you—” She sniffled again and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly as if releasing the concern once and for all. “You, Owen, the were-croc, and the little girl were on the ground, and Julia and Tristan were in a stand-off. Martin diffused the situation, and then Owen came to. They were able to get you all to the airport, where Char and I met them with Dorian, and we took the Amadis jet here.” She flipped her hand in the air. “By then, Julia had enough of the council convinced about Tristan, and they took him into custody as soon as we landed on the island. I’ve been in here with you ever since, and Char’s been bringing me updates.”
I exhaled a sharp breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and sat hard on the edge of the bed. “What about the old woman?”
“She tells the same story as Tristan—and now you—but no one will listen to her. Nobody feels she’s Amadis. It’s strange, actually, as if she’s a witch with no allegiance to either side.”
“I don’t know that she’s a witch,” I muttered. “She doesn’t have a mage’s mind signature. Not exactly, anyway.”
“Then you see what I mean. She’s not quite right . . . so no one trusts her. She’s being held, too.”
“Did she say anything about Lilith? Explain her?”
“Like I said, no one trusts her to listen to her, but she won’t talk right now anyway. I think she’s just an old, confused woman who doesn’t really understand what’s going on, what she’s been put into the middle of. She’s grieving, too. They won’t let her near the girl.”
“And Jax? The were-croc?”
“I think Martin let him go. He didn’t witness anything useful, and Rina didn’t find anything suspicious in his thoughts. They had no reason to believe he was a part of any conspiracy. He only wanted to help you.”
Whew. I liked Jax and would have hated hearing he’d been part of setting us up, which, obviously, we had been. He didn’t deserve to be dragged into this farce.
Convinced I had enough grasp of the situation, I stood up and pulled on my leather gear, which lay clean and folded neatly at the foot of my bed, the only clothes in sight.
“What are you doing?” Mom asked.
“Going to see Tristan, of course, and getting him out of there. He doesn’t belong in jail. If anything, Julia does.”
Mom’s eyes flew to the door and back to me. “You’ll see him soon. His trial’s this afternoon.”
“What? Already? Then I definitely need to see him first.” I moved for the front room of the suite.
Mom shook her head and looked again at the door. Her eyes tightened, and I could tell she tried to communicate with me. I opened my mind to her. “They’re guarding us.”
Then I’ll flash. Where is he?
A vision of the corridor under the Council Hall popped into her mind. “Third on the right. But wait.”
“You need to rest, honey, before the trial,” she said aloud as she leaned over and appeared to pick something up off the floor. Her thumb moved and my dagger appeared in her hand. I tucked it into my belt and made it invisible again, thought thank you, and flashed.
Someone apparently had shielded the Council Hall because I didn’t appear inside the dark cellar as expected. Instead, I showed up right outside the door at the top of the stairs in the rear of the building. A guard—a shifter in human form—blocked the doorway. He didn’t bow.
“No visitors,” he said curtly as I stepped toward the door.
“Do you forget my authority?” I demanded as haughtily as I could muster.
“Until I have further orders, you have no authority. Sorry, Ms. Alexis, but I can’t let you in.”
I flexed my left hand, preparing to show him I did have authority, but then Mom popped by my side, and we both looked at her with surprise.
She shrugged. “Thought I could help out.”
The guard and I both smiled, each of us under a different impression of whom she planned to help. Mom placed her hand on the guard’s arm while talking to him in hushed tones. She nodded her head slowly a few times, and he started nodding his, too.
“Yes, Ms. Sophia, a nap’s a good idea,” he said. “I didn’t get any sleep last night.”
He slid down the wall until he landed on his rump. His eyes began to droop close. Mom jerked her head at the door.