“Thank you,” Layla says, and Pippa, who is usually chatty, leaves without another word.

I look at Layla for answers.

“I don’t know,” she says, “but we don’t have enough information yet to prove it wasn’t you.”

The dining hall has once again been transformed into an auditorium and is nearly full by the time Layla and I take our seats. The teachers stand against the walls as before, watching us, and Blackwood is sitting behind the teachers’ table. However, there is one noticeable difference—two guards stand next to her holding crossbows. And there are two more guards by the exit.

My stomach twists so violently that I have to stop myself from running to the bathroom.

“Stop fidgeting,” Ash says under his breath as he takes the seat next to me.

I drop my hands into my lap. I look from Ash to Layla. They both stare forward with matching blank expressions, but the tension between us is so thick that it’s hard not to panic. The two armed guards next to Blackwood loom over us all like angels of death.

Blackwood stands up and does a slow sweep of the room with her eyes. “Good morning,” she says, and the room echoes a “Good morning” in response.

“It is a good morning indeed,” she says with a small smile, so contrary to the general feeling of the room that my shoulders tighten. “We have concluded the investigation into Stefano’s death, and the guilty party is now known. There will not be a trial. There will be no fanfare.”

I look immediately to the exit. An eye for an eye. There’s no mercy here, no negotiating.

When I shift my gaze back to the front of the room, Blackwood is staring directly at me. Every muscle in my body tenses, and out of the corner of my eye I notice a few of the students turning to look at me. Aarya smiles like she’s about to see a magic show, but Matteo seems strangely uncomfortable. Dread inches up my body, making it hard to breathe. I want to scream that I didn’t do it, that she has to know I didn’t, but I can’t seem to move a muscle. Instead the words lodge in my throat, unsaid, tightening my chest. Even Conner looks at me like this was all disappointingly inevitable.

Blackwood holds my gaze for so long that my eyes start to water from not blinking. Then suddenly she shifts her line of sight away from me. “Charles, you are hereby charged with Stefano’s murder.”

Gasps roll through the rows of students. I look at Charles and he looks right back at me, like he would kill me this instant if he could.

Nyx abruptly stands, and everyone turns to her. Charles, on the other hand, continues to watch me like he’s trying to solve a math problem.