Page 121 of The Sorrow of Shadows

“Since my return to the capital there have been three murders and assassination attempts on my and Lord Aurelius's lives. I have evidence to suggest it was all in hopes to usurp the throne of Rimor.” I pause, and startled gasps sound around me. I turn a malicious grin at Prince Ayden.

He’s smirking back at me as I give my next command, “Guards, arrest Prince Ayden II of Prudia for conspiring against the crown and the attempted murders of Lord Aurelius and me.”

The smirk on his mouth doesn’t even falter as he stands and offers himself over to my guards. He even winks at me as they yank his arms behind his back, shackling them in place.

Lady Charlotte stands abruptly with a furious look on her face. “This is preposterous! What proof do you have that Prince Ayden is behind any of this?”

“Stand down, Charlie,” Prince Ayden commands.

“Yes,Charlie, sit down,” I growl. “Before I find charges against you as well.”

With that, she sits, glaring daggers at me.

I pull the letter from Ayden’s room and unfold it. “This letter was recovered from Ayden’s belongings. I think you’ll find the evidence damning.” I recite the letter word for word, finishing it with a “Oh, and guards. This letter is signed by Lord Seamus Delencourt, so arrest him as well.” I say it as an afterthought, but this is the part I’m most excited for.

The smug look from Lord Seamus's face is gone, but a look of pride shines on Ophelia’s. The letters she and Elijah recovered from her father’s study were the final piece of evidence I needed to arrest him. While none of them were ever signed from oraddressed to Ayden, it was enough for me to make the connection.

I pull the letters and throw them down in the center of the table. “These were recovered from Lord Seamus's study.”

Lord Seamus stands abruptly, the chair falling backwards and hitting the floor with a loud thud. He opens his mouth to speak, but I’m not done.

“Oh, and the servant that died from eating the poisoned food meant for Lord Aurelius? The poison was water hemlock slipped into the produce shipment from the farmlands owned by Lord Seamus. That took some digging to find out, but you have Lord Craylor to thank for helping me discover that.”

Seamus is apparently too stunned to speak, so I continue, “I discovered the servant we found in the river—her name was Delilah in case you were wondering—had been reassigned from the kitchens just days before her disappearance. What I found interesting was when I tried to pay a visit to her family, the neighbors were under the impression that they had all disappeared in the night. But when I entered their supposedly empty home, I found them all right there. Slaughtered in their beds, even the babe.”

“There is no possible way you connected all of that to me,” Seamus spits. “Especially not from a few letters stolen from my study.”

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot that because I’m female, I’m somehow less intelligent. That I couldn’t possibly read your ledgers and piece together that the large sum you paid to ‘M’ was the standard fee that the Midnight Brotherhood charges for mercenary services.” I pause for added effect. “Please, My Lord, do not insult me. You may have paid them well, but I pay them better.” It also helps that the head of the brotherhood was an old friend of mine who owed me a favor.

“You think you’re so clever, Princess. You know nothing,”Seamus snarls.

“Wrong, I know I’m clever. I may not know everything, but I know enough to have you executed for your crimes.” I smirk at him. “Kind of like how you executed Commander Nolan for coming too close to the truth.”

The guards close in on Lord Seamus, pulling his arms behind his back, but he won’t go easy. He thrashes in their grip, desperate to not be shackled.

His eyes dart to the letters on the table, and it finally clicks how I was able to gather this information. Electricity dances in his eyes as he turns his gaze to his daughter.

“You traitorous bitch,” he spits at Ophelia. She doesn’t even recoil from him, just meets his stare and crosses her arms.

“No, Father.You’rethe traitor, and I’m done living in fear of you.” Her voice is steady and full of a confidence that wasn’t there when I first met her.

“You will pay for this!” he screams as lightning bursts from his hands into the bodies of my guards. They drop to the floor, their hearts no longer beating.

Everyone else takes a few steps back, not wanting to be his next target. It’s pointless though, because the next target is the raven-haired beauty standing next to Elijah.

Before I can process what’s happening, Lord Seamus pulls a blade I didn’t know he had and throws it straight at Ophelia’s chest. With expert precision, it hits the target with a sickening crunch of steel piercing flesh and bone.

Ophelia’s scream echoes through the room, but it’s not one of pain. I blink rapidly, trying to make sense of what I see before me.

The dagger is protruding not from Ophelia’s chest, but Layne’s. He had stepped in front of the blade to save his sister from their father. Layne drops to his knees, then collapses completely on the floor, blood pooling around him.

“Aurelius!” I shout, and he seems to read my mind. HisHemonia Gift instantly seizes hold of Lord Seamus's body, keeping him immobile and unable to use his power.

I turn back to Ophelia who is on the floor with Layne, tears streaming down her face.

“Why did you do that?!” she screams, but he just stares up at her and smiles.

“I will always—” he chokes on blood pooling in his lungs, “protect my baby sister.” He reaches up and brushes a strand of her hair behind her ear.

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