Page 112 of This Monster of Mine

Odd.She thanked him and promised to return the records in a few days. After the trial. Part of her hoped that making the promise would ensure that it came true.

“So that’s it?” Gaius looked worried at the blank way she kept staring at the records. “Nothing else Jovian or Livia left behind?”

“This is it.” She zipped Aoran Tower’s key back and forth on the cord around her neck. “If we could get our hands on a scutum, it would change everything, but …”

“What about Livia’s mother or Decimus? Did they have any?”

“No. Livia got rid of all her scuta before her death, and Decimus—”

She froze. Decimus had attempted to give her a scutum in thanks after she’d dispatched Helvus. Then, there’d been his tearful remarks the first night they’d visited.She even helped pay for our scutum when he was short on coin, he’d said.

But Livia and Jovian had both known the scuta were flawed.

Livia had died two weeks before Jovian. He’d moved in with Decimus. And brought a scutum with him, saying Livia had helped him purchase it.

Dumping her books on Gaius, she dug in her pockets for the leather pouch in which she’d been storing all the letters. She thrust Livia’s last letter under Gaius’s nose.

“That night she went to the Metals Guild, he came with her!” she said triumphantly. “She died, but he was able to lug out a scutum.”

No wonder Jovian had gone half-mad toward the end. He must have blamed himself.

“Gaius, Decimus has that scutum!” She beamed. “He tried to give it to me a month ago! I didn’t remember—I refused back then because I didn’t know, but—we have proof for the trial!”

“Elsar be praised!” Arms full of books, he grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll inform Tetrarch Kadra to assign Decimus a guard right away.”

Bubbling with excitement, she nearly skipped out of the Hall of Records.

“This calls for celebration,” Gaius said thoughtfully.

“We can’t very well throw a convivium.” She laughed.

“What about something equally exuberant that Aelius won’t suspect?”

“Like what?”

He smiled mysteriously, eyes faintly cunning. “You’ll see.”

Sarai set her pen down, eyes swimming. Her collation of written evidence for the trial twisted in the flickering light from the hearth in Kadra’s office.

Everything’s ready. In three days’ time, all of Ur Dinyé would know.

The door swung open. Kadra stalked in and paused to find her bracing her head against his desk.

His eyebrows snapped together. “You need to rest.”

“I agree wholeheartedly.” She organized the parchment spread over the desk’s surface.

“Petitor Sarai, will you be coming?” Gaius’s head popped out from behind Kadra’s frame.

“Where to?” she asked absently.

“The pleasure house! To celebrate! We’re all going. Tetrarch Aelius won’t suspect anything.”

She was suddenly, completely, utterly awake. Something hot and bitter squirmed in her chest. She turned to Gaius, studiously ignoring Kadra. Her words were slow and precise.

“Anek mentioned that it was a tradition.” She forced her face into something resembling amusement.

“Good way to release the pressure.” Gaius winked. “It’s been too long since our last outing. We curtailed it on account of your arrival, but you’re one of us now.” He patted her shoulder. “Should I saddle your horse?”

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