to his charm. “Collin Ward?” I continue staring at him, not bothering to reply so he adds, “I’ve been assigned to your trial.”
Lucky me. If a gargoyle has already been brought in for my sentencing, then the verdict’s already in. They’re going to kill me. Considering a gargoyle’s sole purpose at a trial is to carry out the sentence—leeching years off a supernatural’s life—I can pretty much assume he’s going to do that to me. I can only hope that he doesn’t take all of the years I have left.
I snort inwardly. The courts are such a joke. They claim not to administer capital punishment, but everyone knows that rogue sentencing typically ends with one hundred and fifty years of life given to the gargoyles, which essentially means you’re dead within months of the trial ending, or if you’re lucky, you get a few years.
Whatever my fate, I know I’ll spend the rest of my days in a cage dressed in clothes that rival cotton candy while I enjoy the meager time the gargoyle doesn’t leech from me. Most likely, I’ll be dead by New Years.
When I don’t reply to him, the gargoyle shrugs and hobbles out of the room just as a witch appears behind him. Unlike the gargoyle, she doesn’t feel the need to say hello.
She’s wearing a business suit, and her dark hair is tied back in a bun. Her hands rise, and she begins to weave them through the air. She whispers a spell under her breath, and my cage rises like an illusion.
She transports me through the door and out to the courtroom.
The second I’m in the room, I smell it—caramel and sunshine.
My heart slams against my ribs, and I pin myself to the bars as I search the attendees for her.
She sits near the back—where all attendees are placed—and she’s flanked by an older man and woman.
“Brianna,” I whisper.
I know she can’t hear me, but she spots me. Shock ripples through my frame, then my heart sings.
Brianna’s here, which means she remembers me.
But as soon as that elation comes, so does a heady dose of reality. She’s here? But how is that possible? Humans can’t portal transfer, so how the hell did she get into the fae lands?
But I don’t have time to consider it because the witch deposits me by the far wall. Even though I’m in a spelled cage, they still don’t take any chances. I’m kept well away from all attending magistrates and court officials.
Rogues have a nasty reputation.
And then, the hubbub begins.
The judges and magistrates parade out in their long robes with their chins high. The clock strikes noon from the twelve chimes that ring through the square outside.
My magistrate sits behind his desk, shuffling papers. I’ve met with him a few times. Those meetings were enough for me to realize he doesn’t believe he can save my life. If anything, our meetings were simply a formality.
The three judges sit behind their huge wooden panel at the front of the courtroom. The queen justice sits center and highest of them all. Given her pale skin and stark cheekbones, I’m guessing she’s a vampire. She eyes me shrewdly from behind her black-rimmed spectacles.
Shit. She hates me already.
The next thirty minutes are filled with the officials introducing the case and outlining what my trial will entail. I don’t hear any of it. My attention shifts back to Brianna and stays focused on her.
My mate.
Brianna watches me just as intently. As the opening arguments continue, she mouths, I love you and a weight bearing down on my shoulders—a weight I didn’t even know I carried—is lifted.
My mate still loves me. She believes in me. She knows I’ve changed. And she remembers me. How that’s possible, I don’t know, but in the end, that’s all that matters. I’ll die a happy man if I know her love for me remains.
But it’s only when I see her gaze stray from mine that I finally hear what the opposing magistrate is saying. Worse. I see it.
At some point in the past few minutes, the counsel started showing pictures of the victims the beast killed. They don’t waste any time in these trials. The magical slideshow flashes in the air above the courtroom in vivid detail—the grisly evidence on full display.
Brianna’s face pales when a woman, one of the beast’s first kills, appears. The woman is lifeless and lying in a pool of blood. Her throat is slashed and half of her face is missing.
I wince. In