Gremory snaps a finger, and out of thin air, a glass-walled cage appears to the left of me. Inside is a huge demon that seems to be wrapped in writhing shadows. I see short black flames instead of hair, and the impression of massive muscles and nudity, but the roiling darkness over its skin blurs the demon somehow. I can see it but can’t focus on it enough to make the details of its body clearer. That is until it turns to me, and I see its eyes.
Every muscle in my body locks with terror. Frigid fear skitters through me like a thousand rats, and my palms start to sweat as alarm settles in my chest. The memory of agonized screams fills my ears as the demon’s full onyx lips smile threateningly at me. I suddenly feel like I’m being consumed by cold fire, like I’m a lowly moth being dragged closer toward deadly flames against my will. The demon’s bright orange eyes have a pupil that’s slit like a goat’s, and it looks me up and down lasciviously before licking its lips with a long obscene black tongue.
“Hello, Leni, it’s nice to see you again.”
I pale as the voice that plagued my dying breaths tries to wrap around me like a noose of shadows. Horror clamps around my chest, and my breathing picks up despite my efforts to keep it even. I turn away to look at the three higher demons who are in charge of this trial, and silently repeat a mantra I used to chant when I was a kid and afraid of the monsters under my bed.
If I can’t see them, they can’t see me. If I can’t see them, they can’t see me.
The only problem is I don’t have covers to pull over my head and hide under right now, and I really fucking wish I did. I want to move away from the glass cage, worried that the walls aren’t strong enough to contain something so heinous, but I stay where I am partly because I don’t want to show fear and partly because I’m too terrified to make my legs work. I try to swallow, but my throat feels dry as fuck.
“Is this the demon you’re accusing?” Gremory asks, his face still the epitome ofover it.
“Y-yes,” I stammer, hating how fucking weak I sound, but I’m standing next to something that haunts my nightmares, and as much as I hate it, there’s not a lot I can do about the wobble in my voice. Hopefully, this will go quickly, they’ll kill this fucker, and I can go home and rest easier knowing Count Botis the Murk’s bones are down here rotting until they’re dust.
“And you attest that you have no contract with this demon and that you are not owned by anyone who does?” Cozen demands.
“Yes,” I announce, glad at least that I didn’t stutter that time.
Cozen turns her bored white eyes to the demon next to me and surveys him. I look up at Dyad, trying to get a feel for what’s going to happen, but his black eyes are also on the Count. The titlecountmakes me nervous. I don’t know if it has the same standing with demons as it does with humans, but I don’t like the idea of this demon’s position affording him special favors or sway, especially when that special favor could be my death. Or my attempted death.
Fuck, what are they going to do to me when they realize I can’t die?
I immediately shut down the horrid options that flash through my mind with that question, and tell myself it’ll be fine.
This is a trial.
I have solid evidence.
Everything is going to be okay.
My heart hammers harder in my chest, and I swear I can hear the rapid beat echoing quietly around the marble room.
“How do you plea, Botis?” Dyad asks, and I think I see a glare in his eyes.
“Not guilty, of course,” Botis purrs, the sound more akin to nails on a chalkboard, and I wince, which makes the orange-eyed demon laugh.
I shake my head, feeling like I’m going to cry and trying to tamp it down with everything in me. All the demons in the room turn to me expectantly.
You can do this, Lennox. Just lay out the facts plain and simple.
“This demon helped kidnap and kill Osteomancers in an effort to steal their magic. I was taken and saw with my own eyes the possession and ritual the demon participated in to illegally steal magic that never belonged to him or the human he was working with. He killed that human and then possessed a new one and then showed up where I was staying for no other reason than to fuck with me. I don’t have a contract with him. I don’t owe him anything, and yet he won’t leave me alone, which is a violation of the Accords. Also, the fact that I can sense him and the danger he tries to put me in, further supports that he broke the Accords? My understanding is that’s a failsafe worked into the agreement, so I would like to point that out as more evidence that he broke the law,” I declare, looking at Dyad, who told me that’s how the failsafe worked.
“The sensing him in your realm is an element of proof, but if we’re going to sentence a Count to death for violating the Accords, we’re going to need more proof than you’re good eyesight,” Gremory snaps.
I balk, not sure what to think about that. I just gave him my other proof.Was that not enough?
The three demons ruling over this trial all turn to Botis as though this is some fucked up tennis match and it’s his turn to serve.
“Ididhave a contract, and Leni here is collateral from thatsanctionedagreement. I would also like to claim damages because this little cunt interfered with my contract and cost me the agreed upon return,” he argues, and my stomach drops.
He can’t be serious. Damages?
My head snaps to the three demons at his words, and I reel when each of them looks thoughtful. Are they really considering what he’s saying? He didn’t even provide any proof. Is hisclaimmore important than my evidence? Panic starts to layer in my chest, and I immediately wonder what the hell I’ve gotten myself into. I thought this would be the best avenue for dealing with the demon, but now I’m terrified I’ve somehow dug a bigger hole for myself.
“Interfered how?” Dyad demands, only this time the glare he’s wearing is for me.
Shit, what have I done?
