“That is normal for girls her age, Zeke. As we decided with Miss Beckwith—her using her impressive skills to give her friends what amounts to a diary is hardly worthy of this council’s time,” Darya interrupted in a scratchy voice.

“Yes, but that does not explain where she was last night.” Zeke’s eyes snapped back to mine after glaring at his colleague.

My silence lasted until Truman lost his patience, slamming his hand down and startling me out of my skin. “Answer the question, Miss Vespasian! You were missing last night while your friend added to your unauthorized research files. Tell us how and why this instant, or the Enforcers at the back of the room will be dispatched to your parents’ house without further consideration.”

“I …” I swallowed again, fisting my sweaty hands. Booth had said to lie, but the best one danced outside my reach. Nerves buzzed in my ears and tears burned in my throat. Analeigh was gone, Sarah had been sanctioned.

“I took her to the past so we could be alone.”

Oz’s voice forced the deep breath I’d taken out in a whoosh. The room exploded with shocked exclamations and excited whispers. Zeke pounded his gavel, shouting over the din, as I looked up to find Oz standing, his own hands clenched.

Sarah’s eyes filled with tears of betrayal, and sliced my battered heart in two. After all of the promises I’d made her that nothing was going on, here was her boyfriend, admitting the opposite in front of all of our classmates.

It wasn’t true, but there was no way I could explain that to her now.

My voice had abandoned me. Oz climbed down the bleachers and arrived at my side the same time Zeke finally gave up on settling down the room and ordered everyone out. Truman’s furious gaze flicked from his son to me and back again. Even though I refused to meet it, the pain from the white-hot accusation burned my skin.

The room fell silent after everyone exited, reluctant expressions on most faces. I tried to catch Sarah’s eye, to convince her with my gaze alone that she could trust me, but she refused to look up as she filed past us and out of the room.

We were alone with the Elders. As before, I wanted to protest, to punch Oz and run, to deny it all—but doing that would put my family at risk. If Oz had been acting with the permission of the rogue Elders and it meant I could stay at the Academy and try to figure out what was going on, try to find a way to get Analeigh back, then let them think it.

“Mr. Truman, where did you procure a cuff? Neither of you are full Historians so they haven’t been issued to you.” Zeke asked the question carefully, eyes warning Oz to play along.

That told me all I needed to know about whether all of the Elders were involved in this harebrained, potentially deadly scheme to try to restore Earth Before.

“It’s mine,” I said. “I found it in Jonah’s room at home.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Oz shift slightly. His cloak fell farther down around his wrists, hiding the cuff he probably still wore. If the Elders glimpsed his surprise in the slight jerk of his shoulders, they said nothing.

“Where is the cuff now?” Booth asked.

“Jonah took it back. He was just here. Did you see him?” I couldn’t help the sass. Knowing that at least some of the Elders were in as tight a spot as me right now gave me a slight edge of power.

Truman glowered. “You would be wise to watch your smartass mouth, Miss Vespasian.”

Minnie Gatling waved in his direction, a frown on her wrinkled mouth. “Language, David. Now, the two of you have been sneaking off to engage in an affair of sorts, since Mr. Truman is betrothed to his True Companion, Sarah Beckwith. Since you discovered a cuff in your brother’s room, the past seemed like the safest place to meet without being discovered. This is correct?”

I ground my teeth together and nodded.

“And you know nothing about Analeigh Frank’s research trajectory or how your brother, the rebel Jonah Vespasian, knew to arrive in time to rescue her from her sentence today?” Maude prodded.

I definitely didn’t know the answer to that, though I wished more than anything that I did. How had Jonah known Analeigh was in trouble? Why had he come to save her but left me behind? “No, ma’am.”

“And Oz?” Darya’s feeble voice crackled like old paper.

“I know nothing of Analeigh’s research, Elder Gagarin. Or of any pirate activity.” He said the last part with such disdain there could be no doubt how he felt about my brother.

“You should know that Miss Beckwith has been sanctioned heavily and her certification will be delayed one full year.” Maude raised her eyebrows at me, but no one waited for me to answer.

I didn’t have anything to say. I already hurt so badly for Sarah I couldn’t stand it.

“You have been warned before, Miss Vespasian,” Zeke cut in. “Your multiple sanctions of cleaning duty seem to not have worked as a deterrent.” He sighed and sat back in his chair. “Of course, finding a cuff and not turning it over, then using it to travel without an overseer … that is more serious than carrying on a relationship with someone’s True or digging through unauthorized archives.”

The air in the room thickened and swirled, made it hard to breathe. The eight of them conferred about my sentence through their throat tattoos in whispers too soft to be overheard.

Oz reached out and slid his hand into mine, pulling me against his side. I wanted to push him away, but without him there, I might have fallen down. Instead, I leaned into his side.

“Your parents are hereby exiled to Cryon. You will complete your Historian apprenticeship, delayed one year and without any input into your specialization, and without further infraction, or you will join them.” Zeke pounded his gavel.

“No,” I gasped as my knees gave out.

Oz wrapped an arm around my waist, holding me up before the cold floor rushed up to smack me. My brain and body went numb. The tears that flooded my eyes, washed down my cheeks, and dripped off my chin were silent.

“Mr. Truman. Please see Miss Vespasian to her room and then return for your own sanction. Say your good-byes—the two of you would do well to avoid each other in the future.” Zeke glowered.

Oz nodded at Zeke and started to drag me away. My brain screamed, finally urging my feet into motion, and I broke away, rushing back toward the bench.

“Please, send me away. Please. Not my parents. They didn’t do anything wrong, they’re good people, they’re important. It’s me. I’m the bad one.” The words tumbled out, tripping over one another in a race to get off my tongue first.

The Elders didn’t answer. Not one of them responded to my pleas, their faces cold and stony in their refusal to recant their sentence of exile. Only Booth met my gaze, the tiniest bit of sympathy flickering in his rheumy eyes. Oz’s hands were gentle this time as they grabbed my waist and hoisted me off the floor, then prodded me out of the judgment chamber.

*

We made it almost back to my dorm before my mind snapped out of the fog. I jerked free from Oz’s grip, then whirled and slapped him across the face. “How could you?”

“How could I what? Save your life?” He took the strike without flinching, his stormy eyes roiling with a confusion of anger and hurt. “Or are you referring to my handling your business in Egypt since you obviously weren’t going to be able to do it on your own.”

The pain that spiked at the mention of Caesarion almost broke me in two. “Save me? By letting Analeigh get kidnapped? Breaking Sarah’s heart for the second time? If you would have let me go with Jonah …” I trailed off. There had to be a reason for Oz’s actions. All this time I assumed he’s been acting, been lying, the same way I had but now … what if he hadn’t?

When he kissed me the other night, when he followed me into Egypt … just now, when he’d confessed we had feelings for each other and handled me so gently … no. I shook away the stupid thought. He had a True, the chance at a lifetime with the one person in thousands of years who matched him. No way he could fight that feeling. I knew from experience, now.