As if that wasn’t bad enough, I felt Alexis’s glare on my forehead like a target. I ignored her. Her wounded pride was the least of my worries.
“I am also told it is customary at Imbolc feasts to offer toasts with spiced wine,” Tanith continued. She nodded to a servant bearing a tray of goblets offstage. The female rushed up the stairs and proceeded to set the goblets in front of Orpheus, Tanith, and the Queen. “So before we sit down to sign the treaty that will unite us all, let me be the first.” Tanith lifted her goblet and waited for the other leaders to raise theirs as well. “To a future filled with tolerance, cooperation, and, most of all, friendship for all the dark races.” She looked up to the sky. “Great Goddess Lilith, mother of all the dark races, bless all your children on this sacred night. To peace!”
The other leaders raised their glasses and echoed, “To peace!” Then, as one—as though they’d choreographed this moment—they each raised the goblets to their lips and took simultaneous sips.
Cheers rose like startled birds taking flight. Numb, I sat glued to my chair even when the standing ovation rose around me. Since I was in the front row, my lack of enthusiasm was apparent to all onstage. Tanith’s gaze landed on me and narrowed. I glared back. The fire in my eyes promised a reckoning.
Her eyes widened. At first, I thought she’d read the hatred in my eyes and was afraid. But then her body started shaking uncontrollably. Black veins crawled across her pupils. More black crept down her neck, her chest, like spiderwebs. Fear was a cold fist around my throat, a dagger scraping down my spine.
I looked around for someone, anyone who could help her. But everyone else was too busy cheering and congratulating each other that they didn’t notice the Despina’s distress.
My blood went hot and cold at the same time. “Giguhl, switch forms!” I yelled. Leaping from my chair, I ran toward the stage. Behind me, a pop and the scent of brimstone filled the air. The demon’s appearance caused a minor panic. This time, I assumed it was not his nudity but his sudden appearance that caused the shocked reaction. Mages, faeries, and vampires scattered, screaming.
It all happened so fast that only flashes of sensation and sound registered. Two vampire guards grabbed me. Giguhl ran up and tried to help, but it only made things worse. The guards thought we were attacking. My eyes scanned the stage, trying to find Alexis and warn her. But I couldn’t locate her bright red hair among all the bodies onstage.
The guards dragged me backward, away from the stage and Tanith. “No! You’ve got to help her!” I shouted, struggling to get free. The noise of the crowd swallowed my words. My eyes stayed on Tanith. Steam began billowing out of her ears, her nose, her mouth.
Adam stood on the other end of the stage from the Despina and hadn’t noticed the ruckus I was causing. “Adam!”
His head jerked in my direction. Seeing me struggling against the guards, he frowned. “Tanith!” I pointed to the struggling leader. “Help her!”
He looked over and his eyes widened. But at that moment, Orpheus groped for Adam’s sleeve. His face had gone purple and his hands flew to his throat. Adam whirled around to catch his mentor. “Rhea!” he shouted. From the corner of my eye, I saw Adam’s silver-haired aunt running toward her old friend, her expression both determined and terrified.
The fae guards finally noticed that both the mage and vampire leaders were in distress and leapt to protect the Queen. But from my vantage point, she seemed fine, if confused.
Just then, Alexis reappeared at the Despina’s side. When Tanith slumped over, Alexis caught her limp body. “Oh, gods! She’s burning up!”
Finally, Alexis’s shout mobilized the guards. They dropped my arms and ran toward the dais. Before they reached her, Tanith’s tortured scream cut through the noise like a shard of glass.
As I watched in horror, Orpheus gurgled and vomited black bile. All over the unsigned peace treaty. His eyes rolled back in his head and he crashed face-first into the table.
“No!” Adam’s tortured yell made my chest constrict. Rhea pulled Orpheus’s body from the table and tried to revive the leader.
Tanith let loose a belch that seemed to come from the bowels of Hades. Her eyes bulged and her tongue rolled out of her mouth bloated and blackened.
In the next instant, Tanith Severinus, Exalted Despina of the Lilim, exploded.
32
For a split second after Tanith’s body went up in flames, the clearing went silent and still. Then, as if someone pushed the cosmic fast-forward button, people scattered and screamed.
Chaos.
Tanith’s guards shot into action, scrambling to surround Persephone. Her expression pale and terrified, she stared in open-mouthed shock at Tanith’s smoldering remains. The Pythian Guards formed a phalanx around Orpheus’s body, too. The fae guards gathered up the Queen and scurried her off, presumably to a more secure area.
In the sea of panicked bodies, I stared at the scene unfolding. Shock numbed my limbs but my heart galloped. Giguhl grabbed my hand and held on. “Gods protect us,” he breathed.
I wished I could share his conceit that we even deserved protection. The last nail had just been pounded into peace’s coffin. The dark races, it seemed, were beyond salvation.
“Sabina!” Adam stood on the dais with other Pythian Guards, who’d surrounded the Council. I pulled my hand from Giguhl’s grasp.
“Come on,” I yelled, and ran to the platform. Now that I was closer, I finally saw Maisie lying on the ground. My heart lurched. I took the steps in one leap and reached her side.
“What happened?” My hands fumbled to find her pulse. When the steady beat pulsed against my fingers, I relaxed a fraction. Adam knelt down.
“She passed out. We need to get her out of here.”
Behind him, I saw Giguhl go to Rhea, who wept silently over Orpheus’s body. The demon grabbed a discarded cloak from the ground and wrapped it modestly around his hips before kneeling next to the elder mage.
“Do you want me to do it?” I asked, thinking Adam might need to help the other guards.
“Mage law dictates that if the High Councilman dies,” he said, his voice cracking, “the Oracle steps in as leader of the Council until new elections can be held. Pythian Guards must remain with her at all times now.”
I nodded. “What can I do?”
“Stay with Rhea,” he said. “And, Sabina?” I looked up. His gaze was so intense I wanted to shy away from it. “Be careful. None of us are safe until we find the monster who did this.”