Chapter 21
Theora
Theora’s throat hurt, as if she were drinking it now instead of looking at it.
She’d heard of the weapon before but had never seen it in action.
It was an assassination tool—she only knew because a foreign duke had fallen victim to one a few years ago, his killer never caught because the ringblitz left no fingerprints.
It was nearly undetectable in liquid, so the victim didn’t know it was there until the muscle contractions of the throat during swallowing activated the spines, tearing the throat open from the inside.
“Oh, Sovereign,” Venita gasped, and looked at Theora.
Pyre’s expression shifted from mild disturbance to anger.
Before the judge could finish instructing the guards to check the remainder of the glasses, she went about it herself quickly, and Theora’s breath went from bated to stuck as she found nothing but water.
“Yours?” Pyre said, looking at Venita, who wordlessly slid her glass to the other side of the table for Pyre to check. Again, nothing.
Just the one. In Theora’s glass.
Pyre leveled a glare at the judge. “With all due respect, Your Honor, this is what you call mediation? You must be joking.”
“The only joke,” Theora snapped, “is you pretending you didn’t just try to kill me.”
“Sit down, everyone,” the judge said. “Remain calm.”
“If Argos’s magic is unchecked, we’ll have a more dangerous situation to deal with than a ringblitz,” said Pyre, flexing and releasing her fists. “I’ll sit when Queen Theora tells her Warrior to cease.” It sounded like a warning. A threat.
Theora wasn’t a fan of threats.
“I think we know who requested that my husband not sit at the table with me,” Theora said.
“I did no such thing,” said Pyre, still looking at Argos.
Theora was seething. So angry she almost wanted to storm out of there without looking back. But they couldn’t get away with this. They had tried to kill her. In the middle of peace talks. Right in front of the judge.
They wouldn’t get away with this.
“Everyone,” the judge ordered again. “Sit down. We will deal with this.”
“Judge Imperium,” Theora said. “Someone tried to have me killed, and I can only guess it was my enemy. What good will sitting do?”
“There’s no proof of that, Queen Theora,” she said, closing her binder.
“No proof ? She assassinated our late queen—”
“Everyone go back to your designated waiting areas while the evidence is examined.”
“You and your evidence can burn in hell,” Theora snapped. Venita gasped and grabbed Theora’s arm, but Theora jerked away, stepping back closer to Argos. “You watched an assassination attempt happen, what further evidence do you need?”
“Queen Theora,” the judge warned, “you are testing my goodwill. Much more of this and I’ll clear my schedule of your talks completely.”
“Good riddance. These talks are a farce.”
“That isn’t true, Theora,” Pyre cut in, her voice tight. “I want to make peace with you.” Her gaze hardened, landing on Argos. “Despite the fact that you broke the ceasefire, I’m still willing to come to an accord. Are you?”
Pyre stepped up to the table again, quickly enough that Argos tucked Theora behind him before stepping up to meet her, growling at full force. The Lasi guards quickly surrounded them, anticipating an eruption, their spears and shock rods pointed and ready to use at the judge’s command.
“You two have five seconds to sit down before I throw you out of this room,” the Judge Imperium said.
Venita was stuck in her seat, between the table and Argos’s huge form on one side and the notoriously brutal Vespulan queen on the other.
She shot Theora a pleading look, one that begged her to step in and act.
Theora stepped forward to stand beside Argos.
The shock rods were a little too close to him for her comfort.
“Everyone in this room,” ordered the judge, “will be detained in their designated wings until we’ve gotten to the bottom of this. Guards, please escort both parties out.”
Pyre stepped back from the table, eyeing Argos before looking at Theora.
“I am not your enemy, Theora,” she said, “whether or not you want to believe it.”
Wordlessly, she gave a quick bow to the Judge Imperium, and then strode out of the room, followed by the guards.
“Cease,” Theora commanded when she felt Argos jerk forward. He stopped, thank the Sovereign, but it looked like it took a massive amount of effort on his part. She put her hand over his fist and felt it tremble with everything he wanted to hide and unleash at once.
The judge closed her eyes briefly, then gathered her things and stepped away from her podium.
“Judge Imperium.” Theora rushed after her, but the guards lifted their rods to block her way. “You saw what just happened. Please, do something.”
“I don’t have time on my schedule today to wait until you learn how to follow direction,” the judge said.
“We will resume tomorrow, if this is resolved by then.” She sighed, her anger shifting to motherly disappointment.
“I trust by then Venita will have briefed you on how to behave during a formal hearing.”
She left surrounded by her ring of guards, and Theora felt helpless watching her go.
There was silence in the room, the only sound coming from the guards’ buzzing shock rods and Argos’s low, steady growl.
The peace talks had been a ruse, just as she had suspected. An excuse to get Theora in a room with no protection, no weapons. A cover-up for an attack. If she hadn’t brought Argos along, she’d be dead just like Leveya. Thank the Sovereign that Apollo hadn’t been able to attend.
She didn’t want to entertain this any longer. Peace or not, she wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible.
Argos took her hand, his firm grip steadying her trembling fingers.
He was right. She should’ve listened to him. He was right…
“Let’s go,” he said as if reading her mind.
Theora nodded and followed him out of the room.