I stand tall and take a step closer to Ember’s stepmother—the woman who murdered her own husband and blamed her stepdaughter’s magic. Trapped Ember in a bargain and buried her beneath mounds of guilt.
Rage boils my blood.
She takes a wary step away from me. “Why aren’t you listening to me? Arrest that monster at once.”
“There’s only one monster here, and it isn’t your stepdaughter.”
She scoffs. “Oh, then who is it? Me? I’ve wasted three years on that wretch, and how does she repay me? I’ve done nothing but—”
“You mistake me,” I say, my voice low, cold. Shadows seep from my fingertips and writhe around my shoulders. “When I said there was one monster here, I meant…me.”
My face transforms with my terrifying glamour, lips peeling back from my teeth.
I lunge toward the three women with a hiss.
Their shouts pierce the air.
48
FRANCO
Hours later, after day sinks into evening, I stand on my balcony waiting for my sister to arrive. She sent a request to speak with me, and I asked her to meet me here. I dare not leave my quarters. Not when Ember is dozing in my bed. She’s been asleep ever since she lost consciousness. If I couldn’t sense her energy, I’d be worried, but her life force is strong. I can feel her healing, her energy building and repairing after such a shocking experience.
A dark shadow flies toward me and materializes as Nyxia. She folds her arms and leans against the balustrade. With a nod toward my balcony doors, she says, “How is she?”
I prop myself next to her. “Still recovering.”
“I hadn’t realized the girl human was so powerful.”
“Half human. You should hear her sing. When she isn’t enraged, that is.”
Nyxia attempts a smile, but it looks more like a sneer. She still isn’t fully convinced I’m making the right choice with my heart.
“What did you do with everyone else?” I ask. After I donned my glamour, I immobilized all three women with my shadows. Nyxia summoned her guards, so all we had to do was wait for reinforcements and transport. I can’t say I didn’t enjoy every minute I held the women in place, feeding off their fear.
“Mrs. Maddie Coleman is secure in the dungeon,” Nyxia says. “I compelled her to give her confession. She admitted to poisoning both her second and third husbands.”
My heart sinks. Ember was right, then. Not that I doubted her. It’s just chilling to hear it confirmed. Even more so to think I’ve had a murderer in my palace, and the woman I love has been under her care for years. “What about her daughters?”
“Imogen and Clara Coleman are being kept under guard in Princess Maisie’s room. They’ve confessed to no crimes, so until we know what to do with them, there they will stay.”
“And Brother Marus?”
Her energy clouds with hesitation. “I sent him back to his brotherhood.”
I stand straighter, irritation flashing through me. “You didn’t punish him?”
She fixes me with a pointed look. “Stripping him of his position is the most I can do. Technically, he did nothing unlawful. His only crime was ambition. As a man of the church, it is up to his brotherhood to deal with him now.”
“He may have broken no law, but he did worse than simply try to gain our favor. He wielded what little favor he did have like a weapon and built lies around it.”
“I know,” she says with a sigh, “but we must tread carefully with the church. Is there anything else we can do to avoid making Saint Lazaro’s Church our enemy?”
I already know my answer. I’ve been pondering that very question ever since we returned to the palace. I’d held hopes they’d be preceded by a far more satisfying demise for Brother Marus. Then again, perhaps his loss of positionisthe worst kind of punishment for a man like him. “We’ll invite another brother of Saint Lazaro to act as their church’s representative. Perhaps someone younger. An acolyte, even. We’ll give them one more chance to prove they’re worth keeping around.”
“And if we discover no one from Saint Lazaro can be trusted?”
My voice comes out cold. “We end them.”
