Chapter 44

HAZEL

What the hell was happening? I looked at Darian and it took every ounce of strength I had not to cower under his fear-inflicting gaze.

Everyone else stepped back—they literally took a full step back and watched us like a theatre play instead of stopping their king from killing an innocent girl.

Every part of me knew that she was innocent, it wasn’t a question of innocence but rather how I could prove it. Iliana hadn’t killed anyone and she sure as hell wasn’t responsible for poisoning the king’s wine.

Her eyes met mine with the deepest fear I’d seen, the tears rolled down her cheeks and her lips quivered like the fall leaf on a wilting tree.

I swallowed a sob and tried to form the words to reason with Darian but I could barely feel my hands let alone find a way to speak without seeing the thin string on which my friend’s life hung in his hands.

What if anything I said pushed him over the edge and he killed her? How does someone become so evi