“What’s made you come forward now and go against Halvard’s wishes?” Baird interrogated.
The sound of a throat clearing from behind me cut through the hall like a knife through butter. I’d know that phlegmy sound anywhere—it was Gus. What fresh misery was this?
Gus drawled, “I convinced her to come forward. After Halvard died, Elain wanted to keep protecting her, but last night Serena attacked me, unprovoked. Elain was a witness. If someone would inspect my head, you’ll see a nasty gash from the blow. She used a frying pan,” he finished, his voice deepening: a sure sign that he felt real anger over what I’d done to him.
A savage urge welled up; I wanted to turn around and laugh in his face.
There were more accusatory glances in my direction. Baird, in particular, fixed me with a hard stare and scanned my face, frowning.
Don’t believe them, I silently begged.
Baird’s thin mouth puckered in disapproval. Fear and frustration almost made me bow my head, but my instincts screamed not to look down; I couldn’t afford to look guilty. My spine stiffened in response.
“Timothy, go check Gus’s head,” Baird said gruffly.
Timothy appeared from the shadows and marched over to Gus. I didn’t bother to turn and look because I knew the result.
“There is a wound,” he informed the elders.
The heaviness in his voice offered little comfort as I appeared that much closer to being found guilty. Would it even matter what I said now?
A touch of heat kissed my throat. The droplet at the end of the necklace was burning, and a soft, strange voice entered my mind.
Don’t give up.
As quickly as it had come the heat vanished, the voice along with it. Alarm flooded me, and it took all my strength and stubbornness not to let it show.
Had Elain’s words somehow been foresight? Was I going mad? The only other alternative was that the necklace contained magic, but that seemed even less likely than a blip of insanity. For either my mother had unwittingly handed down a magical item, or she’d known and done it anyway. The High Priests had declared magic blasphemy long ago and forbidden its use throughout the Gauntlet. Now, any human practicing witchcraft got burned at the stake or drowned. Would my mother have risked subjecting me to that? All to pass on jewelry supposedly gifted with protection? Surely not.
“Can you think of no reason she might attack you?” Baird asked, his voice snapping me back to my present.
“No.” The lie slipped off his adder’s tongue so rutting easily. “I was visiting their cottage, at Elain’s invitation, as she wanted us to discuss the running of the forge. Serena grew more erratic as the night wore on. Eventually, she insisted on leaving the cabin after dark … It was like she was possessed.”
Noticing the elders’ uneasy shuffling, my mood darkened further.
“She seemed determined to leave, but wouldn’t tell us why,” Gus continued flatly. “After what happened to her father … I would never have forgiven myself if the wolves or the fae had found her. So I tried to stop her. That’s when she attacked me and ran out into the forest. Once I’d regained consciousness, Elain confessed that this behavior was nothing new, and that she suspected Serena of being a changeling. Of course, Elain doesn’t believe she’s involved in the disappearances directly. She thinks the fae are using magic to addle her mind.”
He wavered, letting the doubt in his voice speak for him. Now every member of the council was staring, eyes heavy with accusation. Honestly, he could’ve taught Elain a thing or two.
“Now I can’t say if that’s true or not, but it’s just as likely that she’s made a deal with the fae. Maybe, she’s even trading innocent lives for a chance to live among her kind.”
Hysteria nudged at my insides. I clamped down hard on my lips: bursting out laughing now would be tantamount to death.
“Even if she’s innocent,” he added in a quiet hiss. “Her presence alone could draw these fae to the village. We’ve all heard the tales that they can sense their own. But if we send her away or give her to them, the fae might leave our children alone.”
Despair wrapped around me like a cloak, choking the air from my lungs and encasing my body in ice. Viola cursed under her breath, and the council just looked dumbstruck.
John suddenly stood and turned to glower at Gus. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Gus, but by saying that Serena is a changeling, you’re suggesting that she’s the product of an infidelity. You are accusing her mother, Sarah Smith, of fornication with a fae? Something of which you have absolutely no evidence.”
“I certainly don’t mean to smear Sarah’s reputation.”
Such a smooth response. A mad urge to claw his eyes out struck me—he’d been doing nothing but ruining women for years. But I hadn’t fought harder to make Father see his true nature because I’d been too proud to listen to gossip. Shame coated my tongue like bile.
Gus went on. “Only the fae are notorious for tricking and forcing women into the act.” No hesitation. No backing down. “We all know that Sarah was odd, too. She scorned the company of the other women in the village and didn’t come to feast days. I imagine she was so damaged by the experience—”
“That’s enough, Gus,” Baird interjected. “I believe you’ve reached your point. Sarah Smith is not on trial here—if there is any truth to your suspicions, it lies buried with her. Even if she was guilty of infidelity, I would see that her memory went untarnished. For even the wisest of us can fall prey to those pointy-toothed devils.”
Distaste was clear in Baird’s voice, and relief sparked within me. Gus had gone too far and sounded too eager. Elain’s acting skills aside, the elders weren’t all fools, and the Chief was as sharp as a razor.
Baird said, “Serena, you’re accused of being a demi-fae—a changeling—and for assaulting Gus. You may now speak in your defense.”
I felt a pull around my midriff, a desperate urge to look back to John and Viola for strength. But realizing this would just look like guilt, I pushed back against the weight in my chest and stared down the council. “I swear by all the gods in the light court, I am not a changeling. I know people think I’m odd, but that proves nothing.”
Baird’s heavy brows nudged together. “Then, how d’you explain these absences on the days the children went missing?”
“Elain is lying,” I said firmly.
“Why would she do that?” Nathan demanded through flinty eyes.
I spoke directly to Baird. “Because she hates me. She has always hated me. Since the day she came into our family, she has taunted and threatened and hit me. When I was younger, I tried to tell my father what she was like, and she told me she’d poison my meals if I didn’t stop.”
Castiel and Gertie exchanged shocked looks, but the rest of them merely frowned.
Baird peered down his beak of a nose. “Do you have any evidence? Any witnesses to these events?”
A heaviness settled on my shoulders. Elain had been so careful to appear the dutiful and loving mother in public. The sound of rustling had me turning; Viola was standing. “A week after Halvard’s funeral, Elain came to our house. She barged through the door, uninvited, and when Serena refused to leave with her, she slapped her across the face.”
Elain made a furious noise and snapped, “I would’ve hardly called that a slap.”
“So, you don’t deny that you hit her?” Gertie retorted.
I tried to hide my smile. Elain had made a mistake. Finally.
She let out a sound that reminded me of a toad being stepped on. “I was grief-stricken; I wasn’t thinking straight.”
“Hardly an answer,” Gertie argued, her aged features hardening.
John rose from the bench and the tension etched a little higher.
“You have something to add, John?” Baird asked gravely.