Page 105 of Heartless Enemy

But she had pulled it off.

And as her former chief lay dying, she had used his finger to write two smudged letters in the blood.

Sm.

Once again, nothing incriminating on its own. But once the evidence started to pile up, it would be impossible to ignore that it might stand forSmith. And the evidence sure was about to pile up, considering that Eve placed some forged papers in Anderson’s study as well. Papers, written in his own hand, once more courtesy of Sonia, that detailed a secret investigation into Ulric Smith.

Anyone reading them would immediately understand that Chief Anderson had started to suspect that Ulric Smith was as crooked as the rest of us on the south side, and thatthatwas the reason why Ulric had killed him. Which Anderson had tried to communicate by writingSmin the blood.

The interesting thing was that the final push that at last made the parliament investigate Chief Anderson’s death, even though we were in the middle of a war, had not been planned ahead of time.

We hadn’t known that Frank and Jamila would show up inside that tavern during the attack, and then again in the tent when we negotiated the deal with the parliament. But Eve had used those opportunities well. First by making sure that they realized that only someone from the north side would have been able to kill Chief Anderson. And then in the tent, by warning them to watch their backs with Ulric.

There was no way for us to know for certain, but that must have been the final drop in Eve’s perfectly constructed cup of lies that made it all spill over for her colleagues. They must have shared their suspicions with the parliament members after the meeting, which at last set the final endgame into motion.

To be honest, we had expected this to take a little more time. But the parliament members must have carried out their investigation at the same time as we were fighting to kill Christian White on the fields outside the city walls. Maybe because they had been nervous and needed something to do. Maybe because they realized that if their Chief Constable was corrupt, they needed to know as soon as possible. We would never know.

But it didn’t matter.

The end result was the same.

And the fact that Eve had been there to see them arrest him had been the best stroke of luck we had ever had.

By all hell, the wicked grin on her lips and the villainous glint in her eyes as she watched them charge Ulric Smith with high treason for the murders that she had committed was a sight that I would never forget in all my life. My whole soul sparkled with devilish glee at just the memory of it.

Suddenly, the courtroom around us went silent.

I glanced over at Eve, noticing that she was grinning now too, before I shifted my gaze to the front of the room.

Ulric Smith had just been led out in handcuffs.

I casually drew my hand over Eve’s thigh. She blinked and quickly wiped the very conspicuous grin from her face. Flicking a glance in my direction, she gave my hand a quick squeeze before I pulled it back.

“Ulric Smith,” the judge called in a voice that echoed between the white stone walls of the courtroom. “You have been charged with high treason for the murders of Captain Jonathan Wright and Chief Eric Anderson.”

Ulric stood before the tall platform where the judge was seated, his jaw clenched but his chin raised high.

“Today, we will present the evidence that condemns you,” the judge continued. “You will stand there, silently, and listen. Tomorrow, you will be given your chance to speak in your own defense. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he replied, his voice tight.

A smirk played over Eve’s lips as she listened to the judge list everything that she had framed Ulric with. They even brought up his connection to her, which was something that she had told me that she was only planning to use to make her colleagues become suspicious. But now, the judge accused Ulric of taking Eve under his wing after her father had died because Dan Sterling had been one of Ulric’s fellow dark mage sympathizers.

It certainly did bring a cruel sort of poetic justice to it all.

When the judge was at last done listing all the evidence, Ulric Smith was grinding his teeth so hard that he must surely be doing permanent damage to them.

Eve tugged on my sleeve.

Tearing my gaze from the courtroom proceedings, I followed her as we snuck out of the room.

The corridor outside was empty.

We quickly made our way to the room where Eve would be hiding for the next few hours. It was locked, of course. So I pulled out the lump of metal I had brought. After liquefying it, I sent it into the lock and then hardened it to form a key. I turned it.

A softclicksounded, and then the door opened.

I handed the key to Eve. “You know how you’re getting out, right?”

---