"I ended you!" Owain shouted, pointing at Ashlynn from the dais as his face turned dark with fury. "You were supposed to be burned and scattered to the winds so that nothing of you would be left to haunt me!"
The words fell into the great hall like embers dropped into dry tinder, and the whispers that spread across the hall crackled like flames.
Across the room, faces that had been frozen in shock began to shift. Barons exchanged glances with their wives. Knights who had been watching the armed standoff in the aisle turned their attention to the dais, where the man who was about to become their Marquis had just publicly confessed to ordering the murder and desecration of his own wife's body.
At the Aleese table, Reynold's hand drifted toward the sword at his hip even as his father caught his wrist beneath the table, holding him in place before his son could rush to join the knights standing at Lady Ashlynn's side, or worse, make a move against Lord Owain himself.
