Page 95 of Lady of the Lake

“You seriously almost got arrested?” I blink, trying to process this. “What were the charges?”

“They said I was supporting treason. Supporting Auberon. Total bollocks, of course,” Tana says, “but Wrythe claims that trials and due process are no longer possible. He says we’re at war, so the rules don’t apply. He can disappear anyone he wants, whenever he wants.”

“He saidfuck the Magna Carta,”adds Darius.

“Nivene was arrested,” Serena adds, “but she escaped.”

I stare at her. “What happened?”

Serana winces. “The Iron Legion was investigating the assassination failure. They interrogated her, kept her awake for two nights, and apparently, they slapped her. She snapped and broke her interrogator’s hand. She managed to fight her way out of here, but she’s in hiding. She’ll be arrested immediately if they find her.”

Nausea rises in my gut. “This is fucked. I see why we had to sneak in through the roof.”

“What happened the night of the assassination?” Darius asks me. “There are endless rumors here.”

I shake my head. “It was a shit show. They completely got the timing wrong to kill Auberon, even though I know Nivene gave them all the details they needed. It’s like they intentionally fucked it up. And they set off some kind of bomb in Talan’s room with me in it. They knew I was in there—they saw me open the window—then a minute later, BOOM.”

Serena nods. “That’s exactly what Nivene said.”

“How did you survive the bomb?” Tana asks.

I clear my throat. “I had a warning and left the room. With Talan.”

Silence fills the room.

“Why did you take him with you?” Serena finally asks.

I take a long sip of my tea, stalling. At last, I say, “He’s playing a role, just like we all are. He’s also trying to kill Auberon, but he’s also faking being evil. He doesn’t torture people. He doesn’t hate humans or demi-Fey. He has an entire fucking orphanage of human and demi-Fey kids that he protects. He took the blame for his father burning traitors after the eighteenth-century revolution, but it wasn’t him. He’d been in a dungeon during most of the carnage.”

Serena stares at me. “What?”

“I’m dead serious.”

Tana nods. “This explains the devil card combined with the reverse moon. He’s an ally.”

I stare into my mug. “Well, maybe he could have been. He found out rather abruptly that I was a spy sent there to kill him, and it did not go over well.” I look up at them. “We got into a literal fistfight, and now I’m back here. An enemy in both worlds.”

“You are the Lady of the Lake,” Tana says resolutely. “You are the bridge between worlds. You belong in both, but you’re still going to have to hide here. Maybe in town somewhere? Lie low, or you’ll get the same treatment Nivene did.”

“I thought the Lady of the Lake thing was a metaphor,” Serana says. “It’s an actual thing?”

“It’s an actual thing,” I say tiredly. The events of the day are catching up to me, and my body feels heavy. “It comes with magic from Morgan and Nimuë, which is how I was able to hold my own in a fight against the Dream Stalker.”

There’s another, longer, silence.

“Okay, but Talan is still trying to take over the entire UK,” says Serana. “We’re still fighting the occupation.”

“Fighting the occupationandfighting a civil war within Avalon Tower,” says Darius. “We’ve got enemies on all sides.”

“How is the war going?” I ask.

“Raphael says it’s not going well,” Serena says. “But Wrythe claims they have a way to win it. It’s bollocks, of course. He’s talking out of his arse to retain his power.”

A sick feeling coils in my gut. “I’m not so sure. I think that he might be telling the truth.”

“That’s what I think, too,” Tana says. “I can’t see anything clearly…but there’s something. Something tiny but large at the same time. Something very dangerous.”

Serena sighs “Here we go again. Tiny but large. I’ve been hearing that a lot these past weeks, but those are the only details we get.”

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