“Well,” Steve answered. “None said that. About a third saw a white explosion, light coming from the victim’s eyes and wounds. Everyone saw you shooting and stabbing someone.”
“And the body? I know Vargr…” She hadn’t yet spotted him. “… he said you needed to fetch the body. Did anyone fly down?”
He nodded. “At great risk, yes. Three wing-soldiers flew to the ground and searched. They only found blood and some signs of a body having hit the ground with great force. They assumed animals dragged it away.”
“Oh.”Fuck.
“And so.” Willow took up the voice of this somewhat underqualified legal team. “We can only go by what people saw: you killing three people.”
“Two people and one Ghoul Lord,” she pointed out. Tom, Carlos, and the Thing. A lie popped into her head.
Shemustsay this. It might save her, and was only a small lie. Except, she never lied. Never. Time to start then.
“And there is this. If I had not done what I did, you all would have died. The Ghoul Lord would have taken you, lured you away.”
“You know this for a fact?” The piercing stare from Willow made her hesitate. “Because if not, if you killed a human not a GL, then you also killed two others needlessly, ruthlessly, and dare we say insanely. There was no reason to attack him if he was not a Ghoul Lord. The doctor could have given us so much. He understood nanites and how we were created.”
“It was notthedoctor. Well, I don’t remember what he looked like, but I know it was someone dead who’d been possessed by a Ghoul Lord.”
“Hmmm. This court’s problem is knowing what the truth is, and so far we have nothing solid to support your case. We already know you can…” She waved her hand. “Manipulate the minds of others. Maura for example.”
That was unfair. It skewed things. Though she had lied in one respect. The Thing had meant to take only her away, no one else, but she’d seen a lot of information in its mind, maybe more than she’d so far deciphered. If this lot of fuck-wits called her a murderer, they’d never get that information.
“Listen! You have to listen to me!” She stood abruptly and the back of her legs hit the chair so that it almost toppled. Guards advanced on her, but the judges seemed unconcerned and the guards stopped a few feet from Cyn.
“I am the only hope for what is left of our mutated, messed-up humanity. I can do things no one else can; I know things no one else does. You know that, Willow. I am changing in ways that will let us defeat them.” She set her teeth together. “Do not throw me away. You are the one who jumped up and said we must do something! You said I was a sign, agreed that we should go find Big Daddy. We have to do this. Remember? It’s time to put a spanner in the works of the Ghoul Lords.”
Panting, she slowed, having run out of things to say. She was no orator. What else could she say when a third of them believed the Thing she killed was an enemy, yet it was not enough to convince these three judges?
While she dithered, someone tall, sexy, and exactly the wrong person to defend her stepped from the crowd to her left.Vargr.His expression? Anger with a T. Terrible anger. Thwarted anger. She just wished it was Twinkie-deprived anger. That she could deal with.
“I can tell when she’s lying, and she is. I’m not a hundred percent sure which bit was a lie. All of it, probably.”
“Not all,” she whispered, and again her heart was metaphorically whimpering as well as punching at the inside of her chest. She wanted him back with her. Was not bondmating a primary instinct? “I’m glad you’re healing.” His mouth twisted in acknowledgment—nothing more though. She couldn’t stop herself asking what she had to. “Did accidentally shooting you bring us to this? You, hating me?”
If anything, the crevasses on his face deepened.
“No. It was that you shot me and did not know me when you did it. It was that you shot Tom and the others and did not care.I’m afraid of what you are and what you might become. Tell me, girl, was it really a Ghoul Lord?”
Oh hell, he wanted her to do this, to answer this question, and thought he could see the truth? Funny, because right now the tears in her eyes were preventing her from seeing him as anything but a blur.
She heaved in a shaky breath, exhaled. “Yes. It was a Ghoul Lord.”
Vargr nodded. “That part, I believe. The rest though, it fuckin’ destroys me. Understand? I was just something in the way.”
The silence seemed to last a long time, and all she could do was cry. Tears wandered down her face and over her mouth then dripped from her chin. Where had her strength gone?
“Hmmm.” Mads sniffed, tapped the table. “Not sure that counts as incontrovertible proof, though.”
“No.” Willow shook her head, stared from Cyn to Vargr. “But it counts for a lot with me. Not enough, however. We are a small community and cannot risk having an insane and murderous person among us who could kill again without warning. Shall we decide this?”
The other judges agreed and stood.
“Wait. Wait.” Cyn blinked then tried to sniff away the water in her nose. “You have to have more than that? Youhaveto!”
They shook their heads.
After they exchanged glances, Willow was the one who spoke. “No, Cyn, what we have to do is err on the side of caution. I’m sorry. We have survived until now by being cautious and not attempting to attack the Ghoul Lords again. The last time we did, thousands upon thousands of us died. To use an argument that you are valuable beyond our imagination does not work when the chances of success are low. We do know that you are a danger to us.”
