“He could’ve duplicated himself,” Elijah argued.
“And not been sighted or filmed in another place? Your highness, be reasonable,” Magdalina said.
“So you’re saying he had no involvement with that video whatsoever?” Lord Zlodia asked.
“He didn’t say that hewasn’tthere,” Magdalina argued.
“Oh, come now,” Lady Korva snipped, and she threw her hands up. “This is getting ridiculous.”
It made me feel so vindicated that Lady Korva was getting a taste of her own medicine. She made our lives a living hell in Illusion class, always backpedaling on whatever she wanted when she didn’t get her way. It was nice to see her force-fed her own bullshit.
“Prince Ethan, do you know who created that false accusation against the queen, and who played it atThe Annual Arcanea’snews station?” Steward Soloman asked.
Ethan cleared his throat. “I had no involvement in filming nor creating that video, and I did not broadcast it to the public. I don’t even know who played the film. If you are angry that someone has launched a video of the queen performing black magic to the public, you need to look elsewhere, because I didn’t do it.”
Disappointment shone on the faces of the Circle. They couldn’t convict him for that.
I leaned over to Theo. “How is Ethan lying? I thought the spell placed on him didn’t allow him to make shit up.”
“Truth telling enchantments aren’t foolproof,” Theo said. “You can’t lie, but you can tell half-truths to get around it. Ethan technicallywasn’tthere that night— the Phantom was.”
So all Ethan had to do was not tell the whole story, and let the Circle judge him on their assumptions. Great. We were playing mind games with the most powerful supernatural court in Malovia, and two of the people sitting on that court were just as good at mind games as we were. They’d see right through it. Hopefully, the rest of the Circle would be fooled.
Ethan was being very careful. His words were chosen as such that he didn’t lie, but nor did he tell the full truth. He hadn’t filmed the video— Kiara, Theo, and Delmare had. He also didn’t know who’d broadcasted the video for sure. He had to assume it was Vara, because we’d told him the night of the slaughter that was our plan, but he hadn’t been there when she’d actually uploaded it to the news feed, nor had any of us told him definitively she’d been the one to do it.
“That video is a fake,” Elijah snarled. “My queen would never perform Unseelie magic.”
“I am not on trial here,” Gabby reminded the court coolly. “Let’s get back to questioning the defendant. I want to know something else.”
Gabby waved her hand. An image of Ethan formed in the air in front of the court. It was a photo of Ethan last semester, when he’d been under the leshane’s possession. He was clearly ill, and suffering. Gabby moved her fingers, and the images began playing like a slideshow, Ethan’s appearance going from bad to worse.
“Ethan Nowak was clearly undergoing some sort of magical trauma last semester,” Gabby said. “Can he elaborate on that?”
“Ethan Nowak and Emmaline Sosna were separated at the beginning of the semester, if you’re not fully aware.” Lady Magdalene's tone was condescending. “Any separation from his Marked would make a shifter ill.”
“This appears to go beyond a mere breakup,” Gabby hissed. “Did the prince make a magical contract when he became the Phantom? Perhaps, with a demon of sorts?”
Fuck Gabby. She was so clever. Fae were obsessed with contracts. If the Circle found out about Ethan’s possession by the leshane, we were done. Throw in that a witch had helped us exorcise the demon, and they’d take off our heads along with Ethan. Associating with the Miriamic Coven was practically a conviction in itself.
We were so screwed. Ethan had gone pale. Before he was forced to admit the truth, Lady Magdalina stepped in. “My client can answer that. Prince Ethan, can you speak on your emotional instability in regards to last semester?”
“You’re asking him to elaborate on hisfeelings? Oh gods, this should take all day,” Elijah complained.
Ethan proceeded carefully. “I was… fighting within myself,” Ethan admitted. “I knew I couldn’t continue to be the Phantom and be Emma’s mate. I had to choose one or the other. The Phantom was me. Hebecameme. I don’t deny that everything the Phantom did was my choice. I was not forced by any other supernatural force to do anything.”
He was being honest. The leshane put ideas in Ethan’s head, but he’d always had the free will to choose what he wanted to do, up until the last few months of his possession.
“That doesn’t mean you weren’t possessed,” Gabby argued. “Where’s the proof?”
“The prince has no proof of this so-called demon possession, because there isn’t any,” Magdalina replied. “Search him all you like. It doesn’t exist in Malovia.”
That much was true. Hattie had kept the leshane ashes after we’d gotten rid of the demon. The Circle could search all they wanted for proof of Ethan’s possession, and they wouldn’t find any.
I wasn’t sure how Magdalina knew all this shit about us. We hadn’t told her any of it. It was very concerning, to say the least. Did she have spies trailing us, or something equally bothersome? My mother had warned me about her antics.
But at the moment, Magdalina’s omnipotence was the least of our problems. I didn’t care if Magdalina knew more than the Seven Gods, so long as she won this trial.
Lady Korva gave a light laugh. “Proof is hardly needed. My nephew was under some kind of negative magical influence last semester. Who’s to say it wasn’t a demon?”
