“Damon Tarus?” Lissa guessed. Adrian nodded.
“Who’s that?” asked Christian.
“My mom’s cousin,” said Adrian. “The family lawyer. A real shark. Kind of sleazy too, but he can pretty much get anyone out of anything.”
“That’s something, I suppose,” mused Christian. “But is he good enough to fight this so-called hard evidence?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.” Adrian absentmindedly reached for his pocket, the usual cigarette spot, but he had none today. He sighed. “I don’t know what their evidence is or how Aunt Tatiana even died. All I heard was that they found her dead this morning.”
Lissa and Christian exchanged grimaces. Christian shrugged, and Lissa turned back to Adrian, taking on the role of messenger.
“A stake,” said Lissa. “They found her in bed with a silver stake through her heart.”
Adrian said nothing, and his expression didn’t really change. It occurred to Lissa that in all this talk about innocence, evidence, and lawyers, everyone had kind of overlooked the fact that Tatiana had been Adrian’s great-aunt. He hadn’t approved of some of her decisions and had made plenty of jokes about her behind her back. But she was still his family, someone he’d known his entire life. He had to be feeling the pain of her death on top of everything else. Even I felt a little conflicted. I hated her for what she’d done to me, but I’d never wanted her dead. And I couldn’t help but remember that she’d occasionally spoken to me like I was a real person. Maybe it had been faked, but I was pretty sure she’d been sincere the night she’d stopped by the Ivashkovs’. She’d been weary and thoughtful, mostly just concerned about bringing peace to her people.
Lissa watched Adrian go, sympathy and sorrow flooding through her. Christian gently tapped her arm. “Come on,” he said. “We’ve found out what we needed to know. We’re just in the way here.”
Feeling helpless, Lissa let him lead her outside, dodging more panicked crowds. The orange of a low sun gave every leaf and tree a golden, warm feel. There had been a lot of people out when we returned from the warehouse with Dimitri, but it was nothing compared to this. People were buzzing with fear, hurrying to pass the news. Some were already in mourning, clad in black, with tears on their faces. I wondered how much of that was real. Even in the midst of tragedy and crime, royals would be scrambling for power.
And each time she heard my name, Lissa would grow more and more angry. It was the bad anger too, the kind that felt like black smoke in our bond and often made her lash out. It was spirit’s curse.
“I can’t believe this!” she exclaimed to Christian. I noticed, even if she didn’t, that he was hurriedly taking her somewhere where there weren’t people. “How could anyone think that about Rose? It’s a set up. It has to be.”
“I know, I know,” he said. He knew spirit’s danger signs too and was trying to calm her down. They’d reached a small, grassy area in the shade of a large hazelnut tree and settled onto the ground. “We know she didn’t do it. That’s all there is to it. We’ll prove it. She can’t be punished for something she didn’t do.”
“You don’t know this group,” grumbled Lissa. “If someone’s out to get her, they can make all sorts of things possible.” With only the faintest awareness, I drew a little of that darkness from her into me, trying to calm her down. Unfortunately, it just made me angrier.
Christian laughed. “You forget. I grew up around this group. I went to school with this group’s kids. I know them—but we’re not panicking until we know more, okay?”
Lissa exhaled, feeling much better. I was going to take too much darkness if I wasn’t careful. She gave Christian a small, tentative smile.
“I don’t remember you being this reasonable before.”
“It’s because everyone has different definitions of ‘reasonable. ’ Mine’s just misunderstood, that’s all.” His voice was lofty.
“I think you must be misunderstood a lot,” she laughed.
His eyes held hers, and the smile on his face transformed into something warmer and softer. “Well, I hope this isn’t misunderstood. Otherwise, I might get punched.”
Leaning over, he brought his lips to hers. Lissa responded with no hesitation or thought whatsoever, losing herself in the sweetness of the kiss. Unfortunately, I was swept along with it. When they pulled away, Lissa felt her heart rate increase and her cheeks flush.
“What exactly was that the definition of?” she asked, reliving how his mouth had felt.
“It means ‘I’m sorry,’” he said.
She looked away and nervously plucked at some of the grass. Finally, with a sigh, she looked back up. “Christian . . . was there ever . . . was there ever anything between you and Jill? Or Mia?”
He stared in surprise. “What? How could you think that?”
“You spent so much time with them.”
“There is only one person I have ever wanted,” he said. The steadiness of his gaze, of those crystal blue eyes, left no question as to who that person was. “No one else has ever come close. In spite of everything, even with Avery—”
“Christian, I’m so sorry for that—”
“You don’t have to—”
“I do—”
“Damn it,” he said. “Will you let me finish a sent—”
“No,” Lissa interrupted. And she leaned over and kissed him, a hard and powerful kiss that burned through her body, one that told her there was no one else in the world for her either.
Well. Apparently Tasha had been right: I was the only one who could bring them back together. I just somehow hadn’t expected my arrest to play a role.
I pulled away from her head to give them some privacy and save myself from watching them make out. I didn’t begrudge them their moment. There was nothing either could do for me right now, and they deserved their reunion. Their only course of action was to wait for more information, and really, their method of passing time was a lot healthier than whatever Adrian was probably doing.
I lay down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. There was nothing but plain metal and neutral colors around me. It drove me crazy. I had nothing to watch, nothing to read. I felt like an animal trapped in a cage. The room seemed to grow smaller and smaller. All I could do was replay what I’d learned via Lissa, analyzing every word of what had been said. I had questions about everything, of course, but the one thing that stuck with me was Daniella mentioning a hearing. I needed to know more about that.
I got my answer—hours later.
I’d fallen into sort of a numb haze by then and almost didn’t recognize Mikhail standing in front of my cell door. I leapt from my bed to the bars and saw that he was unlocking the door. Hope surged through me.
“What’s going on?” I asked. “Are they letting me go?”
“I’m afraid not,” he said. His point was proven when, after opening the door, he promptly put my hands in cuffs. I didn’t fight it. “I’m here to take you to your hearing.”
Stepping into the hall, I saw other guardians gathered. My own security detail. A mirror of Dimitri’s. Lovely. Mikhail and I walked together, and mercifully, he spoke along the way instead of maintaining that awful silence that seemed to be common treatment for prisoners.
“What’s the hearing exactly? A trial?”
“No, no. Too soon for a trial. A hearing decides whether you’re going to trial.”
“That sounds kind of like a waste of time,” I pointed out. We emerged from the guardians’ building, and that fresh, damp air was the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted.
“It’s a bigger waste of time if you go to a full-fledged trial, and they realize there was no case to stand on. At the hearing, they’ll lay out all the evidence they have, and a judge—or, well, someone acting as a judge—will decide if you should have a trial. The trial makes it official. That’s where they pass the verdict and dole out the punishment.”
“Why’d they take so long for the hearing? Why’d they make me wait in that cell al
l day?”
He laughed, but not because he thought it was funny. “This is fast, Rose. Very fast. It can take days or weeks to get a hearing, and if you do go to trial, you’ll stay locked up until then.”
I swallowed. “Will they move fast on that too?”
“I don’t know. No monarch’s been murdered in almost a hundred years. People are running wild, and the Council wants to establish order. They’re already making huge plans for the queen’s funeral—a giant spectacle that’ll distract everyone. Your hearing is also an attempt to establish order.”
“What? How?”
“The sooner they convict the murderer, the safer everyone will feel. They think this case against you is so solid, they want to rush it through. They want you to be guilty. They want to bury her knowing her killer is moving toward justice, so that everyone can sleep easy when the new king or queen is elected.”
“But I didn’t—” I let my denial go. There was no point.
Ahead of us, the building that housed the courtroom loomed. It had seemed forbidding the first time I’d been here for Victor’s trial, but that had been owing to fear of the memories he sparked in me. Now . . . now it was my own future on the line. And apparently not just my own future—the Moroi world was watching and waiting, hoping I was a villain who could be safely put away forever. Swallowing, I gave Mikhail a nervous look.
“Do you think . . . do you think they’ll send me to trial?”
He didn’t answer. One of the guards held the door open for us.
“Mikhail?” I urged. “Will they really put me on trial for murder?”
“Yes,” he said sympathetically. “I’m pretty sure they will.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
WALKING INTO THE COURTROOM was one of the most surreal experiences of my life—and not just because I was the one being accused here. It just kept reminding me of Victor’s trial, and the idea that I was now in his place was almost too weird to comprehend.
Entering a room with a troop of guardians makes people stare—and believe me, there were a lot of people packed in there—so naturally, I didn’t skulk or look ashamed. I walked with confidence, my head held high. Again, I had that eerie flashback to Victor. He too had walked in defiantly, and I’d been appalled that someone who had committed his crimes could behave that way. Were these people thinking the same thing about me?
On the dais at the front of the room sat a woman I didn’t recognize. Among the Moroi, a judge was usually a lawyer who had been appointed to the position for the purposes of the hearing or whatever. The trial itself—at least a big one like Victor’s—had been presided over by the queen. She had been the one to ultimately decide the final verdict. Here, the Council members would be the ones to decide if I even reached that stage. The trial makes it official. That’s where they pass the verdict and dole out the punishment.
My escort took me to the front seating of the room, past the bar that separated the key players from the audience, and motioned me toward a spot next to a middle-aged Moroi in a very formal and very designer black suit. The suit screamed, I’m sorry the queen is dead, and I’m going to look fashionable while showing my grief. His hair was a pale blond, lightly laced with the first signs of silver. Somehow, he made it look good. I presumed this was Damon Tarus, my lawyer, but he didn’t say a word to me.
Mikhail sat beside me as well, and I was glad they’d chosen him to be the one who literally didn’t leave my side. Glancing back, I saw Daniella and Nathan Ivashkov sitting with other high-ranking royals and their families. Adrian had chosen not to join them. He sat farther back, with Lissa, Christian, and Eddie. All of their faces were filled with worry.
The judge—an elderly, gray-haired Moroi who looked like she could still kick ass—called the room to attention, and I twisted around to face forward again. The Council was entering, and she announced them one by one. Two sets of benches had been arranged for them, two rows of six with a thirteenth in back raised. Of course, only eleven of the spots were filled, and I tried not to scowl. Lissa should have been sitting there.
When the Council was settled, the judge turned to face the rest of us and spoke in a voice that rang through the room. “This hearing is now in order, in which we will determine whether there is enough evidence to—”
A commotion at the door cut her off, and the audience craned their necks to see what was going on.
“What’s this disturbance about?” the judge demanded.
One of the guardians had the door partially open and was leaning out, apparently speaking to whoever was in the hall. He ducked back into the room. “The accused’s lawyer is here, Your Honor.”
The judge glanced at Damon and me and then delivered a frown to the guardian. “She already has a lawyer.”
The guardian shrugged and appeared comically helpless. If there had been a Strigoi out there, he would have known what to do. This bizarre interruption of protocol was beyond his skill set. The judge sighed.
“Fine. Send whoever it is up here and let’s get this settled.”
Abe walked in.
“Oh dear lord,” I said out loud.
I didn’t have to scold myself for speaking out of turn because a hum of conversation immediately filled the room. My guess was that half were in awe because they knew Abe and his reputation. The other half were probably just stunned by his appearance.
He wore a gray cashmere suit, considerably lighter than Damon’s grim black. Underneath it was a dress shirt that was so bright a white, it seemed to glow—particularly next to the brilliant crimson silk tie he wore. Other spots of red were scattered about his outfit—a handkerchief in the pocket, ruby cuff links. Naturally, it was all as perfectly tailored and expensive as Damon’s outfit. But Abe didn’t look like he was in mourning. He didn’t even look like he was coming to a trial. It was more like he’d been interrupted on his way to a party. And of course, he sported his usual gold hoop earrings and trimmed black beard.
The judge silenced the room with a hand motion as he strutted up to her.
“Ibrahim Mazur,” she said, with a shake of her head. There were equal parts amazement and disapproval in her voice. “This is . . . unexpected.”
Abe swept her a gallant bow. “It’s lovely to see you again, Paula. You haven’t aged a day.”
“We aren’t at a country club, Mr. Mazur,” she informed him. “And while here, you will address me by my proper title.”
“Ah. Right.” He winked. “My apologies, Your Honor.” Turning, he glanced around until his eyes rested on me. “There she is. Sorry to have delayed this. Let’s get started.”
Damon stood up. “What is this? Who are you? I’m her lawyer.”
Abe shook his head. “There must have been some mistake. It took me a while to get a flight here, so I can see why you would have appointed a community lawyer to fill in.”
“Community lawyer!” Damon’s face grew red with indignation. “I’m one of the most renowned lawyers among American Moroi.”
“Renowned, community.” Abe shrugged and leaned back on his heals. “I don’t judge. No pun intended.”
“Mr. Mazur,” interrupted the judge, “are you a lawyer?”
“I’m a lot of things, Paula—Your Honor. Besides, does it matter? She only needs someone to speak for her.”
“And she has someone,” exclaimed Damon. “Me.”
“Not anymore,” said Abe, his demeanor still very pleasant. He had never stopped smiling, but I thought I saw that dangerous glint in his eyes that frightened so many of his enemies. He was the picture of calm, while Damon looked like he was ready to have a seizure.
“Your Honor—”
“Enough!” she said in that resounding voice of hers. “Let the girl choose.” She fixed her brown eyes on me. “Who do you want to speak for you?”
“I . . .” My mouth dropped open at how abruptly the attention shifted to me. I’d been watching the drama between the two men like a tennis match, and now the ball had hit me in the head.
&n
bsp; “Rose.”
Startled, I turned slightly. Daniella Ivashkov had crept over in the row behind me. “Rose,” she whispered again, “you have no idea who that Mazur man is.” Oh, didn’t I? “You want nothing to do with him. Damon’s the best. He’s not easy to get.”
She moved back to her seat, and I looked between my two potential lawyers’ faces. I understood Daniella’s meaning. Adrian had talked her into getting Damon for me, and then she had talked Damon into actually doing it. Rejecting him would be an insult to her, and considering she was one of the few royal Moroi who’d been nice to me about Adrian, I certainly didn’t want to earn her dislike. Besides, if this was some setup by royals, having one of them on my side was probably my best chance at getting off.
And yet . . . there was Abe, looking at me with that clever smile of his. He was certainly very good at getting his way, but a lot of that was by force of his presence and reputation. If there really was some absurd evidence against me, Abe’s attitude wouldn’t be enough to make it go away. Of course, he was sly, too. The serpent. He could make the impossible happen; he’d certainly pulled a lot of strings for me.
That did not, however, change the fact that he wasn’t a lawyer.
On the other hand, he was my father.
He was my father, and although we still barely knew each other, he’d gone to great lengths to get here and saunter in with his gray suit to defend me. Was it fatherly love gone bad? Was he really all that good a lawyer? And at the end of the day, was it true that blood ran thicker than water? I didn’t know. I actually didn’t like that saying. Maybe it worked for humans, but it made no sense with vampires.
Anyway, Abe was staring at me intently with dark brown eyes nearly identical to mine. Trust me, he seemed to say. But could I? Could I trust my family? I would have trusted my mother if she were here—and I knew she trusted Abe.
I sighed and gestured toward him. “I’ll take him.” In an undertone, I added, “Don’t let me down, Zmey.”
Abe’s smile grew broader as shocked exclamations filled the audience, and Damon protested in outrage. Daniella might have had to persuade him to take me on in the beginning, but now this case had become a matter of pride for him. His reputation had just been sullied by me passing him up.
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