“Leave him the fuck alone!” Kid shouted, struggling with the higherling who held him. “Where are you fuckers taking him?”
“They’re taking us to a hearing, where they’ll decide what to do with us until our trial date,” Trey replied.
“Trial?”
“For the murder of immortals. Every one that Janka killed in that mansion.”
Now Kid was really worried. Up until that point, he hadn’t understood what was happening. But now he had some answers. He and Trey had been implicated in some sort of crime that they were to be tried in some otherworldly court for. What would they even do with him—a mortal? And what would they do to Treycore if they thought he’d killed his own kind?
And as much as he was worried about Treycore, he was also concerned about Kinzer. What happened to him after he escaped that mansion? Or Hayde—the flit who helped them, the immortal who held Maggie in his arms as she sliced a dagger into her own body because it was too painful to go on. Because her body was withering away and she needed an escape.
The guards escorted Kid and Treycore out of the room and through the hallway. When they reached a set of dual doors, the guards opened them.
Bright light beamed through the opening, and as Kid’s eyes adjusted, he looked outside. Multiple planets hung in the sky, reminding Kid of the way the moon could look when it appeared during the daytime. What looked like hundreds of steps descended to a courtyard made from the same stone as his cell. Tall stone buildings surrounded the courtyard, which had a great fountain in the center, the water climbing high and arcing into a pool of water at the base.
The guards guided them down the steps to the fountain, practically dragging Treycore to it before they stepped into the water. When Kid’s guard reached the fountain, he pushed Kid into the pool of water, which splashed all around him. As he glanced around, he realized he wasn’t swimming in water but falling inside another building.
The guard who had pushed Trey into the fountain had his arms around Trey as they glided down to the stone floor below—the one Kid was diving toward.
Kid flailed about until he felt arms wrap around him. As he looked back, he saw his guard with his wings spread out at his sides. Over his wingspan, Kid saw the water they’d entered through seeming to bubble and ripple on the ceiling. These portals must have been one of the ways they got around Heaven.
The guard lowered him onto the floor and escorted him behind Trey, through a series of halls, until they came to a doorway that must’ve been three times his size. The doors opened through an automatic mechanism before the guards ushered him and Trey into another room. It was filled with higherlings chatting among one another. They sat on long benches raked down to a seated man encircled by a circular desk. He spoke to a higherling standing before him. “And it is determined that you will spend your time in the Nest to await trial.”
“No, sir, please!”
The man behind the podium raised his hand, and two guards grabbed the pleading higherling and took him away. He struggled and fought and called out, and Kid knew that thisNestthat this judge—or whatever he was—had sentenced him to was not somewhere they wanted to be.
Kid and Treycore’s guards guided them to an empty area by a bench three rows from the judge.
***
These fucking bastards. Why did they have to bring Kid into this? He doesn’t belong here.
Treycore yanked his arm from the higherling holding him. “I’m obviously not going anywhere, so why don’t you stop trying to cop a feel.”
“He’s fine,” the other said as he released him as well. “Remember we have plenty of backup here, Treycore.”
“Got it. Just bring Kid over here.”
Treycore wanted to be near him again. Heneededto be. They’d spent far too much time apart.
The guard holding Kid released him, and Kid hurried to Treycore, wrapping his arms around him, nuzzling his face up against the side of Treycore’s thick chest. Treycore leaned down, pressing his face against Kid’s scalp, feeling those long chocolate-brown strands against his cheek.
Treycore’s face filled with heat. Kid needed a bath. They obviously hadn’t been taking very good care of him, not that he had expected them to. He pushed his rage aside and appreciated the moment. It felt so good to be near Kid again. To feel his body close to his own.
When they finally pulled back, Kid looked up at Treycore. Kid’s dark eyes were filled with worry, fear, dread. Things Treycore couldn’t soothe in that moment. But he could appreciate those smooth lines across Kid’s face, his soft features.
They sat together by the guards, who Treycore imagined were so excited about being the ones privileged enough to put the great Treycore in his place. They had seen him on his holy pedestal once upon a time. Now he was a prisoner awaiting sentencing for what he knew was a grave crime to the Council.
Still, he was optimistic about his own well-being. The Council wouldn’t kill him for any crime, as they might have any other higherling, because of his birthright. As the most beautiful of the male higherlings, though not the most beautiful of higherlings, he was assured certain protections. Executing him would have been a slight against the Almighty. But while he felt safe, he feared for Kid, who did not have his tremendous advantage.
Kid was a mortal…not a worthy being, a being that most in Heaven believed should have been destroyed at the Almighty’s command. If they chose to punish him, that was another story altogether.
They waited in suspense for a few more higherlings to be sentenced. Most were taken to the holding cells he and Kid had been in previously in the Embassy, the building where criminals were typically held while they awaited trial.
When Treycore’s name was called, the guards led him and Kid down to the justice, who sat behind his desk, raised so high that he was several feet higher than Treycore. The justice looked down at him with the same resentment that so many did, but with a certain reverence, for regardless of how they felt about his privilege, none could deny his magnificence.
“Treycore,” the justice said as though he was surprised to see the higherling. “Well, well. It’s been a great deal of time since we’ve had the pleasure of beholding such beauty. I have seen the charges against you, and I have to confess, I am surprised by the accusations of what you have reportedly committed against so many of your fellow immortals. Those who were with you in the dawn of creation. Of course, I suppose there is a certain madness that comes along with being as magnificent a being as yourself, as we saw with the only one greater than yourself.”
