It didn’t surprise Keith at all that Iris had felt that something was off. She already had good instincts to start with, and a life of feeling like the odd one out—and a year of trying frantically to be as far “in” as possible—had left her hypersensitive to social undercurrents. Plus, she’d spent a long time working in the Council House. She knew what the usual atmosphere was: the almost undetectable sounds and scents of the place when everything was normal. Of course she would have noticed that things had gonethiswrong.
He stopped caring about the people watching them, and he took her hand, lacing their fingers together.
Iris held him right back, and he saw her pull herself together.
“Your community liaison—”
“Aside from Iris,” Keith said.
“—right, aside from me—is that short, silver-haired guy with the beard and the pale gray suit. His name is Lord Sinclair.”
“Oh, I wish we had lords and ladies,” Iz said. “I’d make an incredible Lady Isabelle.”
“You don’t even go by Isabelle,” Keith said.
“I would if I could be Lady Isabelle. Relax, Keith, I can handle things. Go help Coop.”
Theydidhead inside to help Coop, but Keith didn’t let go of Iris’s hand. He could only admire how brave she was to walk steadily back through a place she’d just fled in horror.
Cooper, Simon, and Evie stood at the end of the hall, blocking the door to the reception chamber.
So that’s where it happened.
We will make someone pay for killing the Lady and troubling our mate,his unicorn said, rearing its head, eager to attack someone.
I’m sorry we didn’t get to duel for her,Keith told it.I would have found that pretty satisfying too.
Maybe someday,his unicorn said philosophically.
Cooper was grim-faced. “I’m sorry to have called you both in here. Especially you, Iris.”
“It’s okay,” Iris said, holding herself together. “I want you to do whatever you have to do to find out who did this.”
“We will,” Cooper promised.
“Iris told the new lead Councilor that we need a doctor to look over Lady Marianne,” Keith said. “Whoever he finds can verify the time and cause of death.”
“That’d be a big help. All we can say right now is that it’s probably been at least a few hours, but it could be more. As for the cause of death ....”
Iris winced. “I think I know what the doctor will tell you. That’s a wound from a unicorn horn.”
The revelation jarred Keith. He’d already had a hard time imagining anyone killing Lady Marianne; it was almost impossible to imagine someonegougingher, using their own horn to take her life away. Now it made him feel sick that he’d threatened to duel Lady Alicia. He had never killed with his horn, and he realized now that he hoped he would never have to.
“We were wondering about that,” Cooper said gently. “It’s hard to imagine that anything else could have left that kind of mark. That’s what we wanted to talk to the two of you about. I don’t know a lot about unicorn culture. What kind of circumstances might make somebody do this?”
“Well, a duel,” Keith said, feeling awkward about it. “We can challenge people.”
“Seriously?” Simon said. “Do you get to smack people in the face with a glove?”
Keith ignored this. “But whatever this was, it can’t have been a duel. Duels are rare, but they’re legal, and they’re public. If someone wanted to duel Lady Marianne, they’d issue a formal challenge, and then there would be a public fight. It wouldn’t be a secret. Same if Marianne had wanted to duel them. There wouldn’t be any reason to hide it.”
Sure, there would be some social stigma attached to challenging a Councilor to a duel—especially theheadCouncilor—but not as much as there would be to keeping it secret and inviting accusations of murder. Even if the killer had wanted, for whatever reason, to keep it quiet, Keith couldn’t see why Marianne would ever have agreed to it. It just didn’t make any sense.
“That’s the only time I can think of when someone wouldchooseto use their horn,” Keith said. “And since this couldn’t have been a duel, all I can guess is that whoever killed her just used the weapon they had.”
“Shifted quickly, maybe while her back was turned, and ....”
Keith winced and nodded.
