It didn’t matter if my body died, when I’d resolved to stay in this one. Yet I could not bring myself to say those words aloud, to give up hope. And judging from the look on my sister’s face, she also wasn’t ready to watch my body die in front of her. She was moving as fast as she could with an awkward pregnant waddle.
Alzira made a jerking motion with her hand, and Durnip’s dagger flew out of his grip. Then she chased after my sister.
Kaine cast a glowing net, dragging down the Living Shadow and two other Avengers. Two stayed down, but the shadow oozed free and nicked Kaine’s leg. The thing had sprouted a million tiny tentacles from the pitch-black blob in the middle. Kaine didn’t even bother to dodge the attacks because he healed instantly. He knocked the shadow away with a kick and a blast of fire. His net grew and expanded, stretching toward the others and yanking them down. Only the shadow could not be contained, slipping through the holes. From the cold look in Kaine’s eyes, I knew he would use lethal force next time.
How could I help? If I leapt down there, I’d only get in the way of those two. Everything was happening so fast, I couldn’t think straight. Ugh. Useless again. Letting my sister handle everything aloneagain. I felt sick. Was guilt the only thing making my stomach so nauseous? Or was it something more? I had a bad feeling, but nothing actionable. If I shouted the wrong thing, maybe I’d just make everything worse.
My sister stepped on the pool of blood. Ari started forward.
“Wait,” I said, grabbing his wrist.
Ari frowned. “I might be able to talk to the other Avengers. Maybe I can deescalate this.”
“Something is wrong,” I said at the same time. Strange as it sounded, after pretending to be the Blood Duchess for so long, Iknewthe Blood Duchess. She was paranoid, surrounding herself with magical defenses at all times. She kept people on their toes with her mercurial murderousness and by spying on those around her. Everyone was terrified of the Blood Duchess. She was cunning and careful, yet also willing to take risks to achieve her goals. “I would swear she provoked that attack.” I didn’t fully piece together my thoughts until the words left my mouth. “The timing didn’t seem coincidental. But why? What does she have to gain?”
I kept asking myself that same question, even as Ysabel reached the body stolen from me. What did the Blood Duchess want? She wanted power, obviously. She wanted to take over Arahasnor. She craved blood as if the murderousness was a compulsion granted by a gift. But she didn’t have a gift … did she? She was just an ordinaryperson obsessed with drinking the blood of people with beauty and powerful magic. Funny how improbable that sounded when I strung the thoughts together. If she wasn’t completely insane (a generous assumption), then drinking blood sure did sound like the type of inconvenience that popped up as the price of strong magic. And she was right next to Kaine and Alzira, the two strongest magically gifted people on the continent. Three, if you counted my sister, who had a very exceptional ability even if it wasn’t combat-oriented.
