“I was also there when Elain Smith promised to lie to the council of elders, to force Serena to go with her. She said she’d report her for not helping around the house and get her disinherited.”
I could almost see the wheels spinning in the elders’ minds. John was, after all, a respected member of the community, and more importantly, a man. His word meant something.
After a moment of silence, Baird’s heavy gaze turned on Elain. He used a high, cold voice to say, “What say you to these charges? Did you promise to lie to the council of elders?”
“Never.” She said it with such conviction, I almost screamed in frustration. “But Hal left the house to both of us. He wanted us to share responsibility for the running of it, and knowing him, he did it so we would always have each other.” Elain’s voice had become sad. Stars, how did she do it? Lie, and lie again, and keep them all straight in her head. “That day, when I visited Serena, she was still so withdrawn. She looked like death itself. And Viola and John, although good people, have never raised a child.”
I twisted to see the devastation alight in both my surrogate parents’ eyes. In that moment, I wanted to tear Elain’s heart out with my bare hands.
Elain droned on. “I’ve learned that sometimes you have to push them. So, I begged her to come home. When that didn’t work, I said she was leaving me in an impossible situation, and that I’d have to go to the elders for advice. If I made it sound like I was threatening her, then that is my shame to bear. I thought it’d be better for her to come home rather than waste away, even if it was painful to face the memory of him.” She wavered, letting out a small sob.
“Why would John lie to us?” Gertie said coldly.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Nathan interjected, sounding sad. “They love Serena like a daughter—they’re not thinking straight.”
Gertie and Castiel voiced their disapproval at his interruption. Baird silenced them with a wave of his hand.
“That’s enough,” he said, his deep voice putting an end to their bickering. “John is an honorable man. I do not believe he would lie outright. However, Gus remains the only witness without a strong, personal attachment to Serena, and therefore, a motive to lie.” His steely eyes settled on me. “Can you give me any reason to doubt his word?”
A lump formed in my throat at the prospect of reliving last night. But if I were to have any chance of surviving this, they needed to see Gus for the cold-blooded predator he was. “He lied to save himself. Last night …” The hairs on the back of my neck prickled. I gulped in a breath and continued. “Elain surprised me by making dinner. She’s hardly said two kind words to me my entire life, and yet suddenly she was making me food and trying to be nice. Something felt off, and I remembered what she’d told me when I was younger—”
“About poisoning you?” Gertie said abruptly.
Encouraged that she hadn’t thought my suspicions farfetched, I nodded and added, “It was just a feeling, but it was strong enough that I didn’t eat or drink anything she served. I hid the food in napkins and pretended to drink.”
Gertie snorted and mumbled her approval. “Smart girl.”
Baird cleared his throat. A clear warning that silenced her.
I continued to summarize the events that followed as best as I could. Once I’d revealed Elain’s plan to drug me with sedatives and Gus’s assault, there was only one thing left to admit. “So I panicked and hit him with the pan, but if I hadn’t defended myself, he would’ve kept going.”
That’s when the room exploded with noise. Elain and Gus shouted, “Lies! Slander!”
Viola yelled at them in my defense, and John tried to placate her in hushed tones. The rest of the council—Dr. Fagan, Nathan, and Duncan—didn’t bother lowering their voices as they talked among themselves. A few words drifted over the din: “Fantasies,” “No proof,” “Liar,” which made any hope in me wither and die. Gertie and Castiel were too quiet to make out as they put their heads together to whisper.
Only Baird remained silent. He stared at me, his face inscrutable. Finally, I couldn’t stand it anymore and shouted, “Please, listen! It’s not just me—lots of girls in the village know about Gus’s reputation. Ask them.”
“We don’t have time to interview every girl in the village,” Dr. Fagan snapped.
“No, we do not,” Baird said in a way that was both firm and pacifying. “What happened after you attacked him?” he asked me.
“She ran out into the forest, probably to meet with her fae brethren,” Gus cut in viciously.
Violet pushed out a snort of contempt. “For that to be true, you’d have to accuse us of being fae, because she didn’t run into the forest. She came straight to the bakery.”
Baird’s head whipped to them. “What time did she arrive?”
“Around eight in the evening,” Viola answered.
“What sort of state was she in?” Baird asked.
“Bad,” John added angrily. “She was sobbing when I came downstairs, but after Vi calmed her down, she told us what happened—”
Baird interrupted. “And does her account from last night match the one she just gave?”
“In every way,” John confirmed.
A curt nod. “I see.” Something final locked into place behind his eyes. He’d decided. I prayed to the courts—light, dark, and moon—that he’d come down on my side.
The other council members weren’t so difficult to read. Gertie and Castiel seemed inclined to believe me, but the rest still looked upon on me with doubt and suspicion clouding their eyes. They voted according to a majority, with Baird having the final say. If I could sway just one of them, it might be enough to go free. I gnashed down on my lip, weighing the risks. Making a quick decision, I put in, “Can I speak?”
Baird said nothing, only nodded.
“If you send me into exile, or … kill me,” Viola’s whimper almost broke me, but there was no choice but to persevere, “Elain inherits my father’s house. She won’t have to share it with a girl she hates, or have to leave like she would if I’d found a husband. And like Gus, she’ll get to keep my profits from the forge. They both have motives to lie.”
“Very well.” Baird sighed heavily. “The council will deliberate on both the alleged assault and the claims against you—”
“Wait!” Gus exclaimed. A hint of something had my head turning back toward his seat. The gleam on his brow stank of nerves, but there was a curious curve of his lip that had my stomach twisting.
“What is it, Gus?” asked Gertie, her voice prickly.
“I have a witness who says she saw Serena meeting with a fae.”
Shock crackled through the air and the elders, who’d been rising from their seats, slumped back down, stunned.
I couldn’t stand much more of this.
Baird’s next words came out as a soft growl. “I find it very odd that you haven’t called this witness before now.”
Gus groveled. “I apologize. She only confessed this morning after she’d heard the rumors about the trial. She’s terrified of Serena—we didn’t want to push her to testify if it was unnecessary.”
“Unnecessary?” Baird echoed; that one word carried a quiet question and a reproach.
I glanced over. Elain was squirming, Gus was sweating. But Baird said nothing; he only continued to dissect them with his hard stare.
Nathan snapped out, “Well, who is this witness?”
“Rebecca Price.”
“What are we waiting for?” Nathan demanded, both fists hitting the table. “Go fetch the girl. I, for one, want to hear her testimony.”
I watched Elain scramble toward the back of the Hall. A loud creak resonated as the heavy oak door opened, and a wave of sound crashed over me. My assumptions had been right, then—there were people gathered outside the doors, waiting to hear the verdict. A steady rise and fall of inane chatter reached my ears. There were a few concerned whispers, but the majority seemed excited.
A sickness churned in my gut. Did they want to see me burn?