Chapter 36 · The Seal on My Death Order

"Put the knife down, Lucan. Right now."

The blade stayed at his chest.

Its tip pressed through his black coat, right over his heart. A thin line of blood ran down the steel and disappeared beneath his collar.

Behind him, six council witnesses stood in a half-circle, their wrists bound in red thread. Their eyes were open, but none of them blinked. Bram had turned them into living evidence boxes, and now he was forcing every secret out through their mouths.

Bram smiled from the raised platform. "You hear her, Investigator? She wants you unarmed. That makes this easy."

"Nothing about you has ever been easy," I snapped.

Bram's smile tightened. "Still rude, Nora. Even with a death order waiting for your signature."

My fingers curled around the evidence tube in my hand. Inside it, black ash clung to the glass in the shape of a broken seal.

The seal that had appeared on my execution record less than a minute ago.

The seal that looked exactly like Lucan's.

"You forged that order," I said.

"Did I?" Bram tapped one finger against the council desk. "Ask your favorite investigator. He knows how blood seals work.