Once Upon a Broken Heart

Chapter 19: After

Corvin testified at nine in the morning.

Isla was there. Cassian stood at the back of the chamber in the particular way of someone who was present without participating—the old Fate quality, the observer quality, that she now understood differently than she had in September. He wasn't there as the Prince of Ruin. He was there because she'd asked him to come, and he'd said yes.

Corvin was very calm. He had the quality of a man who had made his accounting and was prepared for the result. He told the chamber what he'd done and why and what Hunger had promised and what Hunger had given. He spoke Soren's name. He spoke the name of the murder clearly and without embellishment, in the language of a man who had decided that accuracy was the last right thing he could do.

The chamber was very still.

Petra was there, in the public gallery. She sat next to Soren, who had come out of the vacant studio that morning with the manner of a man who had been indoor for two weeks and was prepared for consequences. He held Petra's hand. Petra let him.

The legal process moved with the particular efficiency that capital cases achieved when the evidence was clear and the outcome was obvious. Petra's name was formally cleared before the noon bell. The case was redirected. Corvin was taken into custody.

In the corridor afterward, Petra stood with Soren and looked at her sister.

"Done?" she said.

"Done," Isla said.

Petra looked past her at Cassian. Cassian looked at Petra. The exchange that happened between them was brief and—Isla thought, watching it—contained an entire conversation conducted without words, the way significant things sometimes were.

Petra nodded once.

Cassian nodded back.

Petra turned to Soren. "We're going to celebrate," she said. "The expensive bread from the good bakery."

"Petra," Soren said, "I've been eating palace bread for six years. Your definition of expensive bread may need calibrating."

"I like him," Isla said to Cassian, as they watched Petra and Soren move toward the exit.

"He's precise," Cassian said. "And earnest. I find that—" A pause. "I find that easier to be around than I used to."

She looked at him.

"Things that are genuine," he said. "I find I can—be present with them. Without the Fate's distance." He paused. "This is very new."

"How does it feel?" she asked.

He thought about it. "Strange," he said. "And—" He stopped. "Better than the alternative."