Elara stared back, feigning resilience, but none of them saw the way she fiddled with the hem of her sleeve or the way she chewed her lip. None of them knew her. Not like Nik did.
Elara knewexactlywho was running the rebellion.
“No one.” Gaetan spat a wad of pinkish saliva onto the clean metal stage. “I acted alone.”
“Alone inthistreasonous plot, perhaps, but what about the attack on the Senate? Were you a part of Corinne’s rebels?” Lafontaine asked.
Gaetan lifted his head. “Yes.”
“And the others in this photograph were known rebels, yes?”
“As you’ve already stated.”
“They’ve all perished, yet you escaped their fate. How is that?”
“You mean how was I not hunted down in the streets and slaughtered like an animal?” Gaetan spat blood. “I’d call it luck.”
“It seems that it has finally run out,” Gabriel sneered.
“No,” Elara cut in. “He walked away from the rebels before the attack. He had nothing to do with it.”
“Or,” Lafontaine offered, “was he a fail-safe? A way to reignite the rebellion after its inevitable failure?”
Elara bucked up, shoulders taut in a way that promised wrath. Nik shoved closer, arriving in time to watch her face set with fierce determination.
“If someone really managed to do all that,” she said darkly, “it would make all of you look like fools.”
The guard struck her with a resounding crack. Elara toppled into the railing.
It filled him with enough rage to break through to the stage, where he placed himself firmly between Elara and the guard. His hands were up, palms presented in surrender.
“Forgive her,” he shouted. “Forgive her, Counseil.”
Lafontaine slammed his hands down. “Silence, Dupont.”
“A moment, Souverain.” He swallowed a gulp of air and watched as Elara righted herself. Her cheek was red, eyes unfocused from a likely concussion, but she was fire incarnate as she straightened her shoulders. “Please.”
Souverain Faucher waved her palm. “Let him speak, Lafontaine.”
Nik bowed, deeply. “Thank you. Elara confessed the truth of her name to me at the start,” he lied. “As a former resident of the Restes Quarter myself, I understood her need to escape. To live among your grace and power.”
Faucher raised a sculpted brow. “You encouraged deceiving the Counseil?”
“You admitted to the possibility that you might not have accepted her had you known the truth,” he said. “If Elara was operating under Arnaud’s influence, with or without her knowledge, evenIdidn’t see it.”
“Are you suggesting your Souverain has arrested the wrong man?” Gabriel spat.
“I am suggesting that this is an interview for the Objet d’Art. Not a courtroom.” Nik motioned to Gaetan. “Conduct a trial as you see fit, but not here. Please, honored Souverain.”
Discussion broke out from the crowd. Disagreements on whether Elara was a traitor, whether she was a poor victim under a monster’s control, or whether the Counseil were sabotaging the competition.
“We do not bow to the whims of foolish boys,” Lafontaine snarled.
“But you do answer tous,” Faucher shot back. “From what I’ve seen, you have one photograph linking Gaetan Arnaud to several known rebels. What evidence ties him to Plouffe’s murder?”
“And why are we just now hearing of it?” Souverain Tremblay added.
A knot unhitched in Nik’s chest. If the other Counseil members turned on his father, then there was hope Elara could make it out alive.
