The other women watched her quietly. Lainey caught her hand as she passed, “Will you be all right?”
Erin squeezed her hand. “Yes. Don’t worry.”
Erin didn’t know whether she was shaking with anxiety or relief. It had been three days of endless waiting, all while counting down the minutes to Jaxor’s trial. Three days of not seeing him, not hearing his voice or feeling his touch, of not telling him all the things she wanted to. Would she be able to see him now if she was going to the command center?
She’d insist on it.
The two warriors boarded her onto a hovercraft and they flew off the terrace, heading in the direction of the command center. The pale blue dress she wore billowed with the wind. It was in the Luxirian style, light and airy and silky, flowing to her ankles.
A gasp escaped her when she saw the crowds…when she saw the sheer amount of Luxirians outside the main entrance of the command center. She’d heard the chants, had known that there was a large gathering, but nothing prepared her for thesizeof the protests.
It looked like over a thousand Luxirians were gathered there, spread across the black sand, billowing out from the entrance. When the hovercraft began the descend, cries went up into the air, angry words and chanting being hurled at them. There was a line of guards keeping the entrance to the command center cleared and they landed in the only open patch available, just before the doors.
Erin got the strangest sense of claustrophobia as one of the tall warrior guards helped her down. It felt like she was surrounded on all sides as the guards ushered her towards the entrance. Some Luxirians cried out her name when they saw her, though it shocked her that they knew it. A wave went through the crowd and questions were thrown at her, some in English, some in Luxirian.
With her ears ringing, she heard them.Is there a cure? Did Jaxor’an kill Po’grak? Were the Jetutians planning another attack? Was Jaxor’an a spy for the Golden City? Is aMeviraxfemale pregnant?
Her heartbeat was thumping so hard in her chest by the time the guards led her through the command center doors. When they slid closed behind her, she heard the voices still. They seemed to echo down the mostly empty corridors as the guards led her to another twin set of doors.
When they opened, she was guided into a bright room, so bright she had to blink back sudden tears. But she saw that the ceiling resembled a solid sheet of glass, strengthening and funneling the light of the twin suns inside. For a moment, she was confused. They had to be in the command center, but the command center was inside a mountain, wasn’t it?
As her eyes adjusted, she saw that the room was circular, metal benches lining the outer walls, though no one sat on them. The guards led her down steps as Erin took in her surroundings. There were five seated Luxirian males in a row on a raised dais in the center of the room. All older males, so she guessed they were the members of the elder council. The males that would decide the fate of Jaxor’s future and by extension, her own.
Off to the side, she caught sight of the Ambassadors—all of them—and Vaxa’an.
Then her breath hitched because she saw Jaxor.
He was standing on a slightly raised circular platform before the dais, dressed in black pants and a dark grey long-sleeved tunic. He turned when he heard her and she saw that his wrists were attached to a chain imbedded in the platform.
Erin drank in the sight of him, her heartbeat pounding wildly when their eyes locked.
Our gazes are like magnets, she remembered. She’d always be looking for him. Always.
His expression was carefully blank as he regarded her from his platform. That expression broke her a little. She’d seen it before…during their first encounter and the days afterwards when he’d admitted that he’d been trying to keep his distance.
That expression told her that he was trying to keep himself emotionally distant right then because he believed that she no longer wanted him as her mate.
When she veered towards him,needingto speak with him, the guard took her arm and halted her progress. She heard the rattling of Jaxor’s chains, no doubt in response to the fact that another male put his hands on her. His Instinct was very much still alive within him, no matter how hard he tried to dampen its power.
Erin frowned, looking up at the guard, but he said, “I apologize, female, but you cannot speak with him until after the trial concludes.”
“What?” she repeated, her eyes going to Jaxor, shaking her head. “That’s ridiculous. Let me go. I need to talk to him.”
The guard’s grip on her was steadfast. A familiar rumbling growl rose into the air and Erin froze, knowing it was coming from Jaxor and realizing that she didn’t want to cause trouble for him.
Thankfully, Vaxa’an approached and the guard immediately released her. Jaxor’s growls quieted until they ceased.
Erin licked her lips, sudden tension filling the circular, domed room. “What’s going on?” she asked the Prime Leader when he stopped in front of her.
“The council decided to expedite his trial,” Vaxa’an said, his voice low.
Erin froze, her breath hitching. Dull chants and cries reached her ears. Erin realized she could still hear the protests from outside. For the first time, she took in the room with new eyes. It looked like…a courtroom. A grand, alien courtroom, but a courtroom nonetheless. The elders were even dressed in long, white robes.
“To when?” she asked dumbly, shocked.
Vaxa’an said, “It has already begun.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
