But he didn’t answer her and the guards led her through the doors of the courtroom. They closed behind her almost immediately.
“Jaxor!” she called.
The guards kept her from going back inside and she struggled to keep her panic from rising. When she managed to slip from their grip, she tugged hard at the door…but it was locked. It wouldn’t budge.
“Dammit,” she whispered, tears flooding into her eyes, pressing her forehead against the metal. “Dammit.”
He was rightthere…and yet, he was still so far away.
Chapter Forty-Nine
“They are ready,” Vaxa’an said.
“So soon?” Jaxor asked, standing from his sleeping platform.
There was hope in his brother’s eyes. Tentative as it was. He clasped a hand on his shoulder and Jaxor even felt it through thefellixix.
“To be blunt, they want your trial to disappear,” Vaxa’an said. “The protests are making them nervous. And with the decision about theMeviraxlooming, they do not want to take on the added stress.”
Jaxor didn’t want to get his hopes up. He was exhausted, emotionally and physically.
“Did you know?” Jaxor asked Vaxa’an.
After Erin had spoken with the elder council, they’d whisked Jaxor out so they could make their final decision. He hadn’t been able to speak with his brother.
“That she was pregnant?” Vaxa’an asked quietly. Their eyes connected and held. “Tev.”
Jaxor closed his eyes, not certain what to feel anymore. His emotions felt ragged, frayed at the edges. He felt crushing hope, elation, anger, grief, confusion, disappointment, fear.
I am going to be a sire, he thought, the idea strange and foreign. It was something he never thought possible, so he hadn’t thought of it at all.
Why did she not tell me?he’d wondered endlessly.
But only she could answer that.
“I am ready,” he said, nodding at his brother. He wanted to hear their decision, if only so that he could speak with Erin sooner. Regardless of the outcome, he would have time to speak with his loved ones.
Vaxa’an inclined his head and led him from the quarters, walking side by side with him down the hallway of the command center. In a short time, they were walking through the doors of the council room. The Ambassadors were gone. Only the elders remained, still in their places on the dais. It was unlike any trial he’d ever been witness to. The council room was usually packed with Luxirians, especially for rulings.
Jaxor stopped at the foot of the dais but Vaxa’an didn’t withdraw. He stood beside him, even then, as they waited for the head elder to announce the council decision.
The magnitude of the moment hadn’t fully hit him yet. Jaxor was still reeling over Erin’s pregnancy, that it was her that had spread the rumors in the Golden City.
In fact, the council’s ruling, as monumental to his own lifespan as it was, happened so quickly that Jaxor was entirely unprepared for it.
“Jaxor’an, son of Kirax’an,” the head elder began, “the Council ofVirzallahas decided to grant you a full pardon for your crimes against Luxiria.”
Jaxor didn’t react. Not at first. His ears started ringing when he perceived Vaxa’an’s breath quickening, when he felt his brother squeeze his shoulder.
The black metal of the chains clasped around his wrists jingled when his hands shook in disbelief.
“Rebax?” he rasped.
The head elder—the male’s name was Duvira, he knew—pressed his lips together. Jaxor met the eyes of the other elders and he wondered whether any had voted against a pardon.
“You will be released from the command center’s custody effective immediately.”
Vaxa’an moved to take the chains from his wrists, the metal scraping when he turned the key. They fell with a thud onto the marbled flooring of the council room, echoing.
