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⊹ Book 1 of the Aldergrove Duology ⊹
After being told he has only six months left to live, Clementine decides to track down his sister's murderers, leading him to Aldergrove A...
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Clementine took his seat in the gallery. Straight ahead, Frederick and Nicolette's sister stood on the witness stand—this wasn't good. He did his best to remain calm, glancing over at the defendant's table, where Carmichael, Stanley, and Bernard were seated. They didn't have a defence counsel behind them, and the judicial panel was also empty. Were Elliot's friends even going to get a fair trial?
He glanced around the room, eying each cedar table and the brown leather chairs behind them. A huge crystal chandelier hung from the arched ceiling, its light bouncing off the cedar-panelled walls to create a dim golden glow. A vast hand-painted mural of winged men and women alongside dragons clung to the wall behind the judge's panel, and the light shining in through the tall, arched windows on the opposite side of the room brightened the golden streaks of paint highlighting each creature's wings.
"Clementine!" came Elliot's hushed voice.
He looked to his right, watching as his spotty-faced roommate pushed past the girl that was about to sit next to him and sat there instead. "I—"
"Don't," Clementine warned. They were in a courtroom—the last thing anyone should do is talk about their involvement in the crime they were about to witness the discussion of.
As the door at the end of the judicial panel opened, Clementine stared over at it, watching as a single-file line of kids around his age walked out. He'd not seen them before, and they weren't dressed in the academy's uniform. Instead, they wore court coats and waistcoats. The three girls wore skirts, and the three boys wore trousers...and when Clementine's eyes met with those of the last boy, his jaw almost dropped.
White hair, golden eyes—Sebastien. He strolled out behind the others and took his seat in the judicial panel.
A flurry of 'who are they' and 'I don't know' murmured behind him, but when he heard one girl answer, "They're the law students," his jaw almost fell off his face. Law students? Sebastien? No way. Uh-uh.
"Don't they get a defence?" Elliot panicked, scratching at his wrist. "They don't have a defence!"
"Will you shut up?!" Clementine snapped.
Elliot stared at him in astonishment.
"Sorry," he uttered. "Just...be quiet. Not everyone's here yet."
To Clementine's relief, Elliot fell silent, and as the door behind the judge's bench opened, the entire room quietened down.
"The honourable court of the Aldergrove Judicial Circuit with the Honourable Judge Christien Huxley is now in session," came the bailiff's voice—a tall, dark woman standing between the judge's panel and that of the jury. "All rise."
