Chapter Two
Emma
Iwas tired of two things. I was tired of saving Ethan’s ass, and I was certainly damn well tired of Gabby and Elijah running shit around here. I was the Worldweaver— I was going to put a stop to it.
“Emma, you’ve barely slept in days. Go back to bed,” Delmare complained.
It was five a.m. the morning of the trial. My friends and I had been staying at the Slasky house since Ethan had been taken. Stefan’s parents were more than happy to take us in here at the large dragon mansion, but without Ethan sleeping beside me, the bed was bare and cold.
Stefan and Delmare were at the dining room table, empty coffee cups in front of them. Delmare was holding Stefan’s hands. He looked like he’d been up all night. His gaze appeared just as haunted as mine as I took a seat across from him.
Stefan had been pretty quiet since Ethan had been put behind bars. If anyone was almost as worried about Ethan as I was, it was him. Stefan considered Ethan a brother. He couldn’t lose him either.
“It’s no use. I might as well get ready,” I said.
“The trial’s not for another three hours,” Delmare insisted. “You’ll need your strength.”
“I can handle it.” I’d been a live wire ever since Ethan had been arrested. Food didn’t have any taste. Sleep didn’t appeal to me. The only thing keeping my shitty immune system going was pure adrenaline and anxiety. I was counting on having a really bad flare up once this was all over.
And I intended for it to be over quickly. I wasn’t going to let this happen. Ethan wouldn’t set one foot near that guillotine before I crushed the city to the ground.
Delmare sighed and got up from her seat. She left for the kitchen, and returned with a fresh mug of coffee. She saw the shadows in my eyes and knew what I was thinking. “Em, you promised Ethan you’d give the trial a fair chance.”
“I’d promised him I’d play along, but we all know how this is going to go,” I snapped at Delmare. “Due process my ass. Eli’s probably sharpening the execution blade himself right now. He can’t wait to use it to cut off Ethan’s head.”
I began chugging the coffee— it was hot, and burned my tongue, but fuck all if I cared.
“The entire Circle has to have a majority vote to get Ethan executed,” Delmare reminded me softly.
“Eli’s got them all in his pocket!” I shouted. I slammed the mug down— a bit of coffee sloshed out. “Aren’t you guys going to do anything to stop this?”
“Of course we will! All of us will help you,” Delmare said. “But we have to be careful. We can’t bust Ethan out unless we have no other choice. Otherwise, we risk convicting ourselves. I hate to say this, Emma. But your life is more important than Ethan’s. We need you to find the Crystals of Harmony. Ethan said so himself when you went to talk with him.”
“Fuck the Crystals.” None of this meant anything without Ethan. I finished off the dregs of my coffee, then stood up abruptly to check on Kiara. Delmare didn’t say anything as I stomped away from the table.
I took a few pauses while I climbed the stairs, but forced myself past the aching in my lungs. The nearest door was slightly cracked open. I poked my head inside.
Kiara lay twitching on the four poster bed, sweat beaded across her forehead. She turned and tossed, eyes moving rapidly behind her lids as she cried out.
Alexei was sitting at her side, fully clothed and looking concerned. He barely glanced up as I walked in.
Kiara was gravely ill. Her magic had put a hole in the ward and enabled me to slip into the palace dungeons by use of a portal, but even keeping the slit open for a few minutes had drastically affected her health. The fae guarding the palace made sure their magic was strong, as well as constant, and it drained anyone who attempted to fight against it to get through. If Kiara had maintained the hole in the protective ward for five minutes more, she probably would’ve been dead.
As such, she was lying in bed with a fever, face knitted in pain as she fought off hallucinations. She’d been having them once she’d collapsed when I got back from speaking with Ethan.
“How is she?” I whispered, but there was really no need. She wouldn’t wake up even if I was shouting.
“I think she’s going through the worst of it now. Hopefully in a few hours, she’ll start getting better,” Alexei said. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched her face. “She can’t go to the trial like this.”
“It’s fine. She’s done enough.” Kiara had already sacrificed a lot to try and save Ethan, and though we could use her big brain to make up a plan to get my mate out of this, it felt wrong to ask her for more than what she’d already done. She’d saved Ethan from the demon. I couldn’t ask her to save him from this, too.
Besides. Her sense of morality would only get in the way if I decided to go bat-shit crazy.
“I’ll stay with her,” Alexei said, and he wiped a few strands of hair off her face. “In case she wakes up.”
I nodded. Alexei turned the bedroom television to the local news— the trial would be played live. Although the sun was just starting to rise, people were already gathering outside the courthouse.
I had to get ready. This was going to be a spectacle, and like any other Malovian event, I had to play the part.
