Page 26 of The Tribes of Magic
“Oh, he wasdefinitelythreatening me,” I said with a shaky laugh. “I’m just not sure what, where, why, or how.”
“Watch your back, in any case. Vampires are devious.”
A terrified scream cut through the room. Every conversation died a sudden death. Everyone turned and stared.
“No!” The second scream was louder, the voice deeper. It came from Fenris. He had the tip of a knife pressed to his own throat.
“Stop this vile witchcraft!” Queen Seriana hissed. She, too, held a knife to her throat.
“What the…” Kato pushed off the wall, moving toward them.
“Stop!” Seriana warned him—warned anyone who tried to approach her and her son. She pressed the knife closer, drawing blood. “I can’t control this.”
Everyone stood very still.
“Who is doing this?” Duchess Dellondré snapped her fingers. A slew of guards in scarlet uniforms flocked to her. “Find them and stop them!”
“It’s too late,” Fenris told her as he moved the knife lower. Then he stabbed himself in the chest.
Duchess Dellondré’s screams mixed with Seriana’s as the Vampire Queen plunged the knife into her chest. She fell onto Fenris’s body.
I looked at Kato. “Are they…” I couldn’t finish that sentence.
Lord Daykan knelt beside the two fallen vampires. The members of the Court watched him.
“And? Daykan?”
“Are they?”
Lord Daykan rose slowly out of his knees. “Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris are dead.”
“But how? How did this happen?”
“I know how.” Duchess Dellondré thrust a pale, skinny finger in my direction. “She bewitched them. She killed my Fenris!”
CHAPTER 2
BEWITCHED
Ilooked at Duchess Dellondré. Shock squeezed my throat, making it hard for me to breathe. “I didn’t kill them. I couldn’t?—”
But the Duchess’s gaze was fixed on the other Court members, not me. “She bewitched all of us. She controlled the whole room without breaking a sweat! For this magical deviant, controlling just two people—Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris—would be easy. And she was right there, talking to each of them right before they killed themselves. She made them do it! She is dangerous!”
This was insane.
Someone—a vampire—chimed in, “I heard Prince Fenris tell her he knows what she is: a Polymage.”
Surprised murmurs rippled across the crowd.
“And Queen Seriana knew it too. I heard her say it. This girl killed them to keep her secret safe!”
Dellondré nodded. “Listen to Lord Brak. He has excellent hearing, the best in the Court.”
A bunch of delegates agreed. There were even numerous calls for my arrest.
Kato’s voice rose above the crowd. “You can’t arrest her! You don’t have any evidence!”
“She showed us what she can do when she bewitched all of us. Then she bewitched Queen Seriana and Prince Fenris into killing themselves.Thatis our evidence.”
