Hoffman looked up, and I froze when his cold brown eyes came to rest on me.
“I request that Drusilla Jane Jaco, the sentinel of the New Orleans region, take the stand.”
Oh, shit.
CHAPTER 5
The world around me had turned alien and surreal. I took a deep breath to steady my nerves. The First Elder’s son was in trouble, and he needed a scapegoat. As sentinel, I might as well have cloven hoofs and little nubby goat horns sprouting from my head.
I just thought it would take him longer to go after me.
My knees shook when I stood up. Be ready to think on your feet, Rand had said, and I wished I’d pressed him more on what he meant.
Walking to the front with my chin held high, I kept my eyes on First Elder Hoffman. I hadn’t done anything wrong, other than be born with enough elven magic for both wizards and elves to find it threatening. Hoffman would do everything possible to put Adrian in a good light, which meant putting me in a bad one.
He wasn’t getting away with it. If he thought I’d stand by meekly and take one for the team to avoid ugly political fallout, he had the wrong wizard. I’d almost died, Alex had been shot, and I’d been forced to kill Jean.
Jake had shoved the messenger bag containing the elven staff in my hands as I climbed over him to the aisle. I didn’t find it reassuring that he thought I needed to be armed. The tense posture and sudden alertness of both Rand and Jean as I took my seat behind the witness table offered an important reminder, however. I had allies on the council. Strong allies. They just didn’t happen to be sitting in the First Elder’s chair.
The next surprise came after I’d vowed to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth upon pain of having my powers stripped, or some equally horrible fate. The door behind the dais opened and another security guy escorted the prisoners out of their holding room.
If I hadn’t been trying to keep a wary eye on the First Elder, I’d have smirked at the vision of Jonas, Adrian, Etienne Boulard, and the Axeman attached to each other with glittering, magic-enhanced ankle shackles. Except there should have been a fifth person in that group. Lily was the guiltiest culprit. She’d hired Jonas to use his necromancy in resurrecting the Axeman to kill me, which had led to the death of Rand’s mother. She’d blackmailed Adrian into betraying a fellow wizard, forced Jean to shoot me, and conspired to overthrow Mace Banyan as head of the Synod.
I glared at Rand, making use of our ability to telepathically communicate by bellowing, Where the hell is Lily?
He winced and hunched his shoulders. Stop yelling! Leaning to one side, he whispered something to Mace, and the Elven Synod leader’s dark gaze slid to me before he spoke. “Mr. Hoffman, before we continue, I’d like to address the absence of one of the defendants tonight, Lily Aleese.”
Hoffman’s face compressed into a sour look very much like his son’s habitual sulk, which told me Lily’s absence hadn’t been scripted. “Ms. Aleese is key to these proceedings, Mr. Banyan.”
Mace assumed a sorrowful expression that looked about as genuine as a cheap cubic zirconia in a diamond mine. In his gray suit and gray band-collared shirt, with his perfectly matched heather-gray overcoat thrown across the table, he looked urbane and oh so sincere. I knew better; he’d had the same expression when he apologized for kidnapping me and then plundering through my mind with the finesse of Ferdinand the Elven Bull.
Freaking elf.
“Unfortunately, the severity of the charges against Lily precluded our waiting for the council to assemble.” He reached across the table and dug in a pocket of his overcoat, pulling out an envelope. “Lily Aleese was executed, as per elven custom, forty-eight hours ago in Elfheim, following a Synod trial. I have time-stamped photos of her body, with and without her head, should you wish to take and examine them.”
Photos could be doctored. It took a lot of effort for me to remain seated and silent, and I shot a questioning look at Rand. He hated Lily as badly as I did. If he said Lily was dead, I’d believe him.
He gave me a tight smile and nodded. Inside my head, I heard him as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud: Mace insisted we do it by the old rules, but she’s definitely dead. I killed her myself. And she suffered.