The Unknown Alchemist

Chapter 45 - I want you to stay

Avery's eyes flew open and she sat up, making the room spin and pain shoot down her neck. Groaning she grabbed her head and rested her elbows on her knees. The cushions shifted beside her as someone sat down.

"Avery it's Sari, I'm right behind you." With the warning Avery didn't flinch when Sari gently rubbed comforting circles on her back. Avery took deep breaths trying to push the pain away from her face.

"Hayden is in front of you; he can stop the headache if you're ready."

Avery nodded and winced again, keeping her eyes squeezed shut. Hayden put his hand on top of Avery's head and eased the pain away. Her breathing evened out and she blinked to clear her eyes. She saw the concerned faces of her friends staring back at her. Her friends minus Roedin. "Where is he? What did he do?"

They shared a look.

"They locked him up for the moment," Adelyn explained.

"What will happen to him?"

Hayden reached for a glass of water and handed it to Avery. "Khalil has bigger problems right now. He'll leave Roedin there for the day to prove a point, but it's too much trouble to keep him. Roedin could escape in a heartbeat, but we told him to stay to play along."

They're keeping him away from me, Avery realised. She sipped the water. "Is it over then?"

Arctos lurched to his feet and stomped across the room, while Sari reached over and put her arm around Avery's shoulders giving her a reassuring squeeze.

Adelyn shifted in her seat. "Not quite. They want to resume after supper, privately. The room will be closed to everyone but the alpha primes."

Avery looked at her quizzically, confused as to why the rules would change suddenly. She didn't like being paraded in front of the sapiens but she wanted them to know what happens to humans who have no defense against the more powerful beings. It's why she had agreed to participate in the trial even after the horrific nightmare, when she sobbed and begged Roedin to not go. The following morning, when she woke curled up on his warm chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her, they spoke of the dream and the pending trial. In that comfort and safety Avery's courage returned and she resolved to share her story so that the precedent could be set. So that the sapiens would know that attacking a human was still a crime.

But in the end it had been Roedin who couldn't take the interrogation.

Avery grew angry. "The torture wasn't enough for them? My throat split open and blood soaking the gravel was confusing? What else could they possibly want to hear?"

Adelyn looked away and Hayden rubbed the back of his neck to ease a knot forming there. The tension from the alphas told her enough. They wanted to know about the assault.

Avery controlled the urge to vomit. "Why don't they just ask Roedin? He saw it, he was there. One time, at least. Is that not enough?"

Hayden shook his head. "That's how they even know about it. Roedin tried to convince them but Caiaphas claimed that he was too sick to properly remember. That it was probably just a dream if he wasn't even strong enough to get out of bed. Plus, he never saw Ferrik's face. Technically it could have been someone else."

Avery's mouth fell open. Now she knew. She knew the outcome of this trial had already been determined. They would never convict the son of an alpha prime on the word of a human. There was no justice, no protection for the meek on earth. It was ruled by sapiens; instinct, might, and survival of the fittest were the only things that mattered.

"Avery, no one is denying that terrible things happened to you, not even Caiaphas. They're just trying to prove that it was Ferrik who did it," Adelyn explained.