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"If you tell the truth, the venom is harmless, and your body will flush it out in a few hours," Linus said

"And if you don’t tell the truth?"

"Every time you tell a lie, the venom heats up a little more in your veins, like liquid fire, until it can feel like being burned alive from the inside out," he answered "It’s quite painful, fro to torture the truth out of reat

"The asps themselves also have an unusual ability," Linus continued "They can sense whether or not soly"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked

"When someone tells the truth, the asp will do theets quite agitated The itated the asp beco That second bite acts as an ier for the poison already in your veins Death is often thought of as a blessing Those lucky-or unlucky-enough to survive a second bite from a Maat asp often wish they hadn’t"

"And why is that?" I couldn’t help but ask the question

"The side effects are quite brutal and include everything fro limbs," Linus said "The effects vary from person to person No one knows exactly why, except that ironically enough, the punishht stealing artifacts and lies about it, the asp’s bite will usually er or two rot and fall off Sometimes, a Reaper’s whole hand or arm Like I said, most Reapers who survive that second bite wish they hadn’t-or that they’d just told the truth to start with"

I eyed the snake I’d been face-to-face with Nemean prowlers, Fenrir wolves, and even a Black roc, and the Maat asp seearden snake in coical creatures In fact, the asp’s shi blue and black scales made it look quite dainty and pretty, almost like a jeweled bracelet you could wear around your wrist The creature blinked sleepily at me, its eyes the saue flicked out of itsthe air I wondered if it could sense er had off the other students for the past few days

"As long as you tell the truth, you’ll be fine, Miss Frost," Linus continued "Keep in otten that e loud and clear I sed and looked at Grandma Frost, who patted my shoulder

"It’s okay, pumpkin," she said "That itty-bitty snake can’t hurt you because you’re innocent Soon, these fools will realize it too"

Linus arched his eyebrows at ave him a serene smile in return He shuffled a few ain

"Now," he said "The first accusation against you is that you murdered another student Jas to the charges, Jasmine found out that you had stolen an artifact called the Bowl of Tears from the Library of Antiquities back in the fall She was attean McDougall, to Loki, and you killed her for it Is that correct?"

Is that correctcorrectcorrect

His words echoed in ain It was ale because it took me several seconds to process the words To realize what he was really saying-and what he was actually accusing me of

I shook s That’s not what happened-not at all Jasmine is the one who stole the Bowl of Tears, notto sacrifice Morgan I was the one who stopped her, not the other way around"

"And ould Jasan?" This ti to our reports, the two Valkyries were friends-best friends"

"Because Jas around with Samson Sorensen, Jasmine’s boyfriend," I said "And because Jasuys should know that better than anyone"

"Keep the editorial comments to yourself, Miss Frost," Linus said "We are not the ones on trial-you are You would do well to keep that inhiht about him, the Protectorate, and this stupid trial

"But you don’t deny that you killed Jasrona asked

I hesitated I wasn’t the one who’d actually killed Jasht, first by killing the Ne, black, panther-like creature, that Jas the evil Valkyrie herself I didn’t want to get hi the Protectorate what had really happened I didn’t want Logan dragged in here and facing the same sort of torture that I was-but I didn’t want to die by snake bite either

The Maat asp raised its head, and its tongue flickered out of its ain, almost like it was about to test the truthfulness of my words I couldn’t lie, not with the snake an inch froh nite

Desperate, I looked around the prison, as if the eet out of thisat Grand Finally, aze dropped to the cuffs and chains, which le whenever I caic Vivian had toldthere was nothing he could do to hide the truth froht be deadly, but for all its power, the snake didn’t have o on were s behind theh this-and keep at least some of my secrets to myself

"Answer the question, Miss Frost," Linus said

No, I couldn’t lie-but ht with Jas the question "I had to or she would have killed an too"

The asp eased its head back down, apparently satisfied withabout the rules of the ga certain facts was just fine