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  “No!” I gasped, grabbing Kristoff’s arm. “No, you can’t.”

  “The Council agrees that this is a sound decision,” Tannus said, frowning.

  “No it doesn’t!” the younger Councilor, the one Tannus had called Minchin said. “We haven’t even voted on the issue! You cannot keep speaking for the entire Council, Tannus!”

  “A Council you are no longer on, Minchin,” Tannus hissed. “As of right now I relieve you of your duties. You are dismissed from the Council of Wisdom and banished from Femme One.”

  “Aren’t you overstepping your authority, Tannus?” The other councilor’s eyes flashed. “Only the Empress may banish someone. Or are you taking over the Empress’s duties in the same way you and Morbain are trying to usurp her power?”

  “She has no power here—nor will she ever have,” Tannus snarled. “Nor do you, Minchin. I order you to leave and I want the True Incarnation placed under house arrest in the Royal apartments until her bond can be broken so that she can form a more proper union.”

  “No!” I shouted and Kristoff glared at him.

  “You’ll never take Charlotte from me,” he growled, lifting his sword and stepping in front of me. “You’re going to crown her here and now as is her right as the True Incarnation.”

  I felt a surge of relief—he was shaking off the effects of the sedative! Now we would get out of here and—

  Suddenly a big, hard hand closed around my upper arm and I felt something cold and sharp pressing against my throat.

  “I have a better idea,” a new voice said, right beside me. “Why don’t I take the Empress off your hands so none of you have to worry about her anymore?”

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Kristoff

  I felt Charlotte’s surge of fear through our bond—it cut through the drug Churika had given me like a knife. Turning to confront this new threat, I saw with confusion that it was none other than T’zorin standing there.

  He had a knife to Charlotte’s throat.

  “T’zorin,” I growled. “What are you doing? Unhand the Empress at once!”

  “Allow me to introduce myself,” he said smoothly, ignoring my order. “I am not the Imperial Guard known as T’zorin, though I am making use of his body.”

  “Then who are you?” Tannus said, frowning.

  “And how dare you lay hands on the Goddess-Empress?” Councilor Minchin demanded.

  T’zorin—or the thing using his body—gave all of us a cold smile. “Count Doloroso, the last of the Assimilated at your service,” he said, nodding his head in a brief approximation of a bow. “Your old Empress, Sundalla the 999th thought she had wiped out my entire race on the Last Day but she was wrong! I alone remained to carry on and repopulate my race and so I shall. You see, this female is not just the exulted Goddess-Empress—she is also a La-ti-zal. A female with bloodlines powerful enough to carry the first of a new race—the Organic Assimilated. A race I myself will start, beginning with her.”

  “You dare!” I lunged at him but he wrapped an arm around Charlotte and dug his knife into her neck, making a nick in her pale flesh. I felt both her fear and the sharp pain of the blade as it bit into her throat.

  “I don’t think so, Captain Verrai. Stay back!” He smiled at me mockingly and I felt sick—Charlotte’s friend, Zoe had warned me that this bastard might still be at large. How could I have ignored her warning? How could I have just assumed that T’zorin’s story of being attacked by pirates was true? I had thought that Morbain and Tannus represented the greatest dangers to my Lady’s life but I had let the deadliest threat of all slip right past me, unnoticed.

  “Let her go,” I said, my voice coming out hoarse and rough. The last of the sedation had left my system now—my adrenaline was surging. But there was nothing I could do while the male who had been T’zorin still held a knife to Charlotte’s throat.

  “I don’t think so,” T’zorin/Doloroso said. “In fact, I think it’s a bit too crowded in here for my taste. I’m going to take the Empress here on a little walk to someplace much more exclusive. Then we can discuss my demands.”

  “If you hurt her,” I snarled. “If you so much as touch her—”

  “Don’t worry, Captain.” He gave me a malevolent smile. “I’ll take very good care of your lady.” He raised his voice. “Now everyone clear out of my way or I’ll slit her throat!”

  “Do it,” Charlotte gasped, looking at me with wide, frightened eyes. “He means it. I can feel it!”

  I knew she was talking about what she called her “touch-sense.” She had seen into Doloroso’s mind and knew that he was serious in his threat to kill her if we didn’t make way for him. But surely he knew if he killed her, he would lose his bargaining chip and be killed instantly himself. He didn’t fear his own death—why?

  I had no time to answer the question. As much as I hated it, I had to give in to the bastard’s demands—at least for now.

  “Move back,” I said to the honor guard, who were still staring at the male they’d known as T’zorin in surprise and dismay. I couldn’t blame them for letting him through to get close to Charlotte—I had let him as well, because it had never occurred to me that one of my most trusted guards could be a threat.

  “That’s the way.” T’zorin—no, Doloroso, I reminded myself—began backing away, taking Charlotte with him. I followed, though at a distance. I didn’t intend to let him leave the palace with her, no matter what he said. And once he was out of the Council Chamber, the way would open up some. I could get a sharpshooter with a tightly collimated blaster beam to pick him off the moment he took the knife from Charlotte’s throat.

  “Be calm,” I sent to her through our link. “I won't let him hurt you, sweetheart!”

  “I’m trying.” I could feel the desperate panic trying to break free inside her but she was doing her best to keep it at bay. Even with a knife at her throat she refused to cry or let herself become hysterical. Gods, how I loved and admired her!

  Doloroso backed away, out of the Council Chamber door. I and most of the rest of the Council as well as Morbain and his own guards followed at a safe distance. Strangely, Doloroso didn’t try to dissuade us from following. I had expected more threats but he simply dragged Charlotte away, keeping a firm grip on her and never letting his knife blade waver from her throat, even for an instant.

  It wasn’t until he backed down the small, side corridor that led to the Chambers of the Trials of Ascendancy that I began to have an inkling of what he had in mind.

  And by then it was too late.

  Charlotte

  “Grab the knob, my dear. Open the door at once!” the person who was calling himself Count Doloroso snarled in my ear.

  We were standing in front of the large door that led to the Garden of Death—the same place the hapless Eucilla had met her end. The place filled with poison gas and flora and fauna—well, poison to anyone but me, that was.

  “No,” I said, fear rushing through me. “No, I’m not going to let you poison everyone in the palace.”

  “Who said anything about poisoning the palace?” he purred in my ear. “There are probably other La-ti-zals here, especially among the Royalty. I don’t want to kill any of my future brides. No, my dear—I simply want a nice safe place where we can stay unmolested while we wait for that foolish ‘Council of Wisdom’ to meet my demands.”

  Through the touch of his skin to mine, I knew it was true. But I still didn’t like the idea of opening what amounted to a gas chamber and letting a terrorist inside. I wanted to refuse again but Doloroso dug his knife into my throat, letting the knife just pierce my skin for the second time.

  “You know, my dear, I only need you for your womb,” he remarked in a horribly conversational tone. “Everything else is unnecessary. Including your pretty eyes, your sweet little tongue, your dainty fingers and toes…I could cut any or all of those away from your lovely body and still have a perfectly serviceable vessel for the first of the Organic Assimilated.”

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