by Amelia Jade
“Okay,” Tobias said, breaking the silence and taking charge. “Time to shine.”
The door that led from the antechamber into the main room opened. They were in the Cadia Administrative building. The basement of it held a large room that could double as a courtroom on the few occasions it was necessary.
“This should be interesting,” Blaine said to himself as they filed in, proceeding in order of superiority on the team.
Tobias led, followed by Relott, then Blaine, and finally Asher.
Across from them, the Fenris team was doing the same. He looked them over briefly, determined not to spend too much time staring at Cassi.
Which, he realized as his jaw dropped open, was going to be fucking impossible.
After all, how could he miss the first person out of their room? She was the damn leader of their team. The head of it! His mind whirled. Things were just getting better and better! Every time he turned around he was finding out new things about her, things that completely changed the way he was forced to look at her.
Clearly she had more clout in Fenris than he’d thought. After all, the head of the team wasn’t really an assigned position, if they did it anything like Cadia. Tobias had put his name forward as a candidate for the position. It had come down to him and Relott in the end. Thankfully smarter heads had prevailed in choosing him.
All that meant was that Cassi had fought for the position. That just seemed insane to him, however. Being nominated to the legal team wasn’t something she could likely avoid. But the leader of it? Why was she so keen on defending Garviel? The loss wouldn’t really affect her stature, he assumed, given the body of evidence against him.
No, there was something else at work here.
She gave him a very slight apologetic look, and then her professional face took over once more and she refocused on her own team, ignoring the Cadians.
“Blaine?”
He turned at the sound of the voice speaking his name.
Asher was gesturing at him from where he sat.
“Right,” he muttered and took his seat, looking around the room itself.
It wasn’t overly ornate; it was simply a rectangle with seats and tables pulled in for the occasion.
Behind the tables where the teams were organizing themselves was row after row filled with spectators. In front of him, against one of the short sides of the room, were four large chairs with papers and pictures all spread in front of them. Seated in those chairs were the jury.
Two Fenris shifters, neither of whom he recognized, and two Cadians, neither of whom he was familiar with either. One was a wolf shifter and the other a tiger, but other than that, and their names, he knew nothing about them. They weren’t Guardians, but simply people pulled from the population at large.
His eyes kept wandering back to Cassi, however, and her position at the head of her team’s table. Although he was still wary of how she’d come to that position, the fact that she was there increased her already impressive resume with him. Clearly she was tenacious and driven as well. The only thing that bugged him was the why behind it all.
Perhaps he would get a chance to ask her later.
Shit.
He was going to have to be very careful about how he went about that now. Everyone knew now that she was their head. If word got out that he was seen with her in private, it could throw the entire results of the trial into jeopardy.
Fuck.
If they were going to have to meet somewhere, it would have to be public, where others could overhear their conversations.
Or extremely discreet. Outside of town, perhaps. Nobody would question a random dragon flying overhead.
He almost laughed at the ridiculousness of skulking around like a pair of young ones fresh from their parents’ place, exploring their newfound sexuality.
Though there was a certain thrill to that idea…
His mind began to wander as the leaders of each team spoke.
***
Cassian
She sat down after making her opening remarks, trying to focus her panicking mind. It was tougher than she’d expected. Yet again she’d made a mistake. Not a huge one, not a life-changing one, but one that she should have known better than to make.
Not that informing Blaine that she was the head of the Fenris legal team would have been easy either. She knew how he would have been forced to react. They wouldn’t have had their day together yesterday, that was for sure.
Across from her, Tobias, the head of the Cadian team, was making his opening remarks. She tuned him out; both of their speeches were bullshit anyway. Neither of them meant a damn thing and all they tried to do was play up their own side to make them appear like innocent victims.
No, the real stuff would start once Garviel was called out and asked to enter his plea. She wasn’t looking forward to that, though for reasons that only she knew. Cassi hadn’t gone to see Garviel since arriving in Cadia, instead letting him sit in his jail cell until today. In just a few minutes, when Tobias was done, he would be brought out, and he would tell the jury what she’d instructed one of her seconds to tell him.
It should have been Cassian that went over everything with him, but she couldn’t bring herself to see him. Not until she was forced to. She wasn’t doing this out of desire. No, it was obligation.
Her face tightened as she saw Blaine look at her again. Against her better judgment her head turned a fraction toward his bench, their eyes meeting. She could see the hurt in his jade orbs, even from ten feet away. It wasn’t a deep pain, but a hurt that she hadn’t trusted him enough to disclose even this bit of information, something he was going to find out anyway.
She almost mouthed an apology to him, but stopped herself. Now was not the time for that sort of thing.
“Thank you,” Tobias said, returning to his seat.
Cassi stiffened as the door to her left opened once again and Garviel was ushered into the room. His eyes saw her and they came awake with the recognition of who she was, but Cassi refused to meet them, instead staring straight ahead at the jury, trying to appear as relaxed as possible.
You’re going to have to face him eventually. You can’t go through this entire trial without speaking a single word to him. So you may as well get over it.
She might. But not yet.
Garviel stood in front of the jury. One of the Cadian members rose.
“Garviel Brunhem, you have been accused of assaulting and kidnapping Rhynne Nova, of burning down a store owned by a local businessman, and also attempting to destroy Top Scale Academy. Do you understand these accusations?”
In the shifter world there were no real laws, not in the way the human courts saw them at least. The prosecution would tell the court what it was he’d done wrong, the punishment they were seeking, and then display their evidence. It was far less informal than human-style trials.
“I do,” Garviel responded, his voice strong and unwavering.
“The prosecution has requested you spend a century in confinement. Do you understand what that entails?”
“Yes,” he said, and this time a shudder ran through his voice.
Confinement meant living in a small cell with no windows, and barely enough room to lie down. For a shifter used to the openness of the skies and the never-ending horizon, it was a horrible thought.
“How do you plead?”
There was a long pause, and for a moment she thought he wasn’t going to say anything.
“Not guilty,” Garviel said at last.
A buzz ran through the courtroom, though how anybody could have expected him to say anything different was beyond Cassi. They wouldn’t be having the trial at all if he was going to plead guilty. That would have been a waste of effort.
“Very well. We will now recess for an hour. When we resume, Tobias, you will outline your case. Please ensure you are prepared.”
Cassi waited for the jury member to sit down and then she rose from her seat, heading for the door out the back, poin
tedly ignoring Garviel’s questioning stare as she made a beeline out of the room.
A burning feeling in the middle of her back slowed her down, but she couldn’t stop now. If Blaine wanted to talk, he would have to do more than stare her down as she left. A part of her hoped he wouldn’t, that he would leave her alone.
I should have told him.
It wasn’t that she had purposefully kept it a secret from him. There was no reason that she couldn’t have told him. Nobody had sworn her to secrecy or anything like that. As soon as the trial started everyone would have known anyway.
So why had she done it?
The answer was simple, and deep down if Cassi was honest with herself, she knew exactly why she hadn’t been completely open with Blaine.
If Blaine had known, his attitude and treatment toward her would have changed. Not necessarily because he wanted to, but because he would have had to. It simply would have been impossible for him to allow himself to be seen in public with her, alone. The implications were just too big.
Even now, if someone put two and two together—say someone sitting in the witness booth recognized them from their ice cream tour—they could do irreparable damage to Blaine, depending on the outcome of the trial. If Garviel got off free, Blaine could be blamed for having made a deal with her.
It was a complicated situation she’d wanted to avoid so that she could stay close to him.
“Cassian.”
Her head snapped up as Blaine used her full name for the first time. He did not sound happy.
She spun, her mouth opening, but he simply shook his head and pointed across the hallway to a closed door. Her jaw clicked shut as his point hit home.
Not in public.
Just like they shouldn’t have done in the first place.
He opened the thick wooden door and ushered her into the meeting room. Cassi braced herself for the bang when he slammed it in anger. The rage she had seen glittering in his eyes forewarned her.
Which is why, when the door closed with a soft click, she turned with a frown.
“No slam?”
“What would that accomplish?” he asked. “Besides announcing to anyone who watched us come in here that I’m…not happy.”
She gave him a humorless smile. “Is that all you are? Not happy?”
“I am…frustrated,” he said through clenched teeth.
Cassi waited, sensing that now was not the time for her to speak. She needed to give Blaine a minute to form his words and ask the question they both knew he was going to ask.
“Why?”
There it was. No leadup, niceties, nothing. Just bam, straight to the point.
“Well, that was blunt,” she commented dryly, trying to lighten the mood.
Blaine just stared at her, green flames flaring brightly in his eyes. His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly, but otherwise there was no reaction from him.
“Fine,” she said, heaving a sigh. Her legs moved her up and down the length of the small room, the oval table in between the two of them like a barrier. She looked over it at him. “I should have told you.”
“Damn straight you should have told me,” he said, his fist hitting the table, making it shake.
Cassi turned her back on him, crossing her arms. She didn’t want him to see she was upset.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, the anger in his voice lowering only slightly.
Her jaw clenched until she felt a sharp stab of pain where her teeth bit into her bottom lip. Her eyes closed as she inhaled deeply, then turned back around to face him.
“I…don’t know why.”
Blaine arched his eyebrows, clearly not believing her. “You’re going to have to do better than that. I could be in serious shit for this. Hell, it could affect the entire trial for Cadia. I know it won’t matter to you, because nobody from Fenris will care, or even hear about it.” He grimaced. “I wouldn’t care about the reputation hit and all that bullshit, if I was the one who made the choice. But you didn’t give me that choice, did you? You made it for me. That’s what’s got me pissed off.”
Cassi didn’t know what to say. This wasn’t the way she’d expected the conversation to go. Blaine was supposed to blow up at her, to yell and scream, to break things and threaten her. Isn’t that what happened? Instead, he was mad, yes, but he was mad not because of what had happened, but because he wasn’t given a say in the matter. That she hadn’t trusted him enough to allow him to make the choice to continue seeing her anyway, even after finding out who she was.
Blaine was certainly a more complex person than she’d expected.
She shrugged her shoulders helplessly. “I don’t know what to say.”
He snorted. “You could start with an apology. Might not hurt.”
Oh hell. As the conversation replayed in her head, never once did the words “I’m sorry” come from her. That was not the way to mend things.
“I am sorry, Blaine. I wanted to continue seeing you. I didn’t want you to stop talking to me after finding out I was the head counsel. It’s not a valid reason for not telling you the truth, but that’s why I did it.”
She fell silent. Saying anything more at that point would probably be pointless.
“Is there anything more you wish to tell me?” he asked, resting his fists on the table as he looked across at her, the motion making the muscles of his arms bunch up.
Cassi took a deep breath. Was there something? Yes. But it was private, and she wasn’t ready for it to be revealed, as not many people knew the truth of it. Unlike with her position within the Fenris delegation, this was something that was not public knowledge.
“No,” she said at last.
His eyes searched hers, looking for what, she wasn’t sure. Cassi suspected that he knew she wasn’t telling the whole truth—again—but hoped he would understand that what she wasn’t telling him she had no intention of telling anyone. It was her secret, and she wanted it kept that way.
“I see,” Blaine said, but some of the stoniness in his gaze eased up.
They continued to look at each other, the tension in the room easing slightly as time went on. The table was still between them, but she sensed that right then, that was probably a good thing. It wouldn’t do for them to be seen on—
The door shook as a fist pounded on it with barely restrained force.
Cassi jumped in surprise as the silence was shattered, while Blaine spun swiftly, arms coming up in a defensive move before either of them clued in to what was going on.
Both of them relaxed at the same time as they realized nobody was trying to barge in. Cassi laughed and was rewarded with an embarrassed smile from Blaine.
“Wingstar, let’s go. We have work to do.”
Cassi recognized the voice of Tobias, the lead prosecutor for Cadia.
“Yeah,” Blaine replied loud enough to be heard, then looked back at her. “I have to go.”
“I know,” she said.
He opened his mouth to say something more, then closed it, then opened it again.
Finally he smiled at her once, a genuine warmth-filling smile, and then he was gone.
Cassi heaved a sigh as the door closed behind him.
That had gone far better than she could ever have imagined. Blaine would have been well within his rights to hold that against her, to use it as a reason not to see her again. Instead, unless she was reading things improperly, he had actually forgiven her.
In Fenris, that would never have happened. The loss of one’s stature as could have happened to him would have resulted in anything up to and including violence.
Cadians, or at least Blaine Wingstar in particular, were definitely not conforming to the stereotypes she’d been told to expect, that was for sure. The bloodthirsty jackals and savages, who would do anything to get ahead of each other and anyone else who got in their way were not evident anywhere she’d been so far.
Perhaps Blaine had been assigned to her on purpose, to ensure that she didn’t experience t
hat sort of thing? It was a devious enough idea that it could be true, but something deep down in Cassi niggled at her, insisting that that wasn’t the truth.
The analog clock hung above the door caught her eye as she looked around the blank room for something to prove or disprove the ideas running through her head.
All it told her was that she needed to get her ass back to the courtroom already.
Chapter Seven
Blaine
The jury member from Fenris sat down after dismissing the trial for the day and Blaine rocked back into his chair with a huge sigh of relief.
“This is far more tedious than I expected it to be,” he complained to no one. The others were already heading for the exits, not wanting to spend one extra second hanging around.
Neither did he, truth be told. The evidence against Garviel was extensive, and had taken them several hours to outline in proper detail. It was an exhausting, mind-numbing task to go over it all in such a basic way as to ensure everyone knew what they were talking about and how it proved Garviel did what he did.
And they hadn’t even gotten to Rhynne’s testimony yet, the female dragon shifter Garviel had attacked and then tried to kidnap.
With another sigh, he pushed himself up out of the ridiculously uncomfortable wooden chairs, sliding the papers in front of him into a pile and stuffing them into the file folder from whence they came. That then went into an accordion folder, which he did up and then put that into his bag.
“There has got to be a method with less steps,” he commented to himself as the ridiculousness of that set in.
By the time he’d completed his lazy motions, the room was empty.
With careful precision, he grabbed the front of his dress pants and adjusted himself, shaking it all out.
“Attractive.”
He spun at the voice that sounded from near the doors behind him.
“Am I being pranked?” he asked, looking around the room. “There is no way that this happens in real life.”
Cassi just laughed silently, her arms crossed in front of her as she leaned on the wall next to the door.
