by V. K. Ludwig
A snort broke through the wall of complaints. “Are you suggesting an Earth female had the strength to disable the brain of a grown warrior? The accused was trained as a combat healer. He admitted to entering the facility as well as the crime itself. Why are we wasting our time with this? This is nothing but the jealous act of a despicable good-for-nothing sgu’dal, trying to escape reality as they always do.”
So much about putting personal prejudice aside, but the word held little power over me anymore. Who cared about what I was in the eyes of others while Katie’s acceptance surged in my veins? Not me.
The High Judge threw me a dirty smirk, and the fan above me blew it right into my face. “This Vetusian needs to be executed. Gaia Link Split or not, we cannot tolerate such vicious behavior among our own kind.”
Everyone either voiced their complaints or partiality, throwing the entire auditorium into a storm of heated discussions. Not much to my surprise, Commander Torin did nothing to calm the trial, but instead leaned against the banister and waited it out.
The tap-tap-tap of Nifal’s stick brought everyone back to attention.
“Healer Melek,” he said. “Please tell the High Judges of those new developments you have discovered while on Odheim.”
I braced against the tension crawling up my spine. “I found out that my link to Katie, my anam ghail, has never been compromised. Warrior Kidan paid another Vetusian with access to the Imperial databank to link him to her, unknowing that the system had already linked her to me. I also believe it was he who deleted the surveillance footage.”
Nifal smiled. “So you defended her honor, as well as the sanctity of the bond you are fated to share. Which does not make this an act of murder, but one of bravery and protection.”
“This is ludicrous!” someone shouted.
Commander Torin lifted his hands. “Calm, please.”
Mumbles turned to whispers then died into silence, the room suddenly still around me. I wanted to clear my throat. Make a sound to ensure time passed at Earth’s speed because my heart pounded too fast to serve as an indicator.
“What a most absurd lie,” the old High Judge eventually snarled. “Warden Torin, where is the proof for all this nonsense? This is no way to conclude a trial of such history-changing proportions. Furthermore, this farce is a disgrace to my standing and everyone in this chamber.”
“Where is this female?” another asked. “We shall have her brought here and questioned, for I do not believe any of this unless there is proof.”
“The female cannot be tried for something the healer confessed to,” Commander Torin said. “If the honorable High Judges would please return their attention to these new —”
“Since when does a Warden tell the High Judges what to return their attention to?” the old scholar asked. “If you appeal to our partiality, Torin da taigh L’naghal, then I shall appeal to the neutrality you are bound to satisfy. All this talk about one male killing another, databank breach, rape, fraudulent links, and other atrocities. We shall conclude this trial based on the evidence at hand, which is a Vetusian who has confessed.”
“New proof is scheduled to arrive on Earth shortly,” the Commander pushed through gritted teeth.
“We will not have a Warden make a fool of our institution, dragging out a trial only to have us wait for a proof that is impossible to exist.”
“High Judges,” Nifal said and once more swung a hand up, but the auditorium already drowned in chaos.
The old High Judge gave a limp wave toward me. “All in favor of execution, raise your hands.”
Across the rows, scholars turned toward each other and glanced over their shoulders. One after another, they either raised their hands or kept them down. Most raised them.
This plan had worked until it didn’t, and the realization of it numbed me to the marrow of my bones, all traces of hope leaving my body. And while guards positioned themselves to drag me outside for the execution, I comforted myself in the knowledge that I would satisfy fate. Not every Vetusian died having known the love of his fated one. The kindness of her soul. The softness of her lips. I was practically blessed.
“Execution it will be.”
I swallowed, my esophagus suddenly jagged as it dragged down my throat and ground a hollow into my stomach. With each bit the guards pushed into my vision, a scratch gutted out my stomach, leaving liquid anguish at the bottom.
I would kill for her.
I would die for her.
All Vetusians said it, but this sgu’dal stood by his word.
And gladly so.
Commander Torin clasped his hands behind his back and squared his chest, staring straight at me from pained eyes. “Healer Melek, the Vetusian Empire hereby sentences you to die.”
Twenty-Eight
Katie
* * *
“You will bring this skycar as close to the platform as possible,” Kael ordered.
The driver glanced through the window and down at the raging crowd of Vetusians in front of the Imperial Assembly, his head shaking. “There is no room for me to touch down.”
Kael fisted his hair and dragged him halfway out of his seat. “Then you will make room.”
“Mom, I see him,” Grace screeched, her hands pressed against the fogged window. “Look! Down there!”
In a scramble of limbs, I climbed over the bench and gazed down, my heart refusing that next beat. Melek stood in front of a sea of Vetusians, arms bound behind his back, a weapon pointed at the back of his head.
“They won’t move!” the driver called out. “This is as close as I can get you.”
“The things I do for this guy,” Kael said heavy on the exhale, opening the door upward at the push of a button. “Deactivate the pressure seal. I’ll jump down and catch you.”
The moment the driver pushed one of his many overhead buttons, Kael disappeared from inside the cabin. Shouts and bellows rose, the words innocent and guilty mixing into an ear-shattering uproar.
I carefully climbed toward the edge, my fingers digging into the surrounding metal. Staring down, I fought shock and gravity pulling me out of the vehicle into a ten-foot drop.
Kael shoved Vetusians aside and punched his shoulders around for room, then reached his arms up. Flick after flick, his fingers gestured me to throw myself out of the skycar.
The vehicle tossed and shook, and my slick palms slipped off the smooth black metal. I closed my eyes. Bulldozed through the fear because any second of hesitation would bring Melek closer to his death. Then I thrust myself out the door.
Strong arms wrapped around me, accompanied by a groan. Kael let me slip down along his body, then reached his hands up once more for Grace.
But Grace didn’t move.
She clung to the skycar, her eyes rimmed with fear, her tendons stiff against her skin. Spring winds tugged on the fabric of her pants, making her inch backward.
“She won’t jump.” Kael cursed low and fumbled his com off his wrist, only to snap it back around mine. “You have to push through to him, do you understand? Do whatever you can to cause chaos and stall the execution. Go!”
Even more chaos?
Nodding, I turned into the direction of the platform beside the Imperial Assembly, my heart throbbing at the back of my tongue. Vetusians towered all around me. Had I always been this small? Like a sapling surrounded by trees?
Tension crawled up my spine and bunched my shoulders. It spread sideways from there, threatening to paralyze my arms, locking them in place.
No, I had to be stronger than that.
Fuck Trauma.
With my heart a pounding mess, I pushed through bodies, parting them with my hands before I slipped sideways through chests and backs. The past was the past, and Kidan would always be a part of it. But I wouldn’t let him have the slightest piece of my future, which belonged to nobody but my fated one.
Shove by shove, the cruel mark of the attack faded from my heart, leaving nothing behind but Melek’s imprint on my soul.
One Vetusian after another, I worked myself blindly toward the platform. I didn’t need to see Melek to find him. That humming in my chest guided me as if he had wrapped a string around my heart, tugging on it from the other side.
He didn’t notice me when I finally reached the edge of where he stood, head held high, his green-blue gaze adrift somewhere in the crowd.
With my arms reaching skyward, I jumped up toward the edge.
I missed.
The second time I missed again, my sweaty palms slipping right off.
“Female,” a Vetusian warrior stepped up beside me, his head cocked. “What are you doing here? It’s dangerous for you to be standing in this turmoil.”
I pushed the words out before my throat swelled shut. “Help me up. I’m his mate… Please!”
He glanced around for a moment, then wrapped his hands around my waist and lifted me onto the platform. The moment I scrambled back to my feet, Melek sucked in a breath and stumbled back, his face pushing down with the way the barrel of the weapon nudged against his neck.
When the guards caught a glimpse of me, they stormed toward us. Scholars in green robes lined the spectacle in the back, some of them throwing me curious glances.
“Arrest the human!” a guard shouted. “Only Vetusians are allowed on the grounds of the Imperial Assembly.”
Chaos.
I had to stall the execution, and this was the only thing I could come up with.
Rising as high as my toes let me, I wrapped my arms around Melek’s head. My elbow hit hard metal, pushed the weapon aside. When mumbles and shouts threatened to drown us, I took a deep inhale and let my voice shatter through the crisp air.
“I killed him!” Instead of fear, my voice carried faith. “I killed warrior Kidan!”
Melek cocked his head and freed his face from my arms, mumbling, “No, Katie.”
“What is this?” one of the scholars said and stomped over to us. “This is outrageous!”
“The female said she killed him!” Came from behind me.
“What is the Empire keeping from us?” another called out.
Chaos accomplished.
Soon, the message traveled across the crowd from ripples to waves, and mumbles exploded into an orchestra of discord and apprehension. The scholars looked at each other in shared confusion, lifting a hand to their mouths as they exchanged half-hearted shrugs.
“You shouldn’t have said that,” Melek whispered, his shoulders jerking as if he wanted to take me into his arms but couldn’t. “What are you doing, female? We have no idea how this will play out, and I have no troubles dying for you.”
Tears pushed from my eyes right along with that drowned chuckle from my chest. “I know you would. But the thing is, I want you to stick around a while longer. We’re in this together, remember?”
A Vetusian I recognized as Warden Torin da taigh L’naghal stepped up to me. “Where is Kael?”
Reluctantly, I let go of Melek, and reached out my arm. “He gave me his com.”
He glanced over his shoulder and quickly snapped it off my wrist. “You came just in time.”
Harsh hands wrapped around my wrists.
A guard crossed my arms behind my back, followed by an intense heat searing into my skin.
“No need to be so rough with her!” Melek barked.
“What a humiliation,” a scholar shouted. “And in front of the entire universe!”
Warden Torin issued a shout. “Both are to be brought back inside the auditorium. Away from the eyes of the public. Now!”
The crowd turned into a full-blown riot, with fights breaking out here and there. Some Vetusians pushed against each other, or the barrier of guards, popped veins lining their angry faces.
Another set of guards led us off the platform along with the scholars, and up a set of stairs. Even inside the building, the uproar shattered through the closed doors as muffled shouts and screams, running goosebumps across my skin. The large room they led us into was only slightly less affected by it.
A guard dug his hands around my neck and forced me onto a chair. Next to me, another pushed Melek onto his knees. I immediately leaned over, and his forehead just waited there for mine to press against.
“I love you,” I whispered, watching how he closed his eyes, a pained smile coming over his features. “Can you trust fate? Because I’m willing to give it a shot.”
“Who killed the warrior?” an old scholar shouted, his hands clasping to a wooden banister beside us. “How many more confessions are we going to hear today?”
I pulled away from Melek and sat up straight. “I killed him because he tried to rape me. Melek found me in my apartment with a torn meniscus and other injuries and helped me and my daughter escape to Odheim so I wouldn’t be prosecuted.” I took a deep breath, not knowing where I drew my strength from, but I had no time to question it and continued. “Kidan was never my fated mate, which I knew even before we found proof that he bought this link to me. Everything you promised me with this Gaia link, I found with Melek. He’s my fated mate, and we are bonded.”
Several scholars sunk their heads into their palms, their faces either crimson or ashen. A dead silence settled onto the room, which seemed to last an eternity until Warden Torin threw several holograms between us.
“An unidentified Vetusian has the ability to hack into the Imperial databank,” he said. “He takes those links from the system which did not automatically connect with a female and sells them to our unmatched males. I will now play the DNA-coded statement of a Jal’zar female.”
The hologram of K’nema rotated at the center of the room while her voice resonated from the walls. Scholars turned quiet in their seats, listening intently to her statement as their features went through a variety of emotions — most of it shock.
Even after the hologram disintegrated, nobody spoke for a while, letting a prickle spread across my stomach. But the silence dismantled when Kael and Grace stepped into the chamber.
My daughter stood underneath the archway, her hair a wild mess around her head. At her next step, Kael placed his hand onto her shoulder and gestured her to stay back. He straightened his frame and tugged his uniform back in place, then marched over to Warden Torin. Whatever he whispered into his ear widened the Warden’s eyes, though he remained otherwise still.
One of the scholars rose, glancing behind him at the others before he spoke. “This is nothing but one statement of many we are being presented with today. Where are the tangible facts? If warrior Kidan truly shared no link with this female, their DNA profiles ought to prove it.”
“Honorable High Judges,” Warden Torin said. “The original profiles have clearly been corrupted. And although I have pleaded with the Department of Interspecies Relations to retest all three affected, they refused to give this case any additional attention. After the incident, neither healer Melek nor the female were around to provide new samples.”
The scholar let out a dry scoff. “Here we are, with nothing but confusing statements and no hard proof.”
At the very back of the scholars, High Judge Galat rose, his warm gaze briefly touching mine before he let it trail over the other judges. “Honorable members of the High Court, surely this can be resolved. If these new developments hold true, then they require our full attention. Instead of causing unrest with executions, we shall get to the bottom of this crime before Vetusians and humans lose the little trust they have left in the Gaia link.”
“What do you suggest?” Warden Torin asked.
“We shall put healer Melek and Katie, the human female, under house arrest,” he said. “The department will retrieve samples of both, as well as the deceased warrior. This will supply proof and potentially solidify their statements. It would render this murder an act of self-defense, the abduction of the female and her daughter an act of great bravery.”
Melek and I exchanged a quick look, a smile tugging as much on his lips as it did on mine. And yet neither of us let it unfurl. Not yet.
&nb
sp; “How is this to be brought forth to the public?” a scholar asked. “We are under much scrutiny already and cannot further expose ourselves to ridicule.”
“I am prepared to give a public statement,” Warden Torin said and stepped up in front of us. “Garrison Earth will once more be put to the test, but the truth is no longer something we can deny. Now that we’ve learned the identity of the hacker, we shall pledge to the public that we will do everything in our power to rid ourselves of these vicious crimes. The Wardens will also hold a vote on a budget increase for the Counter Abduction Team, allowing them to infiltrate this crime ring and bring them to justice.”
Chairs creaked as the scholars rose and huddled together in discussion, the mumbles now a chorus of conformity and agreement.
The old scholar spoke up. “All in favor of putting the bonded pair in temporary habitat arrest until the DNA results support their statements raise their hands.”
My stomach convulsed.
Melek twisted his body, his cuffed fingertips landing softly on my shoulders, our eyes on those hands. With each hand rising, a new tear ran down my cheeks.
High Judge Galat let his eyes catch with mine, saying, “Habitat arrest it is. The guards shall equip them with collars before they leave the Imperial Assembly. Take the cuffs off.”
My arms flung forward, and from there immediately around Melek’s waist. He dug his hands underneath my shoulders and lifted me up, taking me into a hug, whispering pledges of eternal love and loyalty. And I believed every single one of them because they vibrated deep in every part of my body.
A force rammed into us and made me stumble aside, but Melek caught my balance. Grace wrapped her arms around us, her tear-streamed face pushing between us.