Avery's eyes flew open and she sat up, making the room spin and pain shoot down her neck. Groaning she grabbed her head and rested her elbows on her knees. The cushions shifted beside her as someone sat down.
"Avery it's Sari, I'm right behind you." With the warning Avery didn't flinch when Sari gently rubbed comforting circles on her back. Avery took deep breaths trying to push the pain away from her face.
"Hayden is in front of you; he can stop the headache if you're ready."
Avery nodded and winced again, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. Hayden put his hand on top of Avery's head and eased the pain away. Her breathing evened out and she blinked to clear her eyes. She saw the concerned faces of her friends staring back at her. Her friends minus Roedin. "Where is he? What did he do?"
They shared a look.
"They locked him up for the moment," Adelyn explained.
"What will happen to him?"
Hayden reached for a glass of water and handed it to Avery. "Khalil has bigger problems right now. He'll leave Roedin there for the day to prove a point, but it's too much trouble to keep him. Roedin could escape in a heartbeat, but we told him to stay to play along."
They're keeping him away from me, Avery realised. She sipped the water. "Is it over then?"
Arctos lurched to his feet and stomped across the room, while Sari reached over and put her arm around Avery's shoulders giving her a reassuring squeeze.
Adelyn shifted in her seat. "Not quite. They want to resume after supper, privately. The room will be closed to everyone but the alpha primes."
Avery looked at her quizzically, confused as to why the rules would change suddenly. She didn't like being paraded in front of the sapiens but she wanted them to know what happens to humans who have no defense against the more powerful beings. It's why she had agreed to participate in the trial even after the horrific nightmare, when she sobbed and begged Roedin to not go. The following morning, when she woke curled up on his warm chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her, they spoke of the dream and the pending trial. In that comfort and safety Avery's courage returned and she resolved to share her story so that the precedent could be set. So that the sapiens would know that attacking a human was still a crime.
But in the end it had been Roedin who couldn't take the interrogation.
Avery grew angry. "The torture wasn't enough for them? My throat split open and blood soaking the gravel was confusing? What else could they possibly want to hear?"
Adelyn looked away and Hayden rubbed the back of his neck to ease a knot forming there. The tension from the alphas told her enough. They wanted to know about the assault.
Avery controlled the urge to vomit. "Why don't they just ask Roedin? He saw it, he was there. One time, at least. Is that not enough?"
Hayden shook his head. "That's how they even know about it. Roedin tried to convince them but Caiaphas claimed that he was too sick to properly remember. That it was probably just a dream if he wasn't even strong enough to get out of bed. Plus, he never saw Ferrik's face. Technically it could have been someone else."
Avery's mouth fell open. Now she knew. She knew the outcome of this trial had already been determined. They would never convict the son of an alpha prime on the word of a human. There was no justice, no protection for the meek on earth. It was ruled by sapiens; instinct, might, and survival of the fittest were the only things that mattered.
"Avery, no one is denying that terrible things happened to you, not even Caiaphas. They're just trying to prove that it was Ferrik who did it," Adelyn explained.
Avery shakily got to her feet then nodded in resolution. "I think I'll go lie down, rest for a bit."
They watched her silently as she walked out of the sitting room. She shut the door behind her and pressed her back against it, looking around her bedroom in the fading daylight. Her mind raced as she built her plan, committing the details to her well-trained memory. She didn't need to rest, she needed to take action.
*************
A commotion sounded in the living space of the apartment suite. Angry words were exchanged and doors slammed open and shut. Avery cracked open her own door and peeked outside. Roedin stormed into his bedroom with Arctos on his heels while a dozen armed guards crammed in the front hall. Adelyn shared terse words with Khalil.
"Adelyn, I'm not discussing this anymore. You and I know both know why he can't be in the trial, and I don't want him in the dungeons so close to Ferrik. I will not put my city at risk of war with Rastus because Roedin couldn't control his hormones."
Adelyn raised her palms in surrender. "Alright, alright. Arctos and Niamh will keep him here while we finish up tonight. We'll all leave soon is the verdict is delivered tomorrow."
Khalil waved his hand through the air in dismissal. "Just tell him to take a flight and sort himself out. I'll meet you in the ballroom."
He marched out of the suite leaving half a dozen guards stationed in the hall outside.
Roedin stomped out of his bedroom wearing his fighting leathers. "Is she alright?"
Sari came over. "Yes, she's fine. She was concerned about you being locked up."
Roedin shook his head in frustration.
"Of course. Never thinking of herself." Then he turned on Sari. "But you! How you could you let her get that close? You said you would protect her!"
Sari looked him admonishingly. "Roedin, she's an independent woman. I can't stop her when she puts her mind to something."
"I could have broken her neck!"
"No, you couldn't have," Arctos interjected. "The blow was an accident, and you stopped as soon as it happened. You could never have hurt her seriously."
Roedin brushed him off, heading for the balcony and dark night beyond. "It was too close."
A knock sounded on the outer door reminding them it was time to go back to the trial. Hayden growled and asked Sari to wake Avery from her nap, while Arctos continued to try to reason with Roedin on the balcony. Avery ripped open the door and brushed past the primes, racing out to the balcony where Arctos and Roedin were arguing.
Roedin spun to face her, taking a cautionary step back. Arctos tensed, his eyes darting between the human and his brother. Avery ignored him completely and stepped closer to Roedin, chewing on her lower lip.
"If you're going flying, you'll need to keep your energy up." Avery held out a small packet. "I made some energy bars. They're full of nuts and fruit and some sugars for quick power. Here, take it."
Arctos looked away awkwardly, contemplating jumping over the balcony railing.
Roedin shook his head and backed up another step. "I can't take that from you."
"Yes, you can. I made it just for you. I didn't make one for Arctos. Just for you," Avery repeated, thrusting the packet in front of him again.
"No! No, I can't. You don't know what it means to give me this! It's too much. I don't have enough control!"
From inside Hayden called out that they needed to leave. Avery glanced over her shoulder then looked back at Roedin. "Do you not want it? Do you not want this food that I made for you?"
"Avery, I do! I can't tell you how much I do. But you need to know something. It's a sapien thing. To give me this food—you don't know what it means." He clutched his hands to his thighs as though they would act on their own accord.
Hayden called out again.
Avery took another step forward, pushing the energy bar closer, holding his stare. "I know exactly what it means!"
Roedin collapsed to his knees and slowly reached to take the food from Avery's outstretched hand. Trembling, he cupped the packet in front of him like a sacred jewel. Before he could say anything, Avery bent down and planted a deep kiss on his lips.
She pulled away too soon and whispered in his ear. "Find me. When this is over, promise you'll find me."
Roedin squinted at her in bewilderment and reached for her hand but it slipped from his grasp as she fled the balcony.
*************
The sound of her own breathing filled her head. She felt as though her spirit had left her body and was floating above the room looking down at the semi-circle of sapiens staring back at her. The detachment was likely the only thing that kept her standing. Everything felt numb, like she had no control over her limbs anymore.
She had been standing in front of them for an hour, describing in painful detail how a sapien had violated her. At first the alpha primes were shocked into silence, then discomfort. In search of distraction, Khalil leaned over and suggested to Adelyn and Aubrey that they could excuse themselves; that this topic was not something a female should have to hear.
Aubrey glowered at the insult. "And leave her alone in a room full of males. Have you been listening to anything?"
Adelyn's nearly crushed the armrests of her chair with her grip. "Do you think this is news to me, Alpha Prime Khalil? You males might be blind to the harassment, the insult, the innuendo and degrading comments we face every day, but to hear the details of what a male would do to a female who denies him is not a surprise to me."
She and Aubrey exchange a knowing look, and the males had the sense to remain silent but gather some of their power for defense.
Caiaphas interrupted the squabbling. "You have still given us no proof that it was my son who did this. You're probably being bribed by your own pack to deliver false accusations. Rastus has always been the enemy of Corinth."
Hayden didn't take the bait and sat stone faced. "Have we heard enough to make a decision on this?"
Caiaphas snarled at him. "I don't know, you tell me. You seem to have this story all laid out already."
He turned back to Avery. "Tell me, human, what else do you feel like pinning on my son? What else did he do to you?"
Avery was defeated, her shoulders sagging as the fight drained out of her. Adelyn leapt to her feet and faced Caiaphas.
"What else? You want her to share more, to relive every detail of that torture?" she screamed at him. The room darkened as her power seeped out. "Is rape not enough for you? The sick, twisted pleasure he got from hearing her scream is not convincing?"
Khalil rose as well, countering Adelyn's darkness with his own power. Avery backed away from the angry sapiens and turned to run for the door, but Aubrey had turned the floor to ice. Avery skidded across the room as the trial ended in the same chaos as the previous one. Power surged from the rulers as they flexed their muscles and let their tempers slip, the shouting and demands lost in the cacophony. Avery pulled open the door only to find a crowd of people waiting on the far side, anxious to hear the outcome.
The human balked at the sight of so many sapiens blocking her path and she stepped back into the ballroom, unsure where to go. Sari pushed her way through the crowd and wrapped her arms around Avery's shoulders, noting the red eyes and tear stained face. She moved her through the crowded hall, ensuring the sapiens kept their distance.
Avery pulled toward a restroom. Sari made to follow her in but Avery put out her hand to stop her. "Can you just give me a minute?"
Soon Khalil came to the hall and ordered everyone to clear away, the visiting alpha primes taking their packs with them. Adelyn and Hayden found Sari standing with her arms crossed, glaring at all those who passed by. At their approach she turned and knocked gently on the washroom door, cracking it open to peek in.
"Avery, how are you doing in there?"
She was standing in front of the mirror, staring at her reflection catatonically.
"Avery, why don't we go back to the apartment and decompress? We can go home in the morning," Sari proposed.
She came into the restroom and tucked Avery under her arm again, directing her back into the hall. Avery didn't acknowledge nor resist and allowed the sapien to guide her through the castle hallways surrounded by a furious pair of alpha primes.
When they arrived back at the suite Niamh heated up some tea but Avery went straight into her room and lay down on the bed. Sari shut the bedroom door quietly and collapsed on a sofa chair while Hayden eased himself down beside her.
"That was...horrific. Why did we agree to do this?" Adelyn whispered from her own seat.
Hayden shook his head and stared into space. "It's my fault. I pushed for a trial. I wanted to start giving humans some sort of process they could follow to seek justice against mindless criminals like Ferrik. Start letting go of the old ways where a single prime gets to decide the fate of others. I should have never let it get this far."
Niamh placed stiff drinks in their hands and sat down across from them. She held her own drink for a moment then tilted her head back and downed it in one swallow.
"What did the alphas decide?" she asked after a moment.
Adelyn huffed and leaned back on the sofa, arching his back and looking up at the ceiling. "We all know what will happen. Tomorrow morning we'll come together formally and Ferrik will be handed over to Caiaphas, ordered to be on his best behaviour and never set foot in our territories. House arrest, essentially."
Niamh growled under her breath. "So Avery was right all along."
"What do you mean?"
"She knew nothing would come of this. She can read a room better than any of us and she did the math long ago. And while she hoped that Ferrik would be put down, she's too smart to think it would actually happen."
Adelyn looked at Hayden. "You know she actually told me she would not execute Ferrik if she were in our place? That as alpha primes it would be poor leadership to take our city to war over a single crime? She's too smart for her own good."
Hayden grimaced. "Queen Avery, indeed. Maybe the sorcerer is on to something."