"This is a disaster."
King Aldric's voice boomed through the council chamber where we'd gathered in emergency session. Healers surrounded Theron's prone form on the table, working frantically to counteract whatever poison was killing him. And through it all, Theron kept repeating the same accusation.
"Elara, poisoned me, she's not dead, trap, she's alive."
"He's delirious from the poison," Kael insisted. "He doesn't know what he's saying. Elara is dead. We all saw her body."
"Did we?" King Aldric fixed me with a penetrating stare. I'd been forced to drop the death illusion when Theron's accusations started, revealing myself to avoid looking even more guilty. "Because Princess Elara seems remarkably lively for a corpse."
"I can explain," I started.
"You'd better. Because right now it looks like you faked your death, lured my son into the forest, and poisoned him. That's not the behavior of an innocent woman."
