“Save it.” His voice was a broken, crackling thing. Normally he spoke with steel underneath. Now, he sounded like an old man. “Is it true you killed my son?”

Her heart skidded in her chest. Behind her, she could sense Vidal tensing, too.

Memories flashed through her skull, rapid-fire. Blood on her hands. Puddled around her. The Silver Prince, D’Andros Nicolen, faceup and empty-eyed at her feet.

Her half brother, she now knew. With her knife in his heart.

She swallowed, throat suddenly dry as the desert. For months now, she’d dreaded this moment. Andros learning what really happened to his son. Who was responsible.

She did what she had to do; she killed Nicolen to save Elex, her best friend. But still…

“I don’t know what you mean, Father,” Zofi finally replied. Her voice came out like his. Soft. Hollow.

“I cannot put it more plainly, daughter. Did you have a hand in my only son—my heir’s—death?”

She flinched. The true heir. The hairs on the back of her neck tickled. Could Nicolen be responsible for all this somehow? Back from the grave to avenge his own death?

Don’t get superstitious. She dug her nails into her palms and willed her face into a worried frown. “You arrested the man responsible for Prince Nicolen’s death just a couple of weeks ago, Father.” She thought about Elex. The unfair, rigged trial he would have faced. The noose he’d have worn for her. She’d broken him out of the dungeons, but he still had to live on the run. “You seemed so certain that boy did it, Father. You even ordered his execution.” She couldn’t hide the tinge of anger in her voice, at that word.

“But it was my own child I should have looked to instead,” Andros responded. Unshed tears shone at the corners of his eyes. “My sister spoke the truth. She came to me tonight, a visitation from the Blessed Sunlands. She told me of the poison in our blood. I did not want to believe it, but the look on your face tells me everything I need to know, daughter.”

Zofi froze. A vision? “Yasmin is dead, Father,” she said slowly.

“Yes. You killed her, too,” he spat, anger rising. He struggled to sit forward. “She told me everything. All the sins you’ve committed. The shame you’ve brought upon this family.”

“Your Majesty.” Vidal stepped forward.

“Vidal, be quiet,” Zofi muttered. She would not let anyone else shoulder her crimes. Not again.

He ignored her. “I was with Lady Zofi at the Sun’s Ascendance, when Countess Yasmin…” He bowed his head. “When the countess passed, Sun accept her soul. Lady Zofi and I were dancing. Zofi could not have been involved.”

“I did not ask your opinion,” the king bellowed. “Hold your tongue, soldier, or leave.”

Vidal’s mouth snapped shut.