Wings

39: Restore Me From Within

NPOV

Track: 1685, Zedd feat. Muse

Hades ends the illusion, gathering the light back into his hands and then snuffing it out. Senator Ramírez-Arellano is stiff, her eyes locked on the space in the room that was occupied by the dungeon scene only moments ago. I swallow hard, hoping it's enough, praying it's enough—

"If that scene was real, how do you have wings as you stand before the court today?" she asks very slowly, clearly thinking through the entire situation. Simultaneously, she gestures at Will to step away from me—possibly so she can see me better or possibly to ensure he's not attempting to free me before I've been deemed innocent.

Will squeezes my shoulder in silent support one more time before standing up and standing off to the side. I explain the rest of the story myself—getting my wings back, breaking the treaty by falling in love with Will, being sent to the stars and then summoned back down for the war by my leader and god.

"I see," she says. "And after you were summoned to fight, did you or did you not kill King Hermes?"

And I falter.

I meet Will's eyes.

She's too smart. If we lie, she'll figure it out.

"I am a key witness in that story, I'm afraid," comes a voice, and I look toward the source, surprised—

The room shifts as Prince Luke steps down from his place beside the senator. His movements are deliberate, his posture calm, but his presence electrifies the air. I stare at him, my pulse a thrum of panic.

This is it. He's going to destroy me.

Luke steps into the center of the room, his face unreadable. I'm dead. I'm so dead—he has only ever wanted to destroy me—he's been hunting me down for so long— he has finally trapped the prey—

I force myself to turn away, to look at Will again instead—if I go out, I want to go out looking at him—

"It was me. I killed my father," Luke says with chilling composure.

The words crash over me. My mind blanks, my breath halts. I blink, trying to process what he just said. Will's jaw drops, and he immediately locks eyes with me, eyebrows raised and a terrible sense of hope starting to infiltrate his expression.

I slowly turn back to stare confounded at the back of Prince Luke's head. What is happening ?

He stands there nonchalantly, like he's admitting to eating a second dessert rather than murdering his own father. Does he know he wasn't the one to kill the king—did his bout of insanity cause him to forget that I was the one to deliver the fatal blow?

"Interesting," the senator says, eyebrows raised. "Elaborate?"

Luke straightens, addressing the Senate with conviction. "My father betrayed the values of this nation. Power-hungry, corrupt—a man whose cruelty knew no bounds. I bore witness to his violence every day. If he wasn't stopped, our nation was doomed to crumble under his tyranny. I acted for its survival."

The room buzzes with whispers, senators exchanging urgent glances. The senator's expression hardens. It's clear she doesn't fully believe him, but after the horrors they just witnessed in the illusion, Luke's words gain traction. After all, if Hermes could commit acts like that, what else would he have been willing to do to get his way?

I can't believe he's standing up for me.

Reyna taps her fingers against the pile of case notes in front of her, and then she shuffles through a few of them and skims a few lines on each. "There were no soldiers conscious at the time that the king actually died, but several reported suspicions that it was di Angelo's plan—to be clear, di Angelo did not help you murder the king in any way?"