by Zoey Draven
“To when?” she asked dumbly, shocked.
Vaxa’an said, “It has already begun.”
Chapter Forty-Eight
Before she knew it, she was standing before the elder council, looking up at them from her place below the dais.
The circular platform that Jaxor had been standing on had moved over to her left. It floated like a hovercraft, with Jaxor still standing on it. She was intensely aware of his gaze on her like a touch, her body always knowing when he was near. She could see him on her periphery.
Erin clenched her hands into fists when she felt them tremble.
One of the elder council members spoke, the one directly in the middle of the row. “We summoned you here after the Prime Leader requested your testimony be included within Jaxor’an’s trial. Did you ask this of him?”
“I…” Erin’s mouth felt dry, but she took in a deep breath, knowing that this was it. They were out of time. “Yes. I did.”
“Tell us why so it can be recorded.”
Recorded?
That was when she saw Coms systems placed on the outer walls of the domed room. They were filming the trial? For their records? Or so that it could be broadcast later?
Erin’s swallow seemed to echo in that massive space. She glanced over at Jaxor before looking back up at the elders.
“Because it’s my understanding that a large reason why he’s on trial is for taking Crystal and me from the Golden City. And I wanted you to understand that he didn’t hurt us.”
“Arguably because Ambassador Cruxan of Otala reached you before he could trade you to the Mevirax,” the elder said.
Erin kept her breathing steady. “No, I believe that he wouldn’t have, even if Ambassador Cruxan hadn’t found us.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“Knowing what I know now,” she started, “knowing that he’d always been conflicted about it, I believe that he would have broken his agreement with the Mevirax that night.”
The elder’s nostrils flared but he went on with his next question regardless. “Would the other human female say the same if we questioned her?”
Erin’s gaze flitted over to Cruxan, his blue eyes flashing at the mention of his mate.
“She offered to testify on his behalf, yes. In fact, she told me that had it not been for Jaxor’an’s actions, she would not have found her fated mate,” Erin said. One of the elders at the end of the dais cleared his throat. “And I would not have found mine. She holds no ill will towards him because like I said, he didn’t hurt us.”
The silence that followed allowed the chants and cries to permeate the courtroom once again. Jaxor’s chain jingled lightly when he shifted. The elder in charge of the trial asked, “You are confirming that Jaxor’an is your fated mate? That his Instinct awakened for you?”
“Yes,” Erin said, keeping her voice firm and clear. Even as a part of her ached, remembering that she’d questioned that very thing in the Mevirax dungeons. She’d let Tavar get into her head. Remembering the agony on Jaxor’s face when she’d confronted him about it made her stomach hurt, made her think her morning sickness would rear its head right there in the courtroom on the shining white floors.
“Was it you,” the elder asked, tilting a long gaze down at her, “who leaked the information about the unknown vaccine currently being tested in the command center’s labs?”
Jaxor jerked his head towards the elder, sharp and quick.
Erin’s chin tilted up, leveling the elder with a knowing look. This was what they really wanted to know, wasn’t it? Not about how Jaxor had treated her, or about their relationship. For a moment, Erin felt like she was the one on trial.
The pressure of the protests might’ve expedited Jaxor’s trial, but would it sway the council’s decision, like Vaxa’an believed?
“I didn’t know the vaccine’s existence was supposed to be keep a secret,” she lied.
“You have created a dangerous and unprecedented situation within our city, female,” the elder said.
“Why?” Erin asked softly. “All they want are answers. All they want to know is whether there is a treatment being tested. All they want to know is why a Luxirian male is on trial for charges that are beyond ridiculous, especially when that same male helped obtain that vaccine from your enemies and killed the Jetutian male responsible for horrific crimes among your people. None of what I ‘leaked’ was a lie.”
The silence was deafening.
When Erin looked over at Jaxor, his careful expression had morphed into something else. Its intensity made her skin prickle with longing.
She was still looking at Jaxor when the elder asked, “Even your pregnancy?”
Erin inhaled a sharp breath as Jaxor’s head snapped towards the dais, the chains jingling together. His brows drew down low. For a moment, he was confused. Then realization made his whole body freeze and then his eyes flicked back to her.
Words were lodged in her throat. Shame made her cheeks burn. This was not how she’d wanted him to find out.
“I…that is…” Erin trailed off, her mind temporarily shutting down as she pleaded with Jaxor silently.
Please, please understand. I will tell you everything. I promise.
His expression was thunderous. He was angry. Rightfully so.
But then his gaze dropped down to the floor of the platform he was standing on, his neck craned, his shoulders tensed. Everything about his body language made her want to cry out to him, to explain.
“Answer the question for the recording,” the elder ordered.
Erin’s heart felt like it was lodged in her throat when she turned her head to look up at the dais.
“Yes,” she said.
“Tev, your pregnancy was a lie? Or tev, it was not a lie?”
“Yes, I am pregnant,” she amended, her voice rising. When she cast a glance over at Jaxor, she saw his jaw ticking even from ten feet away…and he still wasn’t looking at her.
“Who is the sire of the child?” the elder asked pointedly.
She was all too aware that she was in a domed room full of Luxirian males. The Ambassadors stood with Vaxa’an to her right, Jaxor was to her left, the elders were in front of her, and the two guards were behind her.
“Jaxor’an,” she said, a piercing anger jolting through her. She leveled a hard gaze at the elder. “My fated mate.”
“And was the conception willing?” the elder asked, his tone sterile and cold.
Erin’s breathing went rough. Privanax had asked her much the same thing and it infuriated her that the elder would ask something so personal and so insulting, especially in front of Jaxor.
“Of course it was,” she bit out.
“When were you first aware that you were with offspring?” he asked, ignoring her tone.
Her fists were clenched at her sides. “I began to suspect it when I was in the Mevirax’s dungeons. Humans can get morning sickness.”
“So, for the sake of the recording,” he repeated again and Erin’s lips pressed together, “you have not fabricated your pregnancy in order to make Jaxor’an’s trial seem more sympathetic to the public of the Golden City?”
“No!” Erin exclaimed, not sure whether to be insulted or horrified. “I would never make something like that up. I am pregnant. You can ask Privanax if you need it confirmed.”
Jaxor had been standing before the dais when she’d come in. Had they already questioned him? Had he already given his side of the story to the elders? If so, she could only imagine the grilling questions they’d had for him.
When she looked back at Jaxor, he was at least looking at her now, but his careful expression was back in place. He was numbing himself, wasn’t he? He’d just found out she was pregnant in the worst, most humiliating way possible, knowing that she’d had not one, but two opportunities to tell him in private…and he was probably already drawing his own conclusions as to why she hadn’t told him when she’d had the chance. Because she didn’t think he was a suitable enough
partner? A suitable enough father?
“Very well,” the elder said. He jerked his head at the guards standing behind her and they stepped up beside her. “Please escort the female back to her dwelling. That will be all for her testimony.”
“Wait,” Erin breathed, her mind racing. “Wait, that can’t be it!”
The elder said, “That is all we needed to hear from you.”
“I need to talk with Jaxor—with Jaxor’an. Please. I haven’t been able to—”
“You cannot speak with him until the trial concludes and a decision is made, as the guard told you before.”
Erin swung her gaze over to Jaxor as the guards began to lead her away. There was so much that she needed to tell him. But there was too much and it got clogged in her throat. All she could do was helplessly stare, trying to think, as the guards guided her up the stairs.
All Jaxor did was incline his head at her. An acknowledgement? An acceptance? What did that mean?
“Wait, when will the decision be made?” she asked, fighting against the grip of the guard to swing her gaze back around at the elders.
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 right there…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 the fellixix.
“To be blunt, they want your trial to disappear,” Vaxa’an said. “The protests are making them nervous. And with the decision about the Mevirax looming, 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 of Virzalla has 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.
When Jaxor looked over at his brother, he was still in shock. His wrists were rubbed raw from the cuffs, but his arms had never felt lighter.
“Can I ask why?” Jaxor murmured.
Vaxa’an stilled next to him.
“Why?” Duvira repeated slowly, peering down at him from the dais.
“Tev.”
“Given the circumstances of your trial, given your aid in recovering a potential treatment for our females and the capture of the Mevirax, and given the testimony of your fated mate,” Duvira continued, “we could not, in good conscience, sentence you to exile or death. Especially considering that your fated mate is with offspring and we do not yet know the effects of a broken bond pairing among humans.”
Jaxor swallowed. In a way, he’d been pardoned because the council hadn’t wanted Erin to suffer for his crimes, because she carried a half-Luxirian child…his child.
“Do you accept the council’s ruling?” Duvira asked, peering down at him with an unreadable yet stoic expression.
“Tev,” Jaxor said, the word tumbling from his lips. His ears felt like they’d been stuffed with fur. “I do.”
“Then be away,” Duvira said, dismissing him, the elders rising from the dais. “And let it be known that the Council of Virzalla pardoned you.”
Jaxor didn’t quite know what he meant by those last parting words, but their meaning became clear the moment he stepped from the command center. Jaxor didn’t even remember Vaxa’an walking him from the council room, or down the hallways of the command center, but then bright, warm Luxirian sunlight washed over his body and a warm wind threaded across his skin. And the only thing that would have felt better than that was his rixella safe in his arms.
When the ringing in his ears ceased and he was confronted with hundreds and hundreds of Luxirians sprawling across the Black Desert, when their shouts and cries abruptly quieted as both he and Vaxa’an emerged from the command center, he understood what Duvira had wanted from him.
A young female near them—with long, dark hair and tired eyes—stepped forward, past the line of warrior guards that had held the crowd away from the doors of the command center.
“Is it true?” she asked, voice quiet, looking from one brother to the next. A hush rippled out from her words and Jaxor’s chest tightened when he saw the longing on her face. “Is there hope for us?”
Erin’s words from the trial came back to him.
All they want are answers.
Vaxa’an looked over at him and inclined his head. His brother might’ve been silenced by the elder council, but Jaxor was not. In fact, Duvira had encouraged him to speak, so he would.
“Tev,” Jaxor rasped, locking eyes with her. “There is hope.”
Chapter Fifty
It was late afternoon. All the women were in the common room, but Erin only wanted to be alone. She was hiding away, holed up in the spare back bedroom in Lainey and Kirov’s home, watching the twin suns’ light track across the plush rugs lining the room.
&nb
sp; Hours earlier, she’d come back to the dwelling after Jaxor’s trial, numb. She’d told the women only the bare basics of what had happened and then she’d retreated. Kate had tried to bring her a tray of food earlier, but it sat next to her, untouched.
And now, Erin was tucked in the ring around the fire pit, her back to the cushions, staring out the window. There wasn’t much of a view. She only saw the mountainside, but the sunlight cast interesting shadows along the stone.
She heard movement behind her, heard her door sliding open. Maybe one of the women were checking in on her to see if she’d eaten.
Only, the back of her neck tingled in a familiar way and she gasped, turning her neck so sharply she was surprised she didn’t injure herself.
And there he was.
Jaxor, standing on the threshold of the room, unchained, and regarding her with an unreadable expression.
“Jaxor,” she whispered, immediately rising from her position and striding towards him.
A lump in her throat made it hard to swallow as she walked into his chest, threading her arms around him. Her hands shook against his back and she heard his heartbeat when she pressed closer.
The trial.
Sucking in a sharp breath, she pulled back and asked, “What happened?”
“I have been pardoned,” he told her. “Fully.”
Hearing it didn’t seem real.
“What?” she asked, reaching up to clasp his face.
The way he said the words made her think a part of him didn’t believe it himself. It was everything she’d hoped for. Even if it had been exile, she would have been happy…because at least it meant she could still be with her mate.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, her tears finally spilling over. “Really? It’s over? You’ll…you’ll be okay?”
He inclined his head. “Tev. It is over.”
