The feast continued, but the atmosphere had completely changed. Conversation was stilted, suspicious. People kept watching each other, wondering who might be the traitor.
I'd accomplished what I wanted. I'd rattled cages, forced everyone to show their hands at least a little. But I'd also made myself an even bigger target.
"That was either brilliant or suicidal," Kael murmured when we had a moment alone. "I haven't decided which."
"Can't it be both?"
"With you? Probably." He glanced around the room. "Did you notice anything? Any reactions that stood out?"
"Lord Darkwater got very nervous when I mentioned the Queen's death. He kept drinking, and wouldn't meet anyone's eyes." I took a sip of my own wine. "And Lord Nightshade... he's too calm. Everyone else showed some emotion, anger, fear, indignation. He just watched. Like he already knew everything I was going to say."
"I noticed that too. We should—"
He stopped mid-sentence, his body going rigid. His hand clenched around his wine glass so hard I thought it would shatter.
"Kael? What's wrong?"
"Magic. Someone's casting" His eyes went wide. "Get down!"
He grabbed me, pulling us both to the floor just as the window exploded inward.
Glass rained down. People screamed. And through the shattered window came more shadow beasts, at least a dozen of them, their red eyes glowing, their smoky bodies twisting as they poured into the hall.
"Protect the King!" guards shouted, forming a line.
But the beasts weren't going for the King.
They were coming straight for me.
"Elara, run!" Kael shoved me toward the door as his shade manifested, darkness erupting from his body to meet the first wave of creatures.
I ran. What else could I do? I wasn't trained for this, wasn't ready. I had the dagger strapped to my thigh, the vial of poison in my bodice, but what good were those against a dozen monsters?
I made it to the doorway before something slammed into me from behind. Claws raked across my back, tearing through dress and skin. Pain exploded through me, white-hot and overwhelming.
I hit the ground hard, the dagger falling from its sheath. The shadow beast loomed over me, its jaws opening—
And then a sword burst through its chest from behind.
The creature dissolved into smoke. Behind it stood Theron, his blade dark with the same black blood that had dripped from the creature I'd cut earlier.
"Stay down!" he shouted, moving to engage another beast.
But I couldn't stay down. Because I'd just seen something that changed everything.
The beasts weren't attacking randomly. They were being directed. And the person directing them...
Was Lord Nightshade.
He stood in the corner of the room, his hands moving in complex patterns, his lips forming words in that old, dark language Kael sometimes used. And the shadow beasts responded to him, flowing toward targets he indicated with small gestures.
He wasn't just a suspect.
He was controlling the attack. Right here. Right now. In front of everyone.
"Kael!" I screamed. "It's Nightshade! He's controlling them!"
Kael's head whipped around. He saw what I saw. And his expression went from shock to rage in an instant.
His shade exploded outward, ten times larger than before. It swept through the hall like a black tidal wave, destroying shadow beasts by the dozen. But it didn't stop with the beasts.
It went straight for Lord Nightshade.
Nightshade's eyes widened. He tried to cast a shield, tried to protect himself. But Kael's shade tore through his defenses like they were paper.
"Wait!" the King shouted. "We need him alive"
Too late.
The shade grabbed Nightshade, lifting him off the ground. And for a moment, I saw absolute terror on the man's face as he realized what was about to happen.
"Kael, stop!" I tried to yell. "We need answers"
But the shade didn't listen. It never listened when Kael lost control.
It crushed Lord Nightshade like an insect.
The body dropped to the floor, broken and lifeless. And with his death, the remaining shadow beasts dissolved into nothing.
Silence fell over the hall. Broken glass crunched under boots as guards moved to secure the room. The High Lords stood frozen, staring at Kael, or rather, at his shade, which still towered over everyone, a dark god made of shadow and rage.
"Kael." I forced myself to stand, ignoring the pain in my back. "Kael, it's over. You can let it go now."
The shade turned its red eyes toward me. For a heart-stopping moment, I thought it might attack me too.
Then it flickered. Faded. And Kael was just Kael again, standing in the middle of destruction with blood on his hands.
"He was controlling them," Kael said, his voice hollow. "All this time. Nightshade was behind everything."
"We don't know that for certain," Captain Thorne said, approaching cautiously. "He might have been working with someone. Taking orders."
"Then we search his estate. Question his servants. Find out who he was connected to." King Aldric's voice cut through the chaos. "Guards, secure the body. Seal Lord Nightshade's properties. Arrest anyone who tries to flee."
Orders were shouted. Guards ran to comply. The other High Lords were escorted out—for their "protection," though it looked more like house arrest.
And I stood there, bleeding, in a destroyed hall, watching my husband try to control a curse that had just killed a man in front of witnesses.
"We need to get you to a healer," Theron said, suddenly at my elbow. "Your back—"
"I'm fine."
"You're bleeding through your dress. That's not fine."
He was right. I could feel the warmth spreading, could feel my dress sticking to my back where the claws had torn through.
"Kael needs—"
"Kael needs you alive," Theron interrupted. "Come on. I'll take you to the healers."
I looked at Kael. He was standing very still, staring at Nightshade's body with an expression I couldn't read. Grief? Guilt? Relief?
"Go," he said without looking at me. "I'll be there soon."
So I went. Because I was starting to feel dizzy, and the pain was getting worse, and Theron was right. I needed a healer.
But as we left the hall, I couldn't shake the feeling that we'd won a battle but lost something important.
We'd found one traitor. But was Nightshade really the mastermind? Or just another piece on someone else's board?
And if he was working with someone, who?