Page 33 of A Tale of Treachery

I chuckled, knowing how badly he was itching to imbibe the moonflower.

“I still can’t fathom why you would ever think of creating that plant as an alibi. It’s not a plant that would make you seem any less suspicious in the eyes of the soldiers.”

“It was the first thing I could think of that bloomed at night.” I shrugged, flipping a greasy lock of red hair out of my face. “I wasn’t expecting to be caught. The forest isn’t exactly small, and I veered well out of the soldiers’ path.”

Redmond harrumphed and went back to his book, while I slunk over to the bookcase, searching for new reading material. The shelves in the infirmary weren’t only filled with medical and historical texts. They also contained some fun romance and adventure books from Faerie that Eulalia had somehow gotten her hands on. The books never ceased to annoy Redmond. He claimed reading was a waste of time if it wasn’t for educational purposes.

I grabbed a romance off the shelf and settled into my cushy chair, ready to enjoy a rare day free of study and Ryken, when a tapping noise sounded at the window.

Redmond raised his eyes from his book and tilted an eyebrow. “Looks like you have a visitor.”

A massive raven sat on the windowsill, thick black feathers fluffed up from the wind. The bird held a large golden envelope in his beak.

“Silas,” I exclaimed, excited to hear from Eulalia.

I’d feared she would never speak to me again.

Silas flew away with a gurgling croak as soon as I plucked the envelope from his beak, which could only mean one thing: Eulalia wasn’t expecting a response.

My heart sank, and I slipped my finger underneath the lip of the envelope, removing the seal of what could only be a goodbye note.

A lone letter was inside. It read:

Hello, Dahlia,

Your presence is requested at the designated clearing in three days’ time during the witching hour to determine your punishment for the following crimes:

Murder.

Fraud.

Endangerment of the Gallows Coven and its members.

You are expected to arrive unarmed and accept judgment.

Regards,

Eulalia Enolian

Head Witch of the Gallows Coven

It was so much worse than expected.

“Murder and endangerment?”

I jumped at the sound of Redmond’s voice. He hovered behind me and plucked the letter from my fingers. When did he get so sneaky?

“Um—nothing. It’s nothing,” I stuttered, trying to grab the letter from him.

He zigzagged away, awfully spry for a middle-aged man, and hunched his body around the letter to keep me from grabbing it. He snorted when he was finished reading, throwing the letter off to the side. “You’re not going.”

“I am. I need to see Eulalia and beg for forgiveness. I have to make things right with her.”

Redmond rubbed his temples. “It’s not going to turn out how you think, Dahlia. She included fraud and endangerment in the charges. There’s no begging for forgiveness when it comes to this. Eulalia and her coven have already made up their minds.”

My shoulders slumped. “They’ll understand. She’ll understand. I’ll make sure of it. What I did was an accident. And if it weren’t for me, her coven would be locked up in the dungeon, awaiting an unfair trial followed by sure death.”

“You know what they say about good intentions. They don’t matter. Only the end result does.”

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