Page 20 of This Monster of Mine

“Light it,” Kadra commanded.

Her blood turned to ice. She saw her horror reflected in Cisuré’s tight features.

Kadra raised an eyebrow. “Is this too difficult for you?”

Beside Tullus, Harion snickered, the sound echoed by a few in the crowd. She stared at Kadra’s stone-cold face, emptying her mind of the magus who’d helped her and to whom she’d given a rare bit of honesty.He doesn’t want me here. Swallowing, she glanced at the rest of theTetrarchy who stared straight ahead.They won’t intervene. This was between her and Kadra.

She had no choice.

Pricking a shaking finger, she drewyaris,the rune for “fire,” on the log by Ennius’s feet. The wood burst into flames, and he shouted in fear. Her breath came fast. The onlookers roared their approval.

Kadra leaned forward, eyes cold. “Ennius, did you kill your wife and child?”

“Fuck you,” the prisoner snarled.

Kadra considered that, before inclining his head at Sarai. “Another log.”

The world shrank to the midnight pools of his eyes.A test, he’d said. Of whether she would adhere to his commands. Of whether her allegiance lay with him. To balk was to fail. And if she didn’t leave this Robing as his Petitor, she had no hope of accessing her records.

Gritting her teeth, Sarai added a log to the growing pyre. A snap echoed as the flames cradled its new fodder.

“Did you kill your wife and child?” Kadra’s silky voice asked once more.

“I didn’t!” Ennius screamed.

The words thrummed through her, a grating chord. Meeting Kadra’s gaze, Sarai shook her head. He gracefully gestured to the right.

Sweat ran down her temples. He didn’t have to keep asking the same question—he could have her Probe Ennius and pluck the answer from his head.It’s like he wants me to torture him. Fighting nausea, she ran to the pile and back, tossing logs on the fire. The crowd watched with bated breath when it flared even higher. Ennius’s jaw worked, his gaze trained on his feet.

This isn’t a trial,she realized. It’s an execution. Bile rose to the back of her throat. She caught Ennius’s eye, silently pleading.Just give me the truth, and this ends. His gaze shuttered.

Kadra’s eyes never left her. “You know what to do.”

Her heart thudded. Flames greedily swallowed the distance to Ennius’s heels. If she brought another log, he would begin burning before Kadra’snext question. She could obey Kadra and let the man burn to death, but that wasn’t the justice she had just sworn to uphold. Yet, to disobey Kadra was to fail his test.

Time stopped. The clamoring crowd blurred into a sea of gnats. This was the chance of a lifetime, the only way to get into her sealed records. But if Ennius was innocent, could she live with letting him die? With doing to someone what had nearly been done to her?

Sarai’s teeth ground together. On the dais, Kadra tapped a finger against the arm of his seat with utter detachment.Damn you.Her gaze rose to the cloudless sky in condemnation of the gods. Four years in Arsamea, yearning for justice.

But she couldn’t condemn an innocent man.

“Let me Probe him.” Despite not being amplified, her voice rang out. “Please.”

The crowd gasped. Head held high, she waited for Kadra’s response. There would be time for mourning later. Right now, she’d do what had to be done. What Kadrashouldhave done.

Not a twitch in his gaze. “Another log.”

Fuck that.Pressing her bleeding finger intoherar,she reached across the low flames and gripped Ennius’s skull. The world went black, the crowd’s surprised yells fading as a knotted ball of wool bloomed before her. She grasped at frayed memories, skimming through Ennius’s life while smoke choked her. Gambling, theft, habitual drunken assault. The man was garbage.But if he isn’t a murderer, then he shouldn’t die.

A scream shattered her concentration. She resurfaced to find fire licking at Ennius’s feet. Frantic, she plunged back in, hands shaking as his yells intensified. Grasping a barely visible thread, she froze.

The burn of wine … scarlet on his knuckles after a fight … a woman berating him … blood raining in a thick arc.A child’s agonized whimpers.The memory frayed further as Ennius went insensate with pain. She gripped it, sweat running down her temples, and pressed her bleeding finger into the last rune on her armilla,astomand, the runefor “Materialization.” With a burst of power, she wrenched the memory loose.

Transparent figures flickered to life on the Aequitas’s stage. Ennius brandishing a weapon, drunk out of his mind. His wife dropping to her knees and covering a child with her body. Sarai inhaled sharply when Ennius brought his knife down once, twice. She lost count. By the time he was done, there was nothing left to stab.

Nauseous, Sarai dropped his head. “He did it!” she yelled to Kadra. “He’s guilty!”

A strange glint lit the Tetrarch’s eyes. “So, he is.”

---