Page 139 of The Fifth Heir

I looked at the confidential healer’s drawing inside the folder.

“Do not share anything else I told you.”

“The council acts for the stability of the crown.”

“That was not permission.”

Father’s gaze cooled.

“I heard you.”

I returned to the Fifth Wing after sunset.

Talia sat in the common room with the basket her sister brought. One honey cake remained on the plate. Rafe reached for it as I entered, and she slapped his hand away.

“You ate four.”

“I flew you around the tower.”

“Which somehow entitles you to all of my mother’s food?”

“I assumed it entitled me to more than cake, but Leander interrupted.”

The wall runes turned red.

Talia’s face did the same.

Torren looked up from the chair beside the hearth. Sebastian stopped reading.

I removed my coat.

“Don’t involve me in your inability to behave appropriately.”

Rafe smiled. “There he is.”

Talia broke the final cake in half and gave him one piece.

I went to the study.

The sealed cabinets waited in their rows. Sebastian’s copied Trial records covered one desk, while Talia’s notebook lay closed on another.

I should have told her about the petition.

Nothing had been filed. No decision had been made. My father had requested information relevant to a lawful review, and I had provided only what the academy already knew or needed to know.

There was no reason to alarm her before Malcolm acted.

The argument was legally sound. It was also the same kind of selective truth my father had defended less than an hour earlier. Recognizing that should have sent me back to the common room.

A message appeared on the study wall.

Black letters formed inside a rectangular border.

BY ORDER OF THE KEEPER OF TRIALS: THE FIVE HEIRS WILL PRESENT FOR CONTROLLED ELEMENTAL DEMONSTRATION AT MIDDAY.

I read the next line.

THE FIFTH HEIR’S TORC WILL BE TESTED UNDER SIMULTANEOUS EXPOSURE TO ALL FOUR CHOSEN ELEMENTS.