A few days later, I watched as everyone settled into their seats. Fox squeezed my knee gently as if he could feel my nerves. Daniel cleared his throat, signaling me to begin the meeting. I picked up the gavel and gave three firm taps, “This meeting will come to order. We are here today to deal with the aftermath that is Joseph Wardwell. His supporters will be punished. Here today we have the leaders from the American clans and members from each clan gathered to ensure justice is served and our laws are followed,” murmurs erupted in the crowd before me, “As you all are aware there is one leader missing. Beau LeBlanc was killed fighting alongside Joseph, and after a thorough investigation his death was deemed justified due to his role in the battle and the state of his clan. In his place is Interim Queen and King Piper and Grayson Miller, former head warriors of the Southern Water Dragon Clan and hopefully after completing a series of tests to determine dragon control and leadership skills we can drop the interim and just call them Queen and King,” I said with a small smile.
We sentenced several before one in particular caught my eye, the wyvern that promised she would consider my offer. As Aaron was reading out her charges, her eyes locked onto mine, and she didn’t quite seem right. “She has something from Basil. I can feel his magic in her,” Niamh said.
“How sure are you?”
“High nineties?”
“Amaya, what’s your vote?” Fredrik asked.
“Did you do anything against your will during or leading up to the battle?” I asked instead of answering my uncle.
The wyvern stood up straighter, “Yes. I was knocked out not long after I left you and when I came to, I was shackled in the cells and everyone was telling me I had attacked a prince, almost killing him,” Daniel growled low, knowing she was talking about Jace, “I swear I wasn’t going to help him. I was going to walk away. I didn’t do it. I wasn’t in control.”
I raised a hand, “Leandra can you and Aurelia come check her out please?” I started to step down, but my legs were still weak. Fox stood with me and held onto me as we walked down to her, “What’s your name?”
“Sarah. Sarah Blackwell,” she answered quietly.
“I can feel something inside of you from the same sorcerer that helped Joseph bind my magic,” Leandra and Aurelia walked up, causing Sarah to flinch away from them, “They’re here to help. If we can prove you weren’t in control while attacking for Joseph, then you may leave.”
Growls and whispers erupted again, causing Sarah to shrink further in on herself. “Just tune them out Sarah,” Fox said quietly to her.
Leandra and Aurelia recited an incantation, and Sarah’s back arched as whatever Basil had done to her left her body. “Basil created a sleeper in her that, when triggered, gave him, or anyone he gave the power to, full control over Sarah with a simple word.”
I bent the metal around her wrists open, “She had no way of knowing Basil had cursed her in such a way, therefore she should not be held accountable for something she had no control over.”
“She attacked Jace,” Daniel said with a growl.
“She wasn’t in control,” I reiterated.
“She’s nothing but a liar. The sorcerers too. How do you know they aren’t all in on it together?” Bree said in a snide tone, causing growls to erupt from where Edward and Mona were seated.
“So wyverns and any other supernatural person aside from dragons are liars and out to kill us?” I asked, barely containing the growl.
“Of course not, but you have to admit her story is a little far-fetched and incredibly convenient,” Bree countered.
“Do you believe them to be less than you? Or me?” Bree was silent, not daring to answer the question though her non answer was enough. I raised my voice to just below a shout, “Hunters call us filth. They believe us to be less than them because we aren’t human. They kill us by the dozens after using us as their punching bags and doing other unspeakable things. How can we say we are any different from them when we have a cousin, biologically speaking, out there that we have spent centuries looking down our nose at? How are we any different that we would punish or kill someone simply because she was forced to partake in a battle she would have preferred to not be a part of?”
It was deadly silent until finally someone sighed, “She still attacked a crowned prince. She should be punished for that,” Almira said.
“I will gladly take whatever punishment you choose for her,” I responded.
Sarah grabbed my arm, “Don’t. I can handle it,” she whispered.
“The point is you shouldn’t have to. I’ve gone through plenty, a little more won’t hurt,” I told her, touching my forehead to hers. I smiled when I felt Niamh reach out to her wyvern. I turned back to the clan leaders, “I abstain from voting, but demand whatever punishment you choose to be levied against me instead of Sarah. She did nothing she had a choice in, she was forced to attack, and shouldn’t be punished for that.”
Daniel hung his head and sighed, “I abstain as well,” he said quietly.
Fredrik sighed quietly, “Very well. All in favor of convicting the wyvern?” The leaders’ gazes shifted uneasily from one another, but no one raised a hand, “All in favor of releasing her?” Kachina smiled at me as she raised her hand, and slowly the other leaders followed suit. Fredrik grabbed the gavel and tapped it, “Sarah Blackwell you’re free to go.”
I gently grabbed her wrist before addressing the leaders and dragons in the room, “Let’s take a ten minute break,” the leaders nodded. As everyone began to either filter out or talk amongst themselves, I turned back to Sarah, handing her a business card with my number on it, “Give me a call if you’d like a job.”
She wrapped me in a tight hug, which I gladly returned, before pulling back, “Thank you.”
“Happy to help,” I said, giving her a small smile. “I hope to see you soon.”
As Sarah walked out of the meeting room, Jace, Daniel, and Finley walked up to Fox and me. “Seriously?” Jace said, almost shouting at me.
“She wasn’t in control, Jace. What did you want me to do? I won’t sit by as an innocent person is punished for something that was out of her control.”
“You can’t be serious about letting her join Storm Industries. How can we trust her?”
“I’m very serious about her joining Storm Industries. Can you trust me?”
Jace sighed, “Of course I trust you. It’s the wyvern I don’t trust.”
“Trust that I know what I’m doing,” I told him, and he nodded, “Finley you’re quiet.”
She shrugged, “What do you want me to say? I want the ones that attacked Jace to be punished; that includes that wyvern you just let go,” she mind linked us. “I understand why, but it doesn’t stop me from wanting her punished.”
I nodded, “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t let someone be punished who didn’t deserve it.”
Jace and Finley just nodded and made their way back to their seats. Daniel put his hands on my shoulders, “Please never do anything like that again. I’m proud of you for standing up for someone who was innocent, but never make me choose between you and Jace again.”
I wrapped my arms around him, “I’ll do my best not to put you in this situation again.” Once we broke apart, Fox’s arm went back around my waist and he gave me a kiss on my temple, “Let’s get started again.”
Fox held onto me as we made our way back to our seats. “Pretty much everyone is back. Amaya, do you want to get started again?” Fredrik asked.
I nodded and tapped the gavel to quiet everyone down before starting. We made it through the rest of the accused over the course of several hours. Once we were finished, I tapped the gavel, “Thank you all for sitting through this. It’s hard, but necessary, to go through these proceedings. This is the first step in healing. Joseph Wardwell not only took the lives of his parents, my mother, and his own mate, he destroyed a lot of lives in his decades-long attempt to grab power. We should remember not just those killed by Joseph and his followers, but also the lives lost due to Joseph exploiting them. Joseph Wardwell was a once in a lifetime villain, and the wounds he left in his wake, not just in the Storm Dragon Clan, will be slow to heal. But we are nothing if not incredibly hardy creatures. We will heal from this, maybe not tomorrow or the next day, but one day we’ll wake up and feel some sense of closure. Thank you all once again for being here, and have safe travels home,” I tapped the gavel one more time, officially ending the meeting.
Author: Kailan Counahan 