But according to my father, Blackwell was both honest and honorable. He would vote based on his conscience, rather than on any political alliance or previously held grudge. So I’d just have to make sure his conscience knew I was innocent. Mostly. And that I respected myself enough not to apologize for something I hadn’t deliberately done.

I met his eyes boldly, to show I wasn’t ashamed. “Yes. In bed. We were having sex, and I just…nibbled his ear a little too hard.”

“And your sworn testimony is that you never actually Shifted during this…occasion?” Malone asked, as if to confirm facts he’d already heard half a dozen times.

I nodded, then turned my head from side to side to ease the stiffness that had settled into my neck from sitting in the same position for hours at a time. “Only my teeth Shifted, like I told you last time. And the time before that. And the time before that—”

“Faythe…” Michael warned, and wood creaked behind him as our father moved in his seat.

In spite of his position as head of the council, my father hadn’t been allowed to serve on the tribunal overseeing my trial because of his relationship to the accused—me. But he’d insisted on being present the entire time, though he wasn’t permitted to actually speak during the proceedings. He sat directly behind Michael in a straight-backed chair against the wall, as he had for the last three hours, one ankle crossed over his opposite knee, hands resting on the chair arms. By all appearances he was relaxed and confident, but I knew by the firm line of his mouth that he was every bit as irritated as I was. And a lot more nervous, which made me wonder if there was something he wasn’t telling me.

Frowning, I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back in my chair, awaiting the next question. Which would no doubt be something I’d already answered.

Malone looked up from the slanted scrawl on his legal pad. “Did Mr. Wallace notice that your teeth had Shifted?”

“No. I didn’t either.”

Malone’s head jerked up and his eyes found mine, his brows high in surprise. Evidently I’d said something new. “If you didn’t know your teeth had Shifted at the time, how can you possibly be sure that’s what happened?”

Shit. I sat back in my chair, going for calm confidence. “Because that’s the only logical conclusion. I infected Andrew somehow—” we knew that for a fact based on his scent “—and I never intentionally Shifted in front of him. So it stands to reason that I did it by accident. And the day I bit him was the last time I saw him until the day he died. It must have happened then.”