THE ACCUSATION STANDS

Elaris’s POV

Without delay, Doctor Harwin picked up the medicine vials off Maevra’s nightstand, nervously arranging them on the table.

Averic was standing just behind him, perfectly still; but the rage he was exuding permeated the entire room.

Guards were stationed against the walls, awaiting further instructions while Doctor Harwin checked every bottle for liquid, markings, and residues.

“Be careful, Doctor.” Averic’s voice was like ice. “Should you fail, I shall know.”

Harwin swallowed and nodded.

“I understand, Alpha.”

I stayed next to Maevra’s bed, clinging to her hand as the life started draining out of her.

She was dead.

I was the one on trial, standing next to her body.

Virelle easily approached, her face twisted into sorrow as she pointed at my apron and tunic.

“See.” She whispered. “The smell.”

Doctor Harwin shot a glance at me.

But Virelle kept on talking before he even had a chance to reply.

“The altered aconite came from her. It can be smelled on her clothes. Her hands have had contact with Maevra’s medicines daily.”

I stared down at my own sleeves.

There was a bitter taste in the fabric, but that meant nothing. Weeks of preparation had gone into Maevra’s medicines. I had handled those bottles.

Virelle knew that.

And she had known I would be responsible for such a thing.

“Such a smell is hardly proof,” I argued.

Virelle inclined her head at me.

“Then what accounts for its presence?”

I had nothing that would appease the distraught court.

“She was the only one who looked after her, Averic!” Virelle shouted across the room. “Her fingerprints are on every bottle, Averic. She decided the dosage amounts, she made her medicines. She was the one alone with her when her symptoms became worse.”

“She wasn’t alone,” I retorted.

Virelle whirled to face me.

“Then tell me who else was there!”

My throat grew tight.

Neryss.

But if I named her, Virelle would twist it into an accusation.

I recalled Neryss furtively investigating the medicine cabinet. I recalled the servants that moved about in the room. I recalled Virelle herself coming into Maevra’s chamber more than once.

“There were other people here, Virelle,” I declared.

Virelle offered a sympathetic look.

“But none of them administered the medicine!”

A murmur ran through the guards.

Virelle had made my biggest duty into a threat against me.

I refused to back down from Maevra’s bedside, clutching her dead hand while guards watched me with growing suspicion.

One of them tightened his hold on his sword.

Another of them muttered something to his colleague.

I understood what he said.

“Poisoner.”

That stung worse than anything else that could have been thrown at me.

“I did not murder her,” I said.

My voice wavered just once, but I kept it steady after that.

“I would not do anything that would hurt Maevra.”

Virelle touched her chest.

“She trusted you.”

“She trusted me too,” I responded, looking at Maevra.

The silence hung heavy around us.

I recalled Maevra’s laughing in the garden. Her stories about Averic as a child. The way she had held my hands and told me that I belonged somewhere again.

She called me family.

But now her son was surrounded by people calling for my death.

Harwin finished his quick test, going from one vial to the next at an ever-increasing pace. He scraped something from the glass into a small silver dish, poured in a few drops of some testing liquid, and whispered an examination spell.

It instantly turned dark.

Harwin lost all of his color.

Averic saw it.

"What is it?"

Harwin paused for a moment.

"Alpha..."

"Speak."

"The toxin is real."

A sharp intake of breath traveled through the room.

I stared at Harwin.

"But I didn't put it there."

He avoided my eyes.

He ran another test.

Then yet another.

The outcome stayed the same.

Virelle approached Averic.

"Now you understand."

Averic did not reply to her.

He kept his focus on the evidence.

"The dosage was changed over the course of several weeks," Harwin said after some time. "It was not a single accidental slip-up; someone has repeatedly raised the amount."

My insides tightened.

Several weeks.

Just as I suspected.

I glanced at Averic.

"Then you know it was planned."

Harwin continued reluctantly.

"And the traces left on the bottle that Lady Elaris held before are in agreement with the modified poison."

My breath was stolen away from me.

“Whose contamination happened to the medicine while in your possession?”

Virelle shook her head instantly.

“How can she expect us to believe that someone poisoned the medicine, contaminated the bottle, and in some way made sure it reached her?”

“Yes.” I answered, my voice hoarse. “That is precisely what happened.”

Virelle’s face was still sad.

But for an instant, there was another emotion on her face.

Relief.

It disappeared before anyone else noticed.

I did.

Sadness and anger were battling within Averic’s body.

He looked at Maevra.

Then the bottles.

Then finally at me.

I have never seen anything like the conflict raging within a man.

His wolf was asking for blood.

His son wanted to believe me.

His Alpha instincts demanded justice.

I took a step towards him.

“Averic…”

He raised one hand.

I stopped moving.

Not because he ordered me to.

The look in his eyes told me he was hanging on by a thread.

“I want to believe you,” he said softly.

The words tore through me.

“But?”

He looked down at the bottle.

“But everything which has been put before me points back to you.”

I shook my head.

"No. Everything that they have presented before you has been carefully laid out for the purpose of leading you back to me."

I could hear Virelle gasp.

Averic caught it.

His eyes darted back to her for just a moment.

Then he turned away again.

He did not even spare her a glance.

But there was something about her reaction I couldn’t shake off.

Virelle turned her back to the guards.

"She cannot stay here."

Her voice was stronger now.

"She has access to every chamber, every medicine cabinet, and every person who lives in this house. If she can poison the Luna, she can do more damage."

"Enough," Averic said.

Virelle still moved forward.

"Have her locked up in the underground dungeons while the council determines her punishment."

Chills raced down my spine.

The dungeons were only used for those guilty of betrayal or murder.

People went into them and never came out.

Averic tensed his shoulders.

"No."

Virelle looked surprised.

"You can’t let your feelings get in the way of justice."

"I said no."

Her conviction wavered for the first time.

But voices rose from outside where the council gathered.

"She must be detained."

"The Alpha cannot risk another death."

"She was the caretaker."

The tension increased.

Averic shut his eyes for a single agonizing second.

Then he opened them again, his expression different from before.

"She will not go to the dungeons," Averic snarled, his voice edged with pain, drowning out the room.

Virelle looked at him.

"Averic—"

"She will not be tortured."

His eyes went to the guards.

"And nobody will touch her."

Tears filled my eyes.

Even now, he was protecting me.

Even while thinking that I had killed the person he loved most.

I whispered, "Thank you."

He looked at me.

For a second, I thought he would make the journey across the distance between us.

Instead, he held himself back.

His sorrow was too strong.

"I cannot protect you from the consequences of this evidence," he said.

It was hard for me to breathe.

"You could protect me from a lie."

His face twisted.

"I don’t know what is true anymore."

Those few words wounded me more than anything else.

The council needed an official decision by nightfall.

Averic stood before them, wearing his title like a burden on his shoulders.

"According to pack law," he stated, "Lady Elaris Veyne is banned from the Alpha’s palace until further investigation."

My breath paused in my chest.

It felt like a nightmare.

Banished.

Not imprisoned.

Not put to death.

But banished from the only place where I began to feel safe.

One of the council elders stepped forward.

"And what about access to the Luna’s household?"

"Denied."

I closed my eyes.

Images of Maevra's last moments flooded into my mind.

Protect… my grandson.

My hand automatically reached for my stomach.

My baby.

I had to live for him.

Averic went on, his voice strained.

"She is not to be harmed. She will leave under guard and stay out of the territory of the palace until the investigation is completed."

Virelle's eyes lowered.

But the slight smile playing at the edges of her lips did not escape my notice.

I broke as Averic couldn’t even meet my eyes when delivering his judgment.

I wanted him to look at me.

I wanted him to remember the woman who was always there every morning, by his mother’s side.

I wanted him to remember the woman who was holding his hand whenever he was scared.

She was pregnant with his child.

But I could not tell him.

Not yet.

Not while everything that could incriminate him had been turned around to prove his innocence.

“Look at me,” I whispered.

Averic’s nails dug into his palm.

But he would not.

“Please.”

He clenched his jaw.

Yet he still could not raise his eyes to mine.

It cut me deeper than his edict.

The guards came closer.

I let go of Maevra’s hand.

Before walking away, I bent down and kissed her on the forehead.

“I am sorry,” I whispered. “I could not save you.”

Then I stood up straight.

Passing by Virelle, she stepped so close that she whispered just to me.

“You should have run away before she died.”

I paused.

She was sorrowful, at least, for the sake of those who watched us.

She whispered then,

“Nobody will believe you.”

I met her eyes.

And for the first time, I saw fear behind her triumph.

It wasn’t fear of me.

Fear of what I know.

Then the doors of the palace opened, and the guards led me out into the frigid rain.

I did not turn around.

Knowing that I would have done just that had I tried.

The hand covering my stomach under my cloak trembled.

"Baby," I whispered, "You are all I have left."

But then someone grabbed my wrist out of the shadows.

Until I recognized Neryss Vale and knew better.

"Quiet," she breathed. "Follow me."

Neryss led me to cover of an arch, where the guards could no longer spot us easily.

"I found a place for us," she whispered. "A house near the western boundary of the city. Nobody from the palace knows about it."

Relief almost made my knees buckle.

But there was more.

Neryss' face was paler than ever before.

"There is something else."

"What?"

"I searched Maevra's medicine cabinet after they dragged you away from here."

She pointed in the direction of the palace.

"One bottle was missing."

My heart started beating faster.

"What bottle?"

"The one Harwin used to prepare the first counter-agent for Maevra."

My eyes widened.

"That doesn't make any sense."

"It does," whispered Neryss.

She reached into her cloak and brought out a folded little piece of cloth.

"I found this stuck in the cabinet."

Unfolding the cloth, I caught its scent.

Aconite.

But underneath, there was anther smell.

That of sweet floral fragrance.

The perfume of Virelle.

My breath hitched.

Neryss murmured, “I think someone took out that bottle before Harwin could examine it.”

A sound of thundering echoed above us.

I glanced towards the castle, suddenly realizing that the charge put on me may have been more cleverly constructed than I thought.

Another thought occurred to me.

If Virelle had removed the counter-agent before Harwin could have examined it, she knew precisely what he was going to test.

This meant that someone was keeping tabs on Harwin.

Someone was manipulating the evidence.

And if this was the case…

The death of Maevra was only the start of the trap, not the end of it.

Neryss grabbed my arm.

“Come, we need to go now.”

I clutched the cloak closer to my child and followed Neryss into the rain, not knowing that in the castle, Virelle was planning the next deception that would ensure that I never return.