The other leaders raised their glasses and echoed, “To peace!” Then, as one—as though they’d choreographed this moment—they each raised the goblets to their lips and took simultaneous sips.
Cheers rose like startled birds taking flight. Numb, I sat glued to my chair even when the standing ovation rose around me. Since I was in the front row, my lack of enthusiasm was apparent to all onstage. Tanith’s gaze landed on me and narrowed. I glared back. The fire in my eyes promised a reckoning.
Her eyes widened. At first, I thought she’d read the hatred in my eyes and was afraid. But then her body started shaking uncontrollably. Black veins crawled across her pupils. More black crept down her neck, her chest, like spiderwebs. Fear was a cold fist around my throat, a dagger scraping down my spine.
I looked around for someone, anyone who could help her. But everyone else was too busy cheering and congratulating each other that they didn’t notice the Despina’s distress.
My blood went hot and cold at the same time. “Giguhl, switch forms!” I yelled. Leaping from my chair, I ran toward the stage. Behind me, a pop and the scent of brimstone filled the air. The demon’s appearance caused a minor panic. This time, I assumed it was not his nudity but his sudden appearance that caused the shocked reaction. Mages, faeries, and vampires scattered, screaming.
It all happened so fast that only flashes of sensation and sound registered. Two vampire guards grabbed me. Giguhl ran up and tried to help, but it only made things worse. The guards thought we were attacking. My eyes scanned the stage, trying to find Alexis and warn her. But I couldn’t locate her bright red hair among all the bodies onstage.
The guards dragged me backward, away from the stage and Tanith. “No! You’ve got to help her!” I shouted, struggling to get free. The noise of the crowd swallowed my words. My eyes stayed on Tanith. Steam began billowing out of her ears, her nose, her mouth.
Adam stood on the other end of the stage from the Despina and hadn’t noticed the ruckus I was causing. “Adam!”
His head jerked in my direction. Seeing me struggling against the guards, he frowned. “Tanith!” I pointed to the struggling leader. “Help her!”
He looked over and his eyes widened. But at that moment, Orpheus groped for Adam’s sleeve. His face had gone purple and his hands flew to his throat. Adam whirled around to catch his mentor. “Rhea!” he shouted. From the corner of my eye, I saw Adam’s silver-haired aunt running toward her old friend, her expression both determined and terrified.
The fae guards finally noticed that both the mage and vampire leaders were in distress and leapt to protect the Queen. But from my vantage point, she seemed fine, if confused.
Just then, Alexis reappeared at the Despina’s side. When Tanith slumped over, Alexis caught her limp body. “Oh, gods! She’s burning up!”
Finally, Alexis’s shout mobilized the guards. They dropped my arms and ran toward the dais. Before they reached her, Tanith’s tortured scream cut through the noise like a shard of glass.
As I watched in horror, Orpheus gurgled and vomited black bile. All over the unsigned peace treaty. His eyes rolled back in his head and he crashed face-first into the table.
“No!” Adam’s tortured yell made my chest constrict. Rhea pulled Orpheus’s body from the table and tried to revive the leader.
Tanith let loose a belch that seemed to come from the bowels of Hades. Her eyes bulged and her tongue rolled out of her mouth bloated and blackened.
In the next instant, Tanith Severinus, Exalted Despina of the Lilim, exploded.
32
For a split second after Tanith’s body went up in flames, the clearing went silent and still. Then, as if someone pushed the cosmic fast-forward button, people scattered and screamed.
Chaos.
Tanith’s guards shot into action, scrambling to surround Persephone. Her expression pale and terrified, she stared in open-mouthed shock at Tanith’s smoldering remains. The Pythian Guards formed a phalanx around Orpheus’s body, too. The fae guards gathered up the Queen and scurried her off, presumably to a more secure area.
In the sea of panicked bodies, I stared at the scene unfolding. Shock numbed my limbs but my heart galloped. Giguhl grabbed my hand and held on. “Gods protect us,” he breathed.
I wished I could share his conceit that we even deserved protection. The last nail had just been pounded into peace’s coffin. The dark races, it seemed, were beyond salvation.
“Sabina!” Adam stood on the dais with other Pythian Guards, who’d surrounded the Council. I pulled my hand from Giguhl’s grasp.
“Come on,” I yelled, and ran to the platform. Now that I was closer, I finally saw Maisie lying on the ground. My heart lurched. I took the steps in one leap and reached her side.
“What happened?” My hands fumbled to find her pulse. When the steady beat pulsed against my fingers, I relaxed a fraction. Adam knelt down.
“She passed out. We need to get her out of here.”
Behind him, I saw Giguhl go to Rhea, who wept silently over Orpheus’s body. The demon grabbed a discarded cloak from the ground and wrapped it modestly around his hips before kneeling next to the elder mage.
“Do you want me to do it?” I asked, thinking Adam might need to help the other guards.
“Mage law dictates that if the High Councilman dies,” he said, his voice cracking, “the Oracle steps in as leader of the Council until new elections can be held. Pythian Guards must remain with her at all times now.”
I nodded. “What can I do?”
“Stay with Rhea,” he said. “And, Sabina?” I looked up. His gaze was so intense I wanted to shy away from it. “Be careful. None of us are safe until we find the monster who did this.”
I wanted to grab him and kiss and demand that he be careful, too. Tell him I didn’t care if he could accept all of me or not because I needed all of him. But he was already gathering my sister into his arms and running off, followed by four other Pythian Guards. He’d not soon recover from Orpheus’s death. None of us would. But in the meantime, we all had to focus on staying alive.
I allowed myself a moment to watch his retreating back. His broad shoulders tensed with Maisie’s weight. I’d always admired those shoulders, so strong and capable. But I didn’t have the luxury of mooning over my personal heartache. The murders of Orpheus and Tanith were a crisis of epic proportions, and until it got sorted out, everything else had to get shoved down.
I turned toward Giguhl, who stood in front of Rhea like a bodyguard, all shoulders and claws ready to defend. “We need to get Rhea out of here.”
Giguhl’s eyes widened when he saw my burden. “What happened with Maisie?”
“She passed out. Adam’s going to take her to her rooms.”
“I can’t leave him,” Rhea said. “I won’t.”
I knelt down beside her. “The Guards will take care of him. But it’s not safe for you here.”
Tears rolled down her face. “Who did this, Sabina?”
Fighting my own urge to cry, I said, “I don’t know.” I gently helped her rise. “We have to find the Queen and Persephone. They’ll be in charge until Maisie recovers.”
Just then, a fae guard ran up, panting. “The Queen and the Council are convening in chambers. All ranking members of the races need to report there.”
“We’re right behind you.”
He nodded and ran off to spread the word to the others.
I turned to Rhea. “I need to get some weapons.”
She nodded. “Let’s stop by my rooms, too. I’d better pick up some healing supplies while we’re there.”
I hesitated. “We’ll drop you off at chambers. Give Giguhl a list and he’ll gather—”
She shook her head. “Absolutely not. Whoever did this killed my best friend. I will not hide like a mouse when I could be helping.”
I knew better than to argue. Rhea was one of the toughest females I knew—hell, she was one of the toughest beings period.
Just before we set off, Alexis ran by. All the other guards were busy trying to calm everyone down, but she was running in the other direction.
“Alexis,” I called.
She stopped and shot me a venomous glare. “What?”
“We’re supposed to report to chambers.”
“I’ve got to do something else first.”
I frowned at her. “What?”
“That’s none of your fucking business,” she spat out. In her hand, a dagger glinted in the torchlight. I looked down at it and saw the tattoo on her arm.
I grabbed it for a better look.
“Get off me,” she yelled, and tried to push me away. But I held on tight.
“What’s this?” I demanded. The tattoo I’d barely glimpsed the other night hadn’t been a dagger at all. Instead, her wrist bore a red triskelion. Just like the one I’d seen at Spank. The one Mistress Bianca said indicated the bearer was a vampire who partook of blood-sport games. The kind of being who’d own vampire gloves like the pair found near Marty’s body at Vein.
She glared at me as if I’d lost my mind. “It’s a fucking tattoo.” She jerked her hand way. “I don’t have time for this shit.” She ran off without another word.
In shock, I watched her go. The world seemed to spin and my mind filled with a dozen damning memories that supported my new suspicion.
“What was that all about?” Giguhl asked. He’d seen the tattoo, too, but hadn’t put the pieces together.
“Remember the symbol we saw at Mistress Bianca’s dungeon?” I said. Giguhl went still and stared after the running vampire.
“Oh, shit,” he breathed.
Rhea came up, frowning with worry. “What’s wrong?”
“Come on, I’ll fill you in on our way to the Council chambers.”
Fifteen minutes later, I had two guns, three knives, and a mission. I’d gone over my suspicions about Alexis with Rhea while she gathered her own supplies—potions, amulets, herbs. Giguhl listened, too, adding his own damning details to my list of evidence. By the time I finished telling Rhea everything, she stopped and nodded. “If Alexis is really the killer, we need to warn the Queen and Persephone in case she tries to take them out, too.”
