Isidora levels the other woman with a condescending smile. “That’s quite ridiculous. My daughter is?—”
“She was the last person to see Rector Talcott alive before his murder last night,” the officer insists. “Two survivors of her attack named her as the necromancer responsible.”
Murder?
What the?—?
Anthea is forced to her knees, and her dove grey eyes—the mirror of Isidora and Pierce’s—water.
I don’t think this is an act. At least, not on her part. Herbehaviour all through dinner was that of someone facing a gallows, and yet…
“Rector Carlton,” the officer in charge says. “What would you like us to do?”
My eyes widen as I turn to Isidora. No one can possibly miss the flash of triumph in her eyes as she takes in her weeping child.
Isidora is now the most powerful woman in arcandom.
And if Abe is really dead, that means I…I’m now a parriarch.
Forty-Two
Pierce
My mother judges my sister with cold detachment.
This was her plan. Not capturing the Arcanaeum but killing Abe Talcott.
Anthea was genuinely asking for Sanctuary before. If I’d known and asked Kyrith to grant it—if I’dlistenedto my sister—maybe we wouldn’t be looking at a new rector and a new parriarch.
At least…I assume Dakari is now a parriarch. I’ve never asked what kind of degree he received from the university. I’ve never heard anyone call him magister, but he’s always been an outcast.
Shit. What if he isn’t qualified? What if all he managed was the basic, fundamental arcane degree? If that’s the case, House Talcott will fall to another vicegerent of my mother’s choosing.
“I will, of course, need to review any evidence,” Isidora says smoothly. “If Anthea’s guilty, she’ll be executed. For now, my people will lock her in the cellar. It’s heavily warded,but you’re welcome to leave officers to guard her if you wish.”
The basement was warded to keep her victims from ever escaping, but if any of the enforcers find it odd that we have a purpose-built prison beneath the manor, they say nothing. Anthea meets my gaze, and it’s all I can do not to recoil from the force of her terror. Her mouth works, like she’s trying to protest, but the gagging spell is still firmly in place.
We’re not close. We were always raised to be rivals, but any schadenfreude I might’ve felt is lost the moment her eyes slide closed. Her head drops, body sagging as she’s levitated through the door and out of sight.
Our mother fully intends to execute her. We both know it.
Isidora framed and condemned our father, and Anthea is her next scapegoat. After all, it’s so much easier to play the saviour when you’ve got a villain you can pin all the blame on.
Why Anthea and not Dakari?
Why not frame Leo?
I get my answer when the officer flicks through Anthea’s confiscated grimoire, her eyes narrowing further with each page. My sister learned far more at Mathias’s knee than I ever did, and she was a good student.
My chest constricts as I realise…that could’ve been me.
If our places had been reversed…
Shit.
“I’m sorry, gentlemen.” My mother rests her fingers on the tablecloth. “I think it’s best to adjourn. Perhaps we can finish this another time.”
“Understandable,” Mathias agrees graciously. “Galileo and I had some things to discuss, anyway.”
