Chapter Seventeen
“I can take your place,” Nero whispers in my ear, his warm breath wafting over my neck.
I numbly shake my head and shock myself by slowly getting to my feet.
That’s right. I’ve done this successfully once before, when I faced the Council.
I didn’t faint then, and I shouldn’t faint now.
Ignoring the thunderous beating of my heart, I drag myself to the stage.
The crowd below me seems to have multiplied a thousand-fold.
I look at Hekima to see if he’s messing with me, but he just has a kindly expression on his face.
I look back at the crowd.
Have these masks always looked so sinister?
“You can do this,” Hekima murmurs as he walks past me to get off the stage. “I know you can.”
In the fourth row, I spot a pale woman lifting her fanged mask.
It’s Lucretia. She suck
