I had never heard her say his name before.
No title. No softening. Just the name, placed in the room where everyone could hear it.
Quill turned.
Juno stared at him without blinking
“The record is being made,” she said. “Make it cleanly.”
For one second, Quill looked almost tired.
Then the second passed.
“Astra Verita entered a bond by corrected consent,” he said. “The bond is witnessed.”
The pens moved.
“The remaining open responses persist,” Quill said.
The pens did not move as quickly this time.
Good.
Let them feel the shape of what they were writing.
“Because those responses persist,” Quill said, “the Council will proceed under Article Seven.”
The words entered the hall and found old fear waiting for them.
Delphine had gone through the west door under a word no one would explain.
Sadie’s name had been crossed through before anyone would tell me where she had gone.
My mother had worn green silk into a beautiful room and walked out marked for death.
Article Seven.
The phrase had been sitting under all of it.
Waiting.
“No,” Caspian said.
The word tore out of him.
Magnus turned on him.
Quill kept his eyes on me.
“Article Seven is not punishment,” he said.
I laughed.
I shouldn’t have.
It came out too sharp, too ugly, too much like the instability they wanted to see in me.
“You people keep saying that right before you punish someone.”
