“So?” he asked, his knuckles blanched white.
Danika looked down at the carpet, and Betty rocked on her heels as anxiety riddled her gut. It was obvious she was intruding on something personal. But the compulsion to know over rode any desire to give them privacy. She tip-toed closer.
“Stay,” Gerard commanded, obviously thinking she meant to leave. He didn’t turn to look at her, his unswerving gaze stayed put on the fairy.
“I’ve been given a brief reprieve to meet with you first. Galeta the Blue herself comes to hand down verdict, Gerard.”
He scrubbed his face, and his silence was deafening. Betty’s heart beat so hard she was sure they heard it.
“They did not believe me then?” he asked in a flat tone of voice.
Danika didn’t answer, but apparently she didn’t need to, because Gerard nodded. The little fairy glanced over at Betty. “My dear, I’m truly sorry for what is about to transpire. I do what I must, but always know it is for the good. Trust that. Please.”
Betty didn’t even have a moment to ask what, or contemplate the cryptic statement before a loud whooshing sound poured through the stillness. A dazzling blue light seared Betty’s retinas, and she blinked against the sudden onslaught of tears.
Another fairy hovered beside Danika when the light finally faded. Her shoulders were rigid, and though her skin still held the firmness of youth, there was an ancientness to her presence that Betty felt in every nerve of her body.
The fairy could only be Galeta the Blue, and it was obvious from one glance why she’d been named that. Her eyes were the blue of an arctic ice tunnel, clear and mesmerizing. The dress she wore sparkled like ice refracted in sunlight, and on her head was a large golden crown dripping with sapphires. But it was the blue ringlets of hair framing her head in a wild halo that really drew Betty’s eye.
“Gerard,” Galeta intoned, his name rolled from her tongue with the steely reverberations of a bottomless echo. “I’ve come to pass judgment.”
Beside her Danika trembled, and Betty would bet anything it wasn’t with fear. The tiny woman literally had steam rolling from her ears.
For a fact, Betty had never seen anything more bizarre in her life. A whole new world of weird was opening up before her eyes and all she could do was stare like a mindless drone, hypnotized like one watching a car wreck unfold.
“The tribunal convened,” that deeply feminine voice thundered, “and you’ve been found guilty.”
Gerard, who’d been silent, now growled. “You know it’s not true. Glean my memory if you must, fairy,” he pleaded, but the tiny blue woman gave him a wicked smile, made all the more sinister coming from the china doll beauty.
Betty swallowed when Gerard grabbed her hand, squeezing hard and making her wince.
Her heart stuttered, what was going on here? Who was this demon fairy and what did they want with him?
Then those glacial blue eyes turned to her, and the smirk became a full-fledged grin dripping with malice and spite. “Is this the mate you spoke of, Danika?”
Mate?
“Yes,” Danika squeaked.
Betty jerked as if slapped. “What? Whoa.” She took a step back, holding up her free hand. “What’s going on here?”
Galeta flew toward Betty, stopping inches from her face, forcing Betty to take another step back just so that she could see her without being forced to cross her eyes.
“Ugly creature you are,” Galeta spat by her foot.
“Hey!” Betty cried.
Gerard squeezed her hand again, and stepped part ways in front of her. As if to shield her.
“Galeta, the verdict, if you please,” Danika spoke up, her voice projecting a calm Betty most definitely did not feel.
Right now Betty kept imagining plucking Galeta the freak’s massive electric blue butterfly wings off her back and permanently grounding her. Ugly! She’d give that fairy ugly.
“Veritas, Gerard Caron, that is your sentence.”
He stiffened, his entire body went so still Betty feared he’d had a heart attack. Danika closed her eyes.
“Bound you will be for one month. Slave to her whims...” While Galeta spoke, she twirled her wand, a blue spray of light coalesced into a tight ball. Rolling like a wave on top of itself, faster and faster.
Betty planted herself square in front of Gerard. A split second impulse she immediately regretted when Galeta’s hard glacial stare turned on her. Galeta’s smile revealed baby fangs, and Betty’s knees knocked so hard she thought she might pass out.
“Indeed she must be your mate to throw herself in front of you like that,” Galeta sneered.
“Not... no,” Betty gulped, unable to even finish the thought.