Chapter 29 · The Guardian’s Seal

"Do not trust Calian Vey." The sentence rolled across every screen in the trial hall, followed by a burst of static and a close-up of Calian's face.

He stood beside me with blood drying at his temple, one hand braced against the stone rail. The recording showed him kneeling over a burning street, his voice twisted through the speakers.

"I chose the collapse," the false Calian said. "I chose who lived. I chose who died."

Someone behind us gasped.

Then the hall erupted.

"You brought him here?"

"Arrest the oath-guardian!"

"Lia Vale, step away from him!"

A guard grabbed my arm. Calian moved faster.

His fingers closed around the guard's wrist, hard enough to make the man's metal bracer squeal. Calian didn't look at him. His eyes stayed on me.

"Don't pull her away from me," he said.

The guard stiffened. "You don't give orders here."

"I do when you're touching the woman tied to my life."

That shut the nearest people up.

The oath mark around my wrist burned under my sleeve. Calian felt it too.