Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(49)

I scowled, my third fat-fried flat cake hanging out of my mouth.

Two sprinkled a bowl of grits with butter and laid a thick slice of fried ham over it—comfort food if I ever saw it. Her hands shook. Four didn’t eat.

Something was off. I swallowed my last cake, unfurling my legs and sitting up straighter. Ten and Eleven showed up next, bandages on their arms from Isidora’s training, and Fifteen strolled in well after they were done eating. Five entered last.

Charcoal dust spotted his clothes and gathered in his chair. Crescents dark as the new moon shadowed his pale eyes. The whites were spotted with pink.

Good. He was exhausted and scared, and he’d make a mistake.

“I had thought,” Emerald said loudly, sweeping into the room, “we were teaching you all how to kill in secret, but you continue to disappoint me.”

My nails tore through the cheese bun. They couldn’t know.

“Six is dead.” Ruby sat next to Amethyst and let out an exaggerated sigh. “Someone better have an alibi.”

I glanced around, and only Four wasn’t watching the Left Hand.

“So,” Amethyst said as she laid down her papers, “do you have one, Twenty-Three?”

Everyone turned to me.

“What?” The world dropped out from under me. All the happiness, all the joy at Seve’s death left me in a breath, and Amethyst’s words burned in my ears. I’d forgotten Six was even still alive. “I didn’t kill Six.”

“A denial is not an alibi.” Emerald gestured for me to stand, brass nails glinting in the light.

I’d been set up.

“I can’t have an alibi for something I didn’t do.” I stood and braced myself against the table. “I can’t prove I wasn’t somewhere at some secret time if I don’t know when and where it happened.”

“The proof of your innocence is your business.” Ruby shrugged. “Where were you last night?”

I gritted my teeth together. I’d only passed one other auditioner last night, and he wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Sleeping.”

“Alone?” Emerald asked. “Did anyone see you?”

“No.” I shook my head, every thought and hope crashing in my mind. They couldn’t disqualify me. They couldn’t. I’d given up everything. I’d no money, no way back south, and no home left. I couldn’t face Rath if I failed. “I sleep alone. My servant didn’t see me till the morning.”

“Unfortunate.” Ruby clucked and beckoned a guard near the door.

I was enough for Opal.

“You lying little meddler.” I clenched my hands into fists to keep from leaping across the table and punching Four. “You’re using me as your cover, and it’ll come back to bite you.”

I’d only one way out of this, one possible way to keep them from disqualifying me. I might die outright for even trying it, but that was hardly worse than disqualification.

Emerald tilted her head to the side. “How do you know it was Four if you were asleep?”

“Because he’s the only one fiddling with his hands and not watching on with glee,” I said.

“I saw you.” Four nodded to me, still not meeting my eyes. “It’s a better way to go than dying.”

Ruby’s hand closed around my arm.

I flinched and turned toward Ruby. “I thought you were better than them.”

“What?” Ruby dragged me out the door, nails digging into the thin flesh of my upper arm, and motioned for Emerald to wait. “Better than who?”

“Your noble friends.” I pried myself from his grip. “None of them would get tossed out or sent to jail with no evidence of their crime. Would you disqualify Five and all your invited noble favorites on nothing more than heresy and lies?”

This always happened. I should’ve known. Two and Four weren’t as rich or as noble-blooded as Five, but they were handpicked, and nobles never let their kids or favorites wait for a real verdict in court. They got lawyers and trials and motions and apologies. People like me got court-paid folks who couldn’t tell the judge from their chair. We got punished.

Truth and justice be damned.

Ruby shoved me against the door, slamming it shut and looming over me till his chest hit mine with each unsteady breath. A knife slipped from his sleeve to his hand and nicked my chin. Blood dripped between us. “Let’s clear up whatever misconceptions you have rattling around that cracked skull of yours—you don’t know me. That’s the point. You don’t know me, what I’ve done, or what I did. So don’t come whining to me about the fairness of courts and the priority of laws. I know. I gave up everything I’d ever worked for to make sure all those nobles and their favorites received their dues. I lost my life to see justice done. Do you understand?”

I nodded.

The silence between us tightened till it snapped. Ruby laughed.

“Delightful.” He sheathed his knife. “And you do bring up a good point.”

I swallowed, heart racing. Ruby had been many things, but he’d never been cold like that—voice low and hands calm while ready to slit my throat from ear to ear.

“What?” I said, wincing as my voice cracked.

“Your disqualification.” He patted my head like some bemused master consoling a dog who’d lost their stick. “Do you want to have some fun?”