the Law, Eliphas is already a dead man. They can’t use the healer he hired to somehow shield him.” I nodded slowly. “Okay. That works for me.”
“Good. I’m going to head to the meeting room and call them all in. I want you to hash out the execution of Warden Eliphas with the entire Tribunal.”
Ah, fuck. He’s not going to cover for me until after I do it. He’s going to make me argue for it. Asshole.
I was put on hold. Raphael gave me a look as the aggravating saxophone music played through my speakers.
“Really?” he asked, half-chuckling. “I thought you were important, and they can just put you on hold?”
“They’re more important,” I reminded him. “And they like to subtly remind people that they’re in charge when some of us get a little too wild. I’m the definition of a little too wild.”
“I can tell,” he murmured. “Do you think you’ll get there okay before we get there?” He looked at the time, and my eyes followed.
“Yeah, but first, I have to argue with them.” I went silent, preparing my arguments. It wasn’t hard. I had contingency after contingency, just like the men who tried to kill me did, and I had my traps to kill others laid in waiting much longer. My entire life was based around finding the loopholes and reasons to kill anyone who might threaten me or my people.
“Kaliya?” Hasan came back seconds after the music ended. “I’m going to put you on speaker.” I heard chatter in the background all of a sudden, and Hasan shushed people. “Kaliya is of the mind Warden Eliphas should be executed at the soonest opportunity and is probably already on her way to do the job. Kaliya, please explain to the rest of the Tribunal what you told me.”
“Oh, isn’t that interesting,” Matilda, the female witch, said airily. “Eliphas? That’s going to be a fun story.” She was already skeptical.
“I have irrefutable proof Eliphas was behind the breakout and the person who used compulsion spells on not one, but at least three different prisoners to kill me. I rode Nakul’s memories with the help of the Phoenix Coven. I saw Eliphas use the compulsion spell and felt the way it made Nakul react. Then a memory spell was used on Nakul to block out the compulsion spell and replace it with a semi-false memory.”
“Then you didn’t witness anything, Nakul did,” Johann, the male witch, snapped. “And that’s—”
And we’re off to the races. Time to argue with the Tribunal…again. I need to stop finding myself in this position.
“I was Nakul. You know how riding memories works,” I hissed. “And let me tell you, there is nothing more disgusting than that feeling. You know how compulsion spells work, sir. On top of that, there’s no stipulation how Executioners need to witness anything. None. You wrote the Laws before technology, and you probably didn’t think about this happening. I’m one hundred percent certain I am under threat directed by Eliphas.
“Going back to the prison break, he’s the only witch powerful enough in the prison to lower the defenses the way they were. Maybe he had help from guards under compulsion, but he’s the guy who orchestrated this. And if you don’t want to believe he did all of this, fuck it. I’ll execute my right as a naga to kill all those who make themselves enemies of my people. As the female representative of my people, that is not only my right but my duty. This witch and his friend dug into the memories of one of my kind, possibly breaching the security of my people in hiding. Eliphas broke the fucking rules, and now he gets to pay for it.”
My rant over, I panted softly, glaring at the road before me.
“We lost a good Alpha in this breakout,” Corissa said softly, possibly to one of the other Tribunal members like her peer, Callahan. “Tarak was a good Alpha, and he was obviously pulled into this scheme.”
“Hard to prove since he’s dead,” Johann snapped.
“Beyond that, Tarak couldn’t do compulsion spells,” Callahan growled. “We have reasonable evidence that Eliphas did, though. How do you answer for that?”
“The fae—”
“The fae aren’t involved in this,” Hasan growled like an angry parent. “Don’t drag them into this. The fae units of the prison have been some of the most cooperative because their Warden is away on business.”
“Convenient, isn’t it? All the fae are missing, then the prison outbreak happens,” Matilda pointed out.