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The Duchess stiffens and the Exetor looks confused.
“What is she talking about?” he asks.
“I have no idea,” the Duchess replies.
It’s my turn to smile. “What did you think Lucien was doing in your library? Catching up on royal history? You people. You haven’t changed at all. Taking whatever you want. Did you really think you killed all the Paladin?”
“All the what?” Carnelian asks, but no one answers her.
“How do you know about that?” the Duchess hisses.
“Because I am one of them,” I say. “Who do you think brought that wall down? You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Prove it, then.” The Duchess yanks Hazel’s head back farther so that she cries out in pain. “All I’ve seen from you thus far is a little bit of wind. Prove your strength. Kill me now, if you can.”
I think about it. I think about the ceiling collapsing on her head, Air snapping her neck, drowning her in the water I can sense in a garden just outside.
But I am not the Duchess. I do not solve my problems the way she does, with violence and blood.
“I could,” I say carefully, “but I won’t.”
The Duchess laughs, a high, echoing laugh. “I could but I won’t,” she says, mimicking me. “Oh, that is rich.”
The Exetor joins in. Cora is livid. She takes a step forward.
“You promised you would kill her!” she cries.
“I’m sorry,” I say, at the same time the Duchess says, “I beg your pardon?”
“You murdered my daughter,” Cora cries, whirling around to face her mistress. “Did you think I wouldn’t care? Did you honestly believe I felt nothing for her?”
The Duchess levels Cora with one look. The lady-in-waiting withers. “I should have drowned that runt when she was born,” the Duchess says. “You were lucky you got to know her at all.”
“Can you even hear yourself, Mother?” Garnet says. “Annabelle was . . . she was the best person in that entire palace. She was wholly innocent. She was good.”
“No one is wholly innocent,” the Duchess says. “If you believe that, you are even more stupid than I thought.” Her eyes flash to something behind me. “Let’s start with the companion, shall we?”
We have all been so focused on what’s in front of us, that none of us have looked back. I whirl around now, just as three of the Exetor’s guard descend on Ash, two grabbing his arms and throwing his sword aside as another holds a gun to his temple.
“No!” Carnelian and I scream together.
The Regimental holding the gun has a broad, ugly face and a gold tooth that glints at me when he smiles. He has a brutish look, as if he enjoys hurting people.
Ash keeps his eyes trained on mine and mouths one word. Hazel.
I know what he means but I can’t. I can’t make that choice. His eyes drink me in as if it’s the last time. As if he’ll never see me again.
“Take me!” Carnelian offers. “Kill me instead. Please! Just don’t hurt him.”
It is such a brave statement. I tear my gaze away from Ash to look at her face, stricken with fear but sincere. She would truly die for Ash. I can’t believe I once thought her annoying, small-minded. I hated her for all the wrong reasons.
“Carnelian, stop, you’re embarrassing yourself.” The Duchess doesn’t even spare her niece a glance. She looks gleeful at this turn of events. More blood drips down Hazel’s neck. “What could anyone possibly gain from that? Alive or dead, you are nothing to me. This companion risked his own life to be with a surrogate. Do you see that? He does not love you. Even your own mother preferred death to your company. What will it take for you to grasp the concept that no one wants you?”
Even I feel the sting of her words, how they cut right to Carnelian’s core, a place that has been slashed by grief and cruelty a hundred times over.
Quick as lightning, I join with Air. It’s like it’s been waiting for my call.
The Duchess gives me one last disdainful glance. “Kill them all,” she says in a bored tone, but I am ready and I will not let her hurt me or my friends.
