But no more was said about the time. The evidence was admitted into the official records, and I took a deep breath. I hadn't liked that line of questioning, but it had been expected, based on the earlier conversations I'd heard via Lissa. The no-alibi thing wasn't good, but I kind of shared Abe's vibe. What they had so far still didn't seem strong enough to send me to trial. Plus, they hadn't asked anything else about Adrian, which left him out of this.
"Next exhibit," said Iris. There was smug triumph all over her face. She knew the time thing was sketchy, but whatever was coming up, she thought it was gold.
But actually, it was silver. A silver stake.
So help me, she had a silver stake in a clear plastic container. It gleamed in the incandescent lighting--except for its tip. That was dark. With blood.
"This is the stake used to kill the queen," declared Iris. "Miss Hathaway's stake."
Abe actually laughed. "Oh, come on. Guardians are issued stakes all the time. They have an enormous, identical supply."
Iris ignored him and looked at me. "Where is your stake right now?"
I frowned. "In my room."
She turned and glanced out over the crowd. "Guardian Stone?"
A tall dhampir with a bushy black mustache rose from the crowd. "Yes?"
"You conducted the search of Miss Hathaway's room and belongings, correct?"
I gaped in outrage. "You searched my--"
A sharp look from Abe silenced me.
"Correct," said the guardian.
"And did you find any silver stakes?" asked Iris.
"No."
She turned back to us, still smug, but Abe seemed to find this new information even more ridiculous than the last batch. "That proves nothing. She could have lost the stake without realizing it."
"Lost it in the queen's heart?"
"Miss Kane," warned the judge.
"My apologies, Your Honor," said Iris smoothly. She turned to me. "Miss Hathaway, is there anything special about your stake? Anything that would distinguish it from others?"
"Y-yes."
"Can you describe that?"
I swallowed. I had a bad feeling about this. "It has a pattern etched near the top. A kind of geometric design." Guardians had engraving done sometimes. I'd found this stake in Siberia and kept it. Well, actually, Dimitri had sent it to me after it had come loose from his chest.
Iris walked over to the Council and held out the container so that each of them could examine it. Returning to me, she gave me my turn. "Is this your pattern? Your stake?"
I stared. It was indeed. My mouth opened, ready to say yes, but then I caught Abe's eye. Clearly, he couldn't talk directly to me, but he sent a lot of messages in that gaze. The biggest one was to be careful, be sly. What would a slippery person like Abe do?
"It... it looks similar to the design on mine," I said at last. "But I can't say for sure if it's the exact same one." Abe's smile told me I'd answered correctly.
"Of course you can't," Iris said, as though she'd expected no better. She handed off the container to one of the court clerks. "But now that the Council has seen that the design matches her description and is almost like her stake, I would like to point out that testing has revealed"--she held up more papers, victory all over her face--"that her fingerprints are on it."
There, it was. The big score. The "hard evidence."
"Any other fingerprints?" asked the judge.
"No, Your Honor. Just hers."