Chapter 37 Judge Celeste

Chapter 37 Judge Celeste
Sienna's POV

Vera walked into the courtroom like she owned it.

She looked clean and healthy, not like someone who'd just escaped custody.

Because she hadn't escaped. They'd released her.

"State your name for the record," Celeste said.

"Vera Ashford. Alpha of the Mountain Pack."

"And your relationship to the defendant?"

"She was my son's rejected mate. The wolfless woman who brought shame to our family."

The words stung even though I'd heard them before.

"Tell the court what you witnessed," Celeste said.

Vera turned to face me with a smile that made my skin crawl.

"I witnessed Sienna Voss murder three Assembly guards in cold blood. She transformed into a massive silver wolf and killed them without hesitation or remorse."

"That's not what happened!" I shouted. "They were trying to kill me!"

"Silence!" Celeste's voice boomed. "You'll have your chance to speak."

A guard stepped forward and backhanded me across the face.

I fell to my knees and tasted blood.

"Continue," Celeste told Vera.

"She's been hiding her powers for years. Pretending to be wolfless while secretly becoming something dangerous. She attacked our pack, destroyed our property, and threatened to kill anyone who got in her way."

"All lies!" I tried to stand but the chains pulled me back down.

"I said silence!" Celeste gestured and the chains tightened, burning hotter.

I screamed.

"Your witness has finished," Celeste said to Vera. "You may step down."

Vera walked past me and whispered so only I could hear. "I'm going to watch you die. And then I'm taking Lily."

My blood turned to ice.

"Bring in the next witness," Celeste ordered.

Another Assembly member came forward, then another, each one telling the same story.

Sienna Voss was dangerous. Sienna Voss was unstable. Sienna Voss needed to die.

I stopped listening after the fifth one.

This wasn't a trial. It was theater.

Celeste had already decided I was guilty.

Finally, the prosecution rested.

"The defense may now present witnesses," Celeste said.

Kael stood in the witness box. "I'd like to testify."

"Proceed."

He looked at me, then at Celeste. "Sienna Voss is not a murderer. She's a mother who was protecting her child."

"A child she had no right to have," someone shouted from the seats.

"A child who exists because she's my daughter!" Kael's voice rang out. "And I'm the one who rejected Sienna. I'm the one who caused this. If anyone should be on trial, it's me."

Murmurs spread through the courtroom.

"Your guilt or innocence is not the question here," Celeste said. "We're judging Sienna Voss."

"Then judge her fairly! She only killed in self-defense!"

"Three trained guards are dead by her hand. That is murder under Assembly law."

"Then your law is wrong!"

The courtroom erupted. Hunters shouting. Guards moving forward.

Celeste raised her hand and silence fell.

"Dr. Kael Ashford, you are dismissed. If you speak out of turn again, you'll be charged with contempt."

Kael sat down, jaw clenched.

Daemon stood next. "I'd like to testify as well."

"Proceed."

"Sienna Voss saved my life. Saved my pack. She's not the monster you're making her out to be."

"Yet she killed three guards."

"After they tried to kill her first! After they threatened her daughter!"

"The guards were following orders. She was resisting arrest."

"Arrest for what crime? Being born different?"

"For being moon witch," Celeste said quietly. "Which is crime enough."

The words hung heavy.

"You're a moon witch too," Daemon said. "Why aren't you on trial?"

"Because I learned my place. I accepted the laws that keep our kind from extinction."

"You mean the laws you helped write," I said.

Everyone turned to me.

"Yes," Celeste said. "I helped write them. Three hundred years ago when the Assembly was hunting down every moon witch they could find. When we were being slaughtered by the thousands."

She stood and walked down from her throne.

"I watched my sisters die. My mother. My children. Everyone I loved, killed for the crime of being born with power." She stopped in front of me. "So I made a choice. I went to the Assembly and offered them a deal."

"What deal?" I asked.

"I would help them create laws to control moon witches. To register us. To monitor us. To limit our power." Her voice cracked. "In exchange, they would stop the wholesale slaughter."

"You sold us out."

"I saved us! Before the laws, there were thousands of moon witches. After the laws, there were dozens. But dozens is better than none."

"Is it? Look at us now. Three left. You, me, and my daughter."

"Three is still better than zero."

"Three living as slaves is not living at all."

Celeste's hand moved so fast I didn't see it coming.

She slapped me hard across the face.

"You know nothing of sacrifice! Nothing of what it takes to survive!" Tears streamed down her face. "I have questioned my choice every single day for three hundred years. Every execution I've overseen. Every moon witch I've sentenced to death. Each one a reminder of what I did."

"Then stop doing it! Change the laws!"

"I can't! The moment I do, the Assembly will kill me and hunt down every moon witch who ever existed!"

"Then what was the point? You saved us from extinction just to watch us die slowly?"

"I bought time!" She grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her. "Time for someone strong enough to change things. Someone powerful enough to fight where I couldn't."

Understanding hit me like lightning.

"You've been waiting for me."

"I've been waiting for someone like you. Someone who could prove the laws were wrong. Or prove they were right." She released me and stepped back. "This trial isn't about your guilt. It's about whether moon witches deserve to exist freely or if control is the only way we survive."

"So I'm your test."

"You're our last chance." She walked back to her throne. "If you survive this trial, I was wrong about everything. If you die, I was right to choose submission."

"That's insane."

"That's desperation." She sat down. "The prosecution has presented evidence. The defense has presented witnesses. Now we deliberate."

"Wait, I haven't testified yet!"

"Your actions speak louder than words could." Celeste looked at the Assembly members in the seats. "The council will now vote. All in favor of execution?"

Hands rose across the courtroom. Hundreds of them.

"All opposed?"

Kael's hand went up. Daemon's. Orion's. Dr. Helena's.

Four hands against hundreds.

"The vote is decided," Celeste said. "Sienna Voss, you are found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by—"

"Wait!" Dr. Helena stood. "I have evidence the court hasn't seen!"

"The time for evidence has passed."

"This evidence changes everything!" She held up her scanner. "I can prove that killing Sienna Voss will start a war that destroys the Assembly!"

Murmurs spread through the courtroom.

Celeste leaned forward. "Explain."

"I've been studying supernatural genetics for twenty years. I can prove that the moon witch gene isn't extinct. It's dormant."

"Dormant where?"

"In werewolf bloodlines. Hundreds of them. Maybe thousands." Dr. Helena pulled up data on her scanner. "Kael Ashford carries the recessive gene. So does Daemon Cross. So do half the werewolves in this courtroom."

The murmurs turned to shouts.

"That's impossible!" someone yelled.

"It's science!" Dr. Helena projected the data onto the wall. "The moon witch gene has been hiding in werewolf DNA for generations. Sienna and Lily aren't anomalies. They're the first of many."

Celeste stood slowly. "Are you saying there could be more moon witches?"

"I'm saying there already are. They just don't know it yet." Dr. Helena looked around the courtroom. "And if you execute Sienna Voss, every werewolf with that dormant gene will see it as a declaration of war."

The courtroom erupted into chaos.

Celeste's face had gone white.

"This changes nothing," she said, but her voice wavered. "The law is clear."

"The law was written when you thought moon witches were dying out!" Dr. Helena shouted. "But we're not dying. We're evolving. And if you kill Sienna, you'll have a revolution on your hands."

Celeste looked at me, then at the data, then at the hundreds of Assembly members who might be carrying moon witch genes.

"Recess," she said quietly. "We need to discuss this."

"There's nothing to discuss!" Vera stood. "The law says she dies!"

"The law says a lot of things," Celeste said. "But starting a war with our own people is not one of them."

She raised her hand and guards moved forward.

"Take the defendant back to her cell. We reconvene in one hour."

As they dragged me away, I caught Dr. Helena's eye.

She'd just saved my life.

Or delayed my execution.

I wouldn't know which until the court reconvened.

But as I was pulled through the doors, I heard Celeste say something that made my blood run cold.

"Bring me Lily Ashford-Voss. I need to see if the child carries the gene too."