Silver-Tongued Devil

Page 53

“Miss Vega, you have the floor,” the Queen said, pointing to the front of the room with her cane. At this point, most of the guards and staff had now taken their seats like a jury.
Alexis walked to the front of the room, her head high despite her ripped and soiled gown. Her cherry-red hair stood in odd tufts and angles. I would have been amused but I was pretty sure I wasn’t looking any better.
“Thank you, Your Benevolence,” Alexis began. “I’ll need a computer.” She removed a small black cartridge from the bodice of her gown.
The Queen frowned at the request, but she nodded at a nearby mage to retrieve a laptop. While the young male ran off, Alexis cleared her throat and began pacing like Perry Fucking Mason.
“As you know, I believed that Tiny Malone was the party responsible for the murder of both the human and the mage. But over the last few days, new information has come to light that leads me to believe we killed the wrong party.”
“There was no ‘we’—you killed Tiny Malone,” I couldn’t help pointing out.
“Sabina,” the Queen said in a warning tone. “My patience for interruptions is wearing thin.”
Alexis shot me a shit-eating grin. I pursed my lips and took my frustration out on the armrest of my chair.
“Regardless, I didn’t want to believe Sabina might be responsible for such senseless acts of violence. But the more I put the pieces together, the more I realized she was the most likely culprit.” She spun around and walked in the other direction, ticking off allegations on her fingers. “First, I saw Sabina leaving Central Park the night the human was murdered. When I had a chance to meet her, I disregarded her as a suspect because of her ties to the Council. But then the mage died. Like others, I believed the murderer was most likely a vampire.”
I frowned. Hadn’t I used similar arguments when I tried to convince the Queen that Alexis was the murderer?
“Sabina, as a former acolyte to the Temple of Lilith and granddaughter of the Alpha Domina Lavinia Kane, saw the virgin bloodletting ritual in person.” She turned to the Queen. “As you said, though, hard evidence is needed to prove such a serious allegation. So I started digging into Sabina’s life. It was only after Tiny had been killed and we believed the case closed that I realized Sabina had a motive for discrediting Slade Corbin.” She paused dramatically.
My heart kicked into a rapid staccato. Surely she didn’t know about—
“Sabina wanted Slade Corbin out of the picture because she was terrified that her mage lover, Adam Lazarus, would discover Sabina’s secret affair with Mr. Corbin.”
Gasps rippled through the crowd. I jumped out of my seat. “That’s a fucking lie!”
The Queen’s eyes narrowed. “You deny you slept with Slade Corbin?”
My guilty gaze flew toward Rhea. Her hand went to her lips in shock, but she refused to look at me. I didn’t want to admit the truth in front of her. But I knew that lying now would only damn me further. I squeezed my eyes closed. When I opened them, I whispered, “No, I can’t deny it.”
Dozens of pairs of damning gazes burned into me. The Queen’s scathing judgment didn’t bode well for my immediate future. Giguhl looked like he wanted to jump to my defense, but I shook my head. I had to deal with this on my own. “But I didn’t kill anyone. The night the mage was murdered I was with Sl—” I stopped, realizing that claiming Slade as an alibi wouldn’t do me any favors. I cleared my throat and changed tactics. “I’d have to be a complete psychopath to murder innocents to cover up a stupid one-night stand.”
“I’m glad you brought that up,” Alexis said. To the room she called, “Last evening, I personally witnessed Sabina maim an innocent faery during a Roller Derby match. Sabina broke the faery’s spine without one sign of remorse.”
I rounded on her. “You’re twisting the truth!”
“Oh, really? How about this for truth: After Sabina was ejected from the Roller Derby match, she proceeded to stalk an innocent human male to his home. If I hadn’t stopped her, she would have murdered the man along with his wife and baby.”
Outraged shouts came from the mages assembled. My stomach sank. This was bad. Really, really bad.
“She’s lying,” I cried. “She didn’t stop me. I changed my mind!” Oh gods, that didn’t sound any better.
The Queen raised a brow. I could practically see her adding this evidence to her own memories of how I killed one of her favorite ambassadors. She looked ready to declare me guilty.
“You don’t understand,” I cried. “She’s twisting the truth to frame me for murders she committed!”
Just then, the young mage returned with a laptop. Alexis whispered instructions to him.
While he went to do what she’d asked of him, she turned back to the audience. “Of course, none of my accusations are hard evidence of Sabina’s guilt. However, after my beloved leader, the Despina, was murdered, I ran back to the manor to check security tapes.”
My eyebrows slammed down. What kind of game was she playing now? My stomach felt like I’d swallowed an iceberg.
While Alexis did her grandstanding, the young mage busied himself with setting up the projection system. He punched a button on a hidden console and a large white screen descended. He hooked the computer up to the projector and plugged in the thumb drive Alexis had provided.
“You see, I figured out someone had to have poisoned both the High Councilman and the Despina’s wine. It seemed to me, we just had to find the correct camera and presto! We’d catch a killer.”
She turned to the young mage. “Play the video.”
The screen blinked to life. The video didn’t have any sound, but we saw a couple of servants rushing around the kitchen, preparing food and drink for the festivities. A young female servant, the one who’d handed the leaders their cups at the ritual, came into view and loaded three goblets onto her tray.
The image flashed, like it was cutting from one reel to another. Now the hallway outside the kitchen came into view. The girl was still carrying the tray, her front to the hidden camera. A mage male strutted past and engaged her in conversation. She set the tray down on a table and flirted back. A few seconds later, he made his move and the two began tongue jousting. Soon, he backed her into a room off the hall and closed the door behind them. The tray stood unguarded on the table.
“This is ridiculous!” I called.
Alexis snapped her gaze in my direction. “But we’re just getting to the money shot, Sabina.”
A few moments later, I strutted into view.
“What the fuck?” I shouted. “That’s not me!” But no one was listening. All eyes were on the damning evidence that I’d been alone with that tray.
Whoever the impostor was, she’d done an admirable job with her glamour spell. She even copied my outfit down to the tank top and boots. The only detail missing was the long winter coat I’d worn in deference to the cold.
But there was no mistaking the red-and-black hair. She even had my walk down.
Bitter bile rose in my throat. It tasted like fear. “No,” I whispered.
“Keep watching,” Alexis said.
Just then, the other me turned her back to the camera. Turning her head side to side to check for company, she pulled a vial out of her back pocket and poured its contents—presumably the apple cider and poison—into each of the goblets.
I clenched my eyes tight, trying to block out the damning image. How the hell was I going to prove that wasn’t me? At that point, figuring why someone was trying to frame me wasn’t as important as convincing them that Sabina-doppelganger wasn’t me. Because if the Queen could be convinced I’d been the one to kill Tanith and Orpheus, my life was forfeit. Permanently. With no hope of twelfth-hour clemency.
“Your Benevolence, please,” I pleaded. “I swear on everything I hold sacred that female isn’t me.”
But the Queen’s eyes were focused on the screen. Alexis paused the video on an image of the impostor turned halfway to the camera, vial in hand. The vampire rewound the tape frame-by-frame. Onscreen and in reverse, the imposter turned back, poured the poison, looked around for witnesses, and approached the table. Alexis hit play then and let it play through in real time again.
The air in the chamber was heavy and thick. The weight of dozens of accusing stares pulled on me like gravity. Ignoring the damning silence and the sweat dampening my palms, I forced myself to watch the video again, my eyes sharp for any speck of evidence that might exonerate me. But the longer I watched, the harder it was to fight the fear.
Finally, I swallowed hard and rose. If evidence wouldn’t save me, I’d have to try to talk my way out of this. I turned to face the Queen. Every nerve ending in my body sizzled with adrenaline.
“Your Benevolence?” Her head turned slowly to look at me. Her eyes were hot with accusation. I pointed to the still image on the screen. Alexis had paused it with the female’s back to the camera. “I don’t know who it is or why they are trying to frame me for the murders, but I swear upon the Great Mother that I did not kill anyone.”
Alexis laughed. “Says the former assassin. Correct me if I’m wrong, Sabina, but didn’t you also murder one of the Queen’s ambassadors last year?”
“Shut your mouth!” Giguhl yelled. I shot him a sharp look. He looked ready to keep arguing, but eventually he deflated and retreated to his corner.
“Queen, please,” I pleaded. “You can’t believe I did this.”
She rose from her perch, using her cane as leverage. “The evidence is right there, Sabina. How can I not believe it?”
“Because I had no reason to kill anyone!” I yelled. “I was the one who made sure Lavinia was out of the picture so Tanith could become the Despina, remember? Why would I try to destroy any chance of peace when I worked so hard to achieve it in the first place? And if that’s not enough to make you doubt Alexis’s claims, ask yourself this: What possible reason would I have to kill Orpheus? It doesn’t make any sense.”