I stared at the mirror, breathing heavily as the door to the bathroom slammed open, crashing into the wall and breaking the tile. The guys rushed in, weapons drawn, kicking open stalls.
Thane ran to me, taking my face in his hands. “We couldn’t get inside, and War couldn’t hear a thing. What the fuck happened?”
Seeing that there was no threat present, I was surrounded, all of them on edge. Faust made his way toward the door and barked orders at bystanders to clear the area.
I explained what happened, and the more I talked, the darker the rage on their faces became.
Gareth grabbed me, pulling me into his arms and squeezing me tight as he petted my hair. “We could have fucking lost you.” His voice was choked, and his arms shook. “I’m going to rip her in half,” he growled.
A loud bang echoed around the room as War punched one of the stall doors before spinning to face us. “She was so close. We could have...”
”You could havenothing,” I said to him, pulling back. “She wasn't really here; it was some kind of projection. She was messing with us. Proving a point that no matter where we are, she can get to us."
Thane nodded, his hand firmly gripping my shoulder, a surge of protective magic connecting us with just a touch. “We should have anticipated this. The fact that she got so close is unacceptable.”
”We’ll beef up security,” Faust promised, pulling out his phone and making a call before heading out of the bathroom.
War paced back and forth as the others began to file out of the bathroom on Faust’s heels. I held back for him.
"I’m sorry,” I said quietly to him as he passed me by on another turn around the room.
He stopped abruptly in front of me, his gaze intense as he took hold of both my arms with rough hands. "Don’t be sorry for something you couldn’t avoid.”
His eyes held mine captive before moving down toward my lips hungrily. I felt myself get sucked into a trance when suddenly, Thane cleared his throat loudly, causing us both to snap back from our momentary daze.
”Wrong place, wrong time, love.” He winked, defusing a little bit of the tension.
Faust peeked back in, waving us to follow. “Let's move. Time's ticking."
As we made our way to the courtroom, I knew War was still thinking about what almost happened, but now seemed like it wasn't the right time to talk about it more.
I knew he was going to beat himself up over this, and I wasn’t looking forward to the fallout of that.
15
The proceedings took aboutthree hours. I took the witness stand and gave my account of the night Savannah was killed.
At first, I didn’t want to testify. I thought Bastian had a better handle on things than I did, but in the end, I had to do it. I presented a timeline of my movements that night and answered biting questions from the prosecution.
I was nervous but held my own with my head up, meeting the eyes of the jury because I had nothing to hide.
We took a recess for about an hour, during which we got something to eat and stretched out our legs a bit. I dreaded going back into the courtroom, but at this point, all I wanted to do was get this over with. I was innocent, and I didn’t deserve this.
As we filed back into the courtroom, I saw War sitting in the audience with his eyes fixed on me. He didn’t join us for lunch, saying he wanted to be alone with his thoughts untilwe started back up again. His expression was unreadable, but I could tell he was worried.
The judge called for silence as a new piece of evidence was presented—the surveillance video that showed Savannah and her killer, aka, me, entering an empty alleyway near the bar where she’d been that night. The footage was grainy, but it clearly showed our faces.
There were murmurs from the jury and spectators alike as they watched in shock at what happened next—Savannah's killer pulled out a knife and stabbed her multiple times, tearing her apart with brutal force before fleeing.
I felt my heart shatter into pieces inside me as tears welled up in my eyes. This wasn't fair. That wasn’t me. But everyone in the room was staring at me like I was a monster. Especially the humans.
Bastian leaned in, whispering in my ear. "Listen," he said gently, placing his hand over mine to comfort me. "I know things look bad right now, but you're doing great.”
I nodded mutely, not trusting myself to speak because of this strong façade I’d been putting up since coming here. It felt like it was crumbling away bit by bit.
Finally, it was time for my lawyer to question me himself. Bastian smiled at me warmly, conveying that he had it all handled as I settled in front of the courtroom.
He questioned me pretty much the same way the prosecution did, forcing me to go into detail about things that should have been private. I told the jury about my relationship with the three men in my life, and my history with Savannah.
