Page 96 of This Monster of Mine

“I see your shadow is absent.” He dismounted, eyes fixed on her chest. “Surely, Kadra knows it isn’t wise to leave you alone these days.”

SHIT. A glance around revealed only grass and a few trees, the air thick from the storm. Her breath came fast. They were alone.

“How can I help you?” she whispered, inching to the right, toward his horse.

“You could have two weeks ago.” Tullus tsked. “We even gave you time to withdraw everything. Yet, here we are, with a good businessman’s name ruined and a nuisance of a trial.”

Must get to his horse. “I thought—”

“The Tetrarchy does the thinking, Petitor Sarai, because commoners are incapable ofthought.” He arched an eyebrow. “Two months and you’re wrapped tight around Kadra’s fingers. And probably his—”

“I’ve antagonized him at every turn.” Fire rose up her throat. “I agreed to spy on him for you.” And despite it all, Kadra hadn’t harmed a hair on her head. “I saw the exploded scutum—”

“Nowthatreally won’t do.” Tullus had been circling her, radiating menace, but now he prowled closer. “You haven’t learned anything in the past two weeks, Sarai. It’s time you do.”

Her stomach curdled at the heated look on his lined face. And suddenly,everythingtumbled into place.

Panic took over. She sprang toward Tullus’s horse, barely getting a foot in the stirrup before stubby fingers seized her braid and wrenched her off. She hit the rocky path, pain shooting through her.

Elsar save me, she thought just as his fist connected with her skull.

She opened her eyes to silence. Every bone ached. Memory surged back in a rush, and she shot to her feet only to find herself bound to a chair. It tipped with the force of her struggles, sending her crashing to the ground with a stifled scream. He’d gagged her.

Again, a buried part of her whispered.

She closed her eyes.Of course. It had been him four years ago too.

Fighting panic, she tried to make out her surroundings. A lit sconce vaguely illuminated the polished floor of a ballroom.

“Ah, she’s awake. Take that thing off her mouth,” a voice ordered. Cool, authoritative.Familiar. She’d been right.

She shrank back to no avail as he approached. Her chair was righted, the cloth around her mouth wrenched free.

“Of all people, I didn’t expect you to be involved in this,” she rasped. “Tetrarch Aelius.”

A chuckle sounded from the shadows before Aelius’s ivory robes came into clear view.

“Well done, Petitor Sarai. I did say you were bright.” He spread his hands. “This is quite unfortunate.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Because you have no foresight.” He crouched before her with a rueful smile. “As a result, I’m going to have to oversee Admia’s trial instead of Kadra.”

“You can’t do that,” she said hoarsely. “The murder happened in Tetrarch Kadra’s Quarter. Only he and I can—”

“Do nothing.” Drawing a scroll from his robes, he snapped the seal and unrolled it before her. She recoiled at the first two words, every thought morphing into a sustained scream. Surely, she’d made a mistake. Had somehow inverted those precise letters into the wrong words like a child. But the longer she stared, the more every word solidified.

Arrest Warrant.

Sarai of Arsamea, Petitor to Tetrarch Drenevan bu Kadra, is hereby charged with calumnia for her malicious Probing of Helvus of Edessa. Her charges will be heard at the Aequitas along with her accusations of faulty scuta …

The world blurred as though she were looking at it from the bottom of a frozen pond, suffocating under ice and water and more terror than she’dknown she could hold.Calumnia. A thousand lashes. A punishment no one could survive.

“You can’t say that you didn’t illegally Probe him.Twiceat that. And you can’t say that it wasn’t out of malice.” Aelius genuinely looked disappointed. “The Metals Guild will testify against your claims of defects in the scuta. And you’ll be guilty of perjury too. At this point, the trial is a formality.”

“The scuta were a sham from the start, weren’t they?” she spat. “Faulty or not, they would never have worked, but Helvus wanted to buy up devalued land so he took things further. Did you three enjoy watching people buy up worthless steel and blame each other when they died? How dare you call yourselves godly—”

Tullus slammed a fist into her jaw. The chair fell, knocking her head so hard against the ground that she nearly passed out. Blood filled her mouth.

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