Clara and Ezra

by Lindsey Richardson

  The last time I had sat in on a trial was for Alesia. I remembered how nervous I had been to see her after everything she had done to Claire and I. I remembered fearing her rage over Elias’s death. And though this was not my first time seeing Nina at trial, this time her trial would be swift. They would decide on her sentence today before she returned to the dungeon. There would be no escaping this time. No one could save her.

  The door opened, and a Watcher stepped in, dragging Nina in with him. He continued to lug her along the way until she stood in front of the Council for everyone to see.

  I stared at Nina, trying to see some sense of fear or regret in her eyes. Instead cold eyes stared back at me. The same eyes I had become all too familiar with from people like Isaak and Elias. She was not here to save her own life.

  Claire cleared her throat.

  “Nina Nasso, you stand in front of this Council today accused of treason, attempted murder, and murder. Do you deny these accusations?”

  “No,” Nina said without hesitation.

  “Let’s… start from the beginning. Tell us your story. What led you here?” Claire asked.

  I gulped, looking away from Nina momentarily. I wondered how far back Nina would have to go to explain how her life turned out so horribly wrong. I wondered how sick I would be when she told us how she killed Alec or helped with my father’s assassination.

  Please let this end… I thought, though the sooner this trial ended the sooner Nina’s life would also end.

  44

  A Mother’s Secret

  Nina

  “If you can understand one thing, understand this: I never wanted to be a mother.

  “I met Elias when I was young and beautiful. He was a charmer amongst the ladies, despite the fact that everyone knew he was married. He already had a wife, yet it was not secret to young women, such as myself, that he invited other women to his bed.

  “I was not special, nor did I think I was when he offered me a night in his bed. I was another woman he would use and forget come sunlight. But I was young, and he was handsome and sweet. He let me think for the faintest moment that maybe I could be different. So I let him have his way.

  “Our affair ended almost as quickly as it begun. Jhase courted me, and Elias did not dare challenge Jhase’s choice inwoven. He knew Jhase would pursue marriage with me. We would be two powerful people, married to other powerful people within the Council. The affair had to end.

  “That is until I found out I was pregnant. The child was not Jhase’s. He had not laid a hand on me. I had only slept with Elias, and I knew no amount of lying could make this child belong to my soon to be husband.

  “I met with Elias is private. I gave him the news, and as soon as his eyes lowered to the floor I knew the truth. Neither of us wanted this baby. It would be too dangerous to consider an abortion. My only option was to have the baby and then exile it far away from everything and everyone we knew. Elias swore he would take care of it.

  “As I often traveled, it was not difficult to come up with an excuse to leave Jhase for months. I kept in contact with him in letters, but I also stayed in touch with Elias. He had me write letters addressed to his righthand man, Stefan. Stefan then delivered the letters to Elias in private. I did not know what information Stefan was given, and I never asked.

  “I left for my ‘travels’ once I was too far along to hide my pregnancy, and I left the other details to Elias.

  “Stefan had friends, the Barlows, who were desperate for a child. They had been unable to have children of their own, and both Stefan and Elias trusted them. I stayed with the Barlows for the extent of my pregnancy.

  “Come delivery, I gave birth to a baby girl, Daphne, and once I was well again, I departed for Ninomay. Meanwhile the Barlows took Daphne in as one of their own. They swore allegiance to Elias, and I believed them. I had to. They were the only thing keeping me from ruin.

  “I returned to Ninomay as a different person. Jhase couldn’t see it, Elias didn’t dare look for it, but I felt it. Whether I wanted to be or not, I was a mother now. I had abandoned my first child, and my marriage to Jhase would be tainted by my own lies and secrets.

  “Despite the power I would gain from marrying Jhase, I would be a caged bird. I would never be able to escape him, our children, and all the responsibilities that came along with my new position. I wanted the power and respect, but along with it came a husband who would never see me for who I was.

  “My marriage to Jhase happened quickly after Daphne’s birth. Elias and I never spoke of her again. He assured me anything to do with Daphne would be handled by Stefan. We would never visit, write, or communicate with her in any form.

  “‘Consider her dead,’ is what he told me. And for the first few months I did. As horrible and heartless as it sounds, it made the pain easier.

  “And so despite the affair, I married Jhase. We were married with Elias at Jhase’s side, and the three of us acted inseparable.

  “I tried everything to avoid Elias, but it was nearly impossible. My marriage with Jhase made me a part of the Council. I had to work with Elias and his wife, despite sleeping with one and betrayed the other.

  “Bellona was too smug to see her husband sleeping with anyone besides her. Her cockiness left me urging to tell her the turret just to rip the smile off her face. But I never did. Betraying Elias and Jhase all at once would cost my life.

  “Jhase might have forgave me for my actions, but Elias was a powerful man. There was a reason his wife was left in the dark about his personal life. I assumed either him or Stefan were prepared to kill me if I ever spoke a word out loud about our affair.

  “Just when I thought I could live with the lie, I found out I was pregnant again. Jhase was overjoyed. Our parents were thrilled; they were ready to be grandparents. Friends and family, even strangers on the street congratulated me. Everyone was happy… except me.

  “I knew this time the pregnancy would be too much. It would force out the secrets I had worked so carefully to hide. It would turn me inside out, and once I gave birth it would not be enough. Jhase would want more children. Our marriage would become dependent on my ability to produce heirs.

  “I did what any woman in my position would have done. I accepted I would have the baby, whether I wanted it or not. I would give Jhase the child he so desperately wanted, and then I would leave him.

  “The pregnancy resurfaced memories of Daphne. That newborn smell, the sound of her cries, her big eyes. If I could so easily abandon her I did not deserve another child, at least not one to call my own.

  “Jhase was a good and honest man. He would care for the child with or without me. He would give his life for any child of his —that was the kind of person he was.

  “No matter how forgiving he was, I would always be the coward, the fool, the villain. One day the truth would come out, and I had to be as far away from Jhase as possible.

  “Before I gave birth I sought out a rumored seer. I did it partially out of curiosity and partially to distance myself from Jhase.

  “The seer predicted I would have two daughters, one who would betray me and the other who would kill me. They would be my undoing.

  “I had the twins, and I knew my fate was sealed. Despite Jhase’s warnings about seers, I believed I had been told. Even if the future could be changed, I allowed the possibilities to consume me. I decided to leave Ninomay for good, but I would not leave alone.

  “I took Clara with me. Something in my gut told me to keep her close, and by taking her, I only abandoned one daughter, not two. It was cruel and selfish, but I thought I could control Clara. I thought if I took her away from Claire and Jhase that I might be able to control the outcome of the vision. Perhaps neither of them could kill me so long as they remained separated.

  “I was wrong. By the time Clara and I settled down with Isaak I had changed again. I had almost forgotten about the seer’s prediction entirely because Isaak became a greater force standing in my way. It wasn’t just that he
was a monster. It was that he changed me.

  “He gave me the desire to kill —something I had never imagined before.

  “At night I would lie awake, wanting nothing more but to kill him in cold blood. I wanted to tear him down and destroy him like he had done to me countless times.

  “But Clara wasn’t a killer. She stopped me from making a mistake, but I hated her for it. The Council took Isaak away, and after trial they sentenced him to prison, not to death. He remained alive and safe from the ways in which I had imagined humiliating him.

  “Years would pass before the Council returned to my door again. And this second time they asked for Clara. She left me, and then I no longer belonged neither here nor there. I slept alone at night, knowing that the next time the desire to kill plagued my thoughts, she would not be there to stop me.

  “These thoughts returned when I fell in love with another man. One who, this time, had the same desire that had once fueled my relationship with Isaak. Except I didn’t want to kill this man. I wanted to learn from him, to master everything he knew, to have the kind of power he held. This man was the killer.

  “It was one thing to work for a killer and quite another to love one. But I remembered Stefan. I trusted him as Elias had, and we were both filed with anger over Elias’s death. He knew my greatest secrets, and I knew his.

  “He plotted Jhase’s murder, and I did nothing to stop him. I encouraged him. I helped him with the details and the cover up, and I was there when he infiltrated the palace. I let him kill the only man who had ever been good to me. The man who was the father of my children. And still, despite the damning facts, I did not raise a hand.

  “Jhase had to die. I knew he was responsible for Elias’s death, which left me feeling more bitterness rather than sorrow for the fate he would meet. Twenty years had passed since the las time I had seen him. I didn’t love him as I once had when he first courted me. Perhaps I never loved him.

  “After Jhase died every murder following his death seemed like background noise. I knew it was there, but it no longer scared me. The deaths and the killings all became procedural. They were necessary and done in an exact way that no one could track us. A little more bloodshed, and everyone would have what they wanted.

  “The increased time I spent with Stefan only confirmed my feelings for him. I allowed myself to get more deeply involved with him and his alliance. I was suddenly surrounded by people who shared the same passion as me. People who actually treated me as their equal.

  “We all knew the truth. We were liars and murderers, but that was the beauty of it. We killed, but at the end of the night we returned to people who accepted us for the blood stains, the scars, and the battles we lost.

  “All this deaths finally caught up to me. Today you kill me, someday you might kill Stefan, but you will never be able to kill what he stands for. You will never be able to stop what he started. I am finally dying for something and someone I believe in.

  “My only regret is marrying Jhase, chasing after a fairytale life that was never meat for me. I wished I had stayed with Elias and Stefan. They opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed.

  45

  The Things You Love

  Clara

  I looked around the table, waiting for someone to say something. Everyone remained silent, myself included. I thought about the years Claire and I had been lied to and betrayed by our own blood. We were not alone. Daphne was as much a part of this as we were. If she helped Nina escape it might have solely been to gain the answers Claire and myself sought. If she had turned bitter from this, might that be Nina’s doing?

  Declan was the first to speak up.

  “So Clara leaves you, reunites with her family, and you join a killer and his resistance. That’s quite a large leap,” he said.

  “While I was married to Isaak I traveled to Shadowland and ran into Stefan. He was selling white roses at the time, and I had purchased one. I had intended to kill Isaak with it, but one day it went missing. Later on I found out Ren had stolen the rose from me, so Stefan and I silenced him.

  “Silenced him…” I thought, remembering how I found Ren’s dead body in his cell. I wondered if it had ever crossed Nina’s mind that I could be the one to find him.

  I formed a fist with my hand. I wished Declan or Lukas were sitting beside me, to ease my pain, but no one could pay attention to me. I had to sit quietly while my mother openly confessed to killing people so it would benefit her. It made me sick.

  “But you knew white roses are illegal, did you not?” Declan asked.

  Nina nodded.

  “Of course I knew, but no one would have suspected me behind Isaak’s death if a white rose was involved. I had no access to the supply. Stefan had obtained his from Elias, and Jhase was none the wiser,” she explained.

  “And when did you meet with Stefan again? When did you join his resistance?”

  “At the Petals Festival. I went to speak with Jhase about my daughter. As I was leaving I caught Stefan’s gaze, and we met up in private. From there he introduced me to his allies and informed me of Elias’s plans,” Nina said.

  “What will Stefan think now that you are captured? Surely he knows no one will grant you mercy for your crimes,” Declan said.

  “Everyone working for Stefan knows the risks. At least I will die by my own choice. No daughter of mine will be the one to kill me,” she replied.

  I frowned, thinking how Claire made the final decision for the Council. Claire would ultimately be the one to sentence Nina to her death. Nina failed to see it that way. Either that or this was a form of denial.

  Despite Father’s distrust in seers, it seemed the prophecy had been true. Nina’s own daughter would end her life.

  And one daughter will betray her… I thought, realizing in Nina’s eyes I must have been the betrayer.

  Murder, attempted murder, and treason were amongst the charges Nina faced. She faced these charges with little to no emotion. She seemed, as she claimed, to be at peace with her fate.

  Others in the room, like Gemma, were not so calm. Gemma had just buried her former husband. Like Ahna’s child, Cedric was now fatherless as well. Every life take had affected countless others. Our world would fall into complete chaos if these criminals did not face the judgement fit the crime. Criminals like my mother.

  At the returning silence, Declan suggested a break.

  The Watcher led Nina out of the room. The “break” was not something Claire had suggested, but perhaps Declan had read the feelings of the room. Claire still remained silent, and it seemed Declan had taken full charge of the trial as everyone else also remained at a loss of words.

  Declan cleared his throat again.

  “Nina and Aralyn night be our closest ties to Stefan. I think we should offer a deal to both of them. If they reveal his location we’ll offer a lesser sentence,” he said.

  Gemma glared at him.

  “Lesser? These women deserve to die painful deaths for what they have done. Nina killed Alec! His seat on the Council may be filled by others in the future, but no one will ever come close to replacing him. How dare you insult his sacrifice?” she snapped, digging her nails into the table.

  Declan opened his mouth, but Claire stood up, and he quickly shut it again. She paced in front of the table, back and forth, reminding me of Father.

  More than anything I wished our father was here. I wondered what guidance he would have had for this. It was not solely the fact that Claire had to pass judgement on her own mother. Unlike Alessia, Nina and Aralyn had committed much more gruesome crimes. The kind of crimes that no amount of cooperation would help wash away.

  “No,” Claire said calmly with assertion in her tone, “They will face public death sentences. They brought white roses back into our world… Now they will suffer the consequences. They will die by a white rose. If they want to cooperate we can make it a quicker death. If they refuse, they will die slowly and painfully. Like our friend and my father did. We will give t
his choice to all of Stefan’s allies we have captured.”

  I looked at the faces in the room. Gemma remained silent, seemingly pleased with this salutation. The others shared similar expressions of doubt and horror. Would we use illegal means to end the lives of criminals? It was unheard of.

  “We should speak with Aralyn first,” I blurted out.

  Everyone looked back at me, and I gulped. I had not wanted to voice my opinion, but here I was freely offering it. Nina had changed her attitude and revealed more to us, but I doubted Aralyn would do the same. They would both die regardless of the information they were willing to reveal.

  “I second that,” Declan said, nodding to me.

  I looked down at the ground, avoiding any further contact. If anyone should have agreed with me it was Claire. She and I knew the kind of pain a white rose inflicted. Elias had tried to kill us with them, and now Claire spoke of Nina facing the same fate. It was not a light decision to make. At least Aralyn’s trial might give the councilors more time.

  Claire motioned for the next prisoner to be brought in. She remained standing, and this time when a Watcher entire the room they brought Aralyn with them.

  Aralyn still fought the Watcher as if by escaping his grasp there would be no one else to stop her from fleeing. The Watcher remained unaffected by her attempts and ignored her altogether. He brought her to the front of the room but kept a firm grip on her. She growled at the sight of Claire standing in front of her.

  Claire stood in front of Aralyn without any fear. She looked in Aralyn’s eyes, and I couldn’t imagine what she saw in them. I remembered my encounter with Aralyn. She was ht reason Ahna was dead and her child was without parents. And though I had no confirmed yet, I believed Aralyn had more blood on her hands than Nina.

  “Aralyn Velis, you are a known associate of Stefan’s. You recently kidnapped Lukas and threatened his life, as well as others. How do you plead?” Claire asked firmly.