Unless there is a public execution, Marie had said, they will keep hunting for her. She’d believed that so much, she’d been prepared to die for it.

And Bones had said, If we promise you that, will you agree to the rest of our terms? I’d been horrified, but before I could voice my outrage, he’d immobilized me much like Mencheres had.

Kitten, trust me, he’d said then.

Trust me, he’d urged me three times now.

I held on to that with all the hopeful desperation in me as that blade cut all the way through Katie’s neck, coming out drenched in crimson on the other side. Her body fell, and the sight of Thonos holding up her head hit me like a wrecking ball straight to the heart. He set it next to her body, flinging the excess blood off his blade, and my own blood seemed to scream in response.

Tears streamed in an unending flow from Tate’s eyes. Marie bowed her head. The other two Law Guardians were stoic except for Veritas, who stared at Katie’s body with an intensity that angered me. Was she trying to memorize the grisly sight?

The council members didn’t look at their handiwork. They shifted almost awkwardly. Now that the deed was done, they seemed far less enthused by it.

I couldn’t stop staring at Katie’s crumpled form, her head resting several inches from the rest of her. Horror, hope, and terror mingled into a nauseating brew within me.

Was I wrong, and was I staring at my daughter? Or was this my best friend, shapeshifted to look like her? And if so, could she come back from this? Nothing was supposed to kill her except demon bone through the eyes, but dear God, she didn’t have a head anymore!

“Leave the body.”

Mencheres’s voice startled me. It seemed to surprise the council members, too. Gandalf look-alike pursed his lips in disapproval.

“We didn’t agree to that.”

“You will.” Quiet steel edged Mencheres’s words. “And you will leave the sword. As the child’s mother, she is entitled to both.”

The other council members glanced back and forth between themselves, clearly undecided.

Veritas stepped forward, grasping Thonos’s hand before he could put his weapon back in its sheath.

“You ordered the child’s death out of necessity,” she said crisply. “Denying this request would be cruelty. Do not begrudge her so little when we’ve taken everything else.”

Thonos didn’t stop her when she took his blade and laid it at my feet. As she rose, for a second, her piercing gaze met mine.

What I saw made me gasp. Without saying a word, she managed to convey both admiration and a clear warning. Unless she knew more than the others did, why would she do that?

She can’t know! my mind raged. Could she?