Chapter 35 · You enjoy holding me still?

She turned her head. His face was inches from hers. Gray eyes. Blood at the corner of his mouth from the curse. A muscle jumped in his cheek when he saw her looking.

"You enjoy holding me still?" she asked.

"No."

"Liar."

"You enjoy making me do it."

The truth bond burned under her ribs.

Nora shoved the seal forward.

It hit the evidence table with a crack.

The room answered.

Every red blood line snapped tight. The witnesses screamed. The stone floor split beneath the table, and a circle of old royal marks flared around Nora's boots.

Bram's voice broke through the speaking tube.

"Take your hand off the seal!"

Nora smiled without warmth.

"That's the first honest thing you've said tonight."

She lifted a stack of papers from the table. Each page carried the blood-bound witnesses' names, statements, and marks. The ink crawled across the parchment as the royal seal burned above it.

One line turned black.

Then another.

The witness closest to Nora fell to her knees.

"Please," she whispered. "Don't make me speak."

Nora crouched in front of her.

"What's your name?"

"Mara Vale."

"Who bound you?"

Mara's mouth opened. No sound came out.