Five Mates Let Me Burn, So I Rejected Them All novel · Chapter 21 of 24
Chapter 21: The Wrong Girl on the Pyre
Althea's POV
Dahlia dropped the cup, and it rang on the stone and rolled.
"You switched them," she said, loud enough for the whole square. "You switched my cup. I put it in all of them but that one, so it should have been clean..."
She heard herself and stopped.
Four thousand people stood in dead silence.
"Put what in them?" I asked.
"Nothing." Her face went white to the lips. "I misspoke."
"Put what in them, sister?"
"Thea, I'm unwell, I..."
"Warden," I said, and the Temple warden at the foot of the steps stepped forward.
He took Dahlia's left hand in his gloved one and turned it to the light.
The gold ring flashed, and he thumbed the hollow bead, and it opened with a click.
A single drop of clear liquid ran down the warden's glove.
The healer came down the steps with his bag and sniffed it, and put one finger on his tongue, and spat on the stones.
"Wolfsbane tincture," he said. "A strong one."
He turned to the crowd.
"A cellar book says who ordered six vials of it for tonight."
"It was charged to the Fitzalan account, in her hand."
"That was a lie!" Dahlia screamed. "They're all lying, they've all been turned against me, they hate me!"
"Then explain the ring," said Corin, and held up the jug.
Nobody spoke.
Corin's voice was flat and hard, with none of his usual quickness.
"Every drop she has left is in here," he said, and passed it to the warden. "Taste it, if you like. I won't."
The warden did not taste it.
"Holy One," I said, and the priestess flinched. "I have one more thing to show you."
I took the cloth from Elias, where he had been carrying it inside his coat, and unfolded it on my palm.
The cracked pale stone lay there, dull and grey.
The priestess made a small strangled sound.
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