“Yes! Yes, I set the fire and I tried to kill Adrian but that was different. That wasn’t–I would never kill Bade!”
“Because he’s a First Ringer?”
Cosmo cocked his head to the side and I realized, too late, what he was doing. The crowd was eerily silent as he spoke again.
“Adrian was from the Third,” he reminded us. “That house was on the Second. You did those things. You admit to them. And yet, you claim you could never possibly think to hurt Bade. Is that because he’s from the First?”
“No,” I answered vehemently, shaking my head. “No, that’s not it. That–”
“Enough!” Raghnall bellowed. “The girl’s prejudices are not on trial here, Cosmo, nor are past sins. As I recall, you were theone who kept her from being charged over the incident with the Champion.”
“A failure on my part I will pay for with my grandson’s blood,” Cosmo replied dramatically.
I turned away from them then, away from the Tribunal, away from my cousin and Luca who stood only a few feet away from him. I peered into the crowd, now glaring back at me with fury to match Cosmo’s, searching. He had to be here. He wouldn’t have missed this. He would know it wasn’t true. He would know I hadn’t done those things because of the rings.
“You will keep your questioning to the matter at hand or I will relieve you of the privilege itself, am I clear, Cosmo?” Raghnall chastised.
Cosmo answered with a solemn nod but, before Raghnall could continue his questioning, Nascha spoke.
“Olympia, why do you believe Bade attacked you?”
I turned toward my grandmother, blinking as I tried to regain composure long enough to comprehend her question.
“Whydo I think he did it?” I asked to clarify.
“Other than what you’ve already claimed about him being ordered to do so.”
I watched her for a moment, trying to guess how much she wanted me to divulge, but her expression gave nothing away. I was on my own.
“It seemed as though he wanted the…” I hesitated. “I think he was after something I had in my possession.”
“Did he get it?”
“No, Ma’am.”
“What did you do after you killed him?”
“I–”
I broke off here as well. Those memories were the worst of all. I took a deep breath to brace myself and then launched into the story.
“I was hurt fairly badly myself,” I said. “My arms were bleeding a lot. I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I dragged myself down to the Third–”
“Why?” she asked. “Why didn’t you go home like you intended?”
“I was afraid that Bade wasn’t the only Viper out to get me that night. I didn’t go to the First because I didn’t feel safe there. In my weakened state, I needed to get to someone I could trust. So I headed down to the Third and made my way to the apartment of a friend.”
“A friend on the Third Ring,” Nascha clarified and I nodded, beyond grateful that she’d known how to heal the discord Cosmo was intending to sow. “Then what happened?”
“He cleaned me up, helped me stop the bleeding, and let me rest to regain some of my strength. He wanted to go to my family, to get help from them, but I wouldn’t let him. I was worried they were still after me.”
“Once you were healed up enough to leave, where did you go?”
My gaze shifted to Cosmo.
“Straight to the Vipers to turn myself in for what I’d done,” I answered.
More murmurs drifted to my ears from behind my back. The crowd sounded far less angry than they’d been before when Cosmo was accusing me of prejudice against the lower rings.
