Chapter 290

• Elysia
• They'd moved Merida to a holding suite in the Council's east wing rather than a cell, the kind of soft-edged detention reserved for someone whose crimes hadn't yet been formally sentenced. I went alone, before dawn, before the family gathered, because there were things I needed to say to her that no audience had any business witnessing.
• She looked smaller than she had in the hall the night before, stripped of the composure that used to fill a room before she'd even spoken. She didn't look surprised to see me.