Chapter 238 Can't Reach Him Yet
ADRIANA
“What is the meaning of that symbol, Collins?” I kept my voice quiet, which in my experience landed harder than volume. “What are you not telling this court?”
He was fighting with himself visibly, painfully. His hands pressed flat against his thighs like he was trying to hold himself together from the outside.
“I was supposed to burn it,” he said again, like saying it twice might make it land differently.
“But you didn’t,” Hazel said. “Why not?”
He didn’t answer.
I looked at him for a long moment. “Schedule their execution for tonight. All three of them.” I turned to the guard at the door. “If they’re not going to contribute anything useful to this proceeding, there’s no reason to keep them here. Take him out.”
Collins’s head snapped up. “You can’t—”
“Can’t I?” I didn’t raise my voice. “You just told me you’re afraid of being killed by whoever sent you. I’m the one standing in front of you right now. You should be calculating which threat is more immediate.”
The guard moved toward him and he was taken out, and the court sat in a silence that had a different quality to it than before, heavier, with something unresolved pressing against the edges of it.
Hazel turned to me. “My Queen, it’s clear there’s a much larger operation behind this than what’s been presented. The symbol, the clothing, the coached testimonies, none of this points to Damien.”
“I agree.” I looked at the Chief Elder. “And I think you’re beginning to see that too.”
He was quiet for a moment. Then he cleared his throat. “My Queen, the evidence as it stands does not support the original verdict. We acknowledge that.”
That was more than I’d expected from him today and I noted it. “Then this is what’s going to happen. Damien’s remand ends today. He is released pending the continuation of the trial and remains within pack territory. He doesn’t leave, and he checks in daily. If new evidence surfaces that changes the picture, we reconvene. If it doesn’t—” I looked at Damien directly. “Then we close this properly and in your favor.”
Damien had been so still throughout all of it that the breath he let out when I finished felt enormous in the room. He pressed his hand over his mouth then dropped it. His eyes misted with unshed tears.
“Thank you, My Queen.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’re not finished.” I looked at the room. “We reconvene in one week. By then, I want answers about that symbol and I want the full picture of who those men were actually working for. Dismissed.”
The moment the session ended, Nancy crossed the room so fast she was almost running. Damien met her halfway and the sound she made when he put his arms around her was the kind that doesn’t happen in public unless someone has stopped caring about being watched. I looked away and gave them the privacy of not being observed.
Hazel fell into step beside me as I moved toward the corridor.
“Who do you think it is?” she asked, low enough that only I could hear. “Because I genuinely have no one in mind.”
“Neither do I. And that’s what’s bothering me most.” I pushed through the door into the hallway. “Leo said he recognized the seal. He just couldn’t place it.”
“He has a week.”
“He does.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “I need someone to go to their pack. Find out who those men have been in contact with, who they answer to, whether there’s a paper trail anywhere.”
Hazel was already nodding. “I’ll go. Two days, maybe three. I can move faster without a full team.”
“What about Damon’s pack? With him locked up, someone needs to be managing it.”
“Appoint the Beta as interim. Send a letter, keep it vague.”
That would hold for a week. “Fine.” I paused at the door to Elijah’s office. “The execution order wasn’t real.”
Hazel almost smiled. “I know.”
“But they don’t. Make sure it stays that way for now. And when this is over, find somewhere quiet for Damien and Nancy to stay. Away from the main housing. I don’t want anyone connecting the dots about what happened before we’re ready.”
She nodded and turned to go, then stopped. “The twins’ party is tomorrow.”
I closed my eyes briefly. “I know.”
“I can’t miss it. I’ll never forgive myself and they’ll never let me forget it.”
“I know, Hazel. Go say goodbye to them tonight just in case and we’ll figure the rest out in the morning.”
She left, and I went into Elijah’s office and closed the door behind me.
The room still smelled like him in that faint, fading way that was somehow worse than if it smelled like nothing at all. I paused by the door before I made myself cross to the bedroom wing.
The doctor was already there when I arrived, bag set down, moving through his checks with quiet efficiency.
“My Queen. I didn’t expect you this early.”
“How is he?”
He completed the last of the vitals before he turned to me. “Stable. The fever that was concerning me last month has fully resolved. His body is maintaining well.” He paused in the way that always preceded the part I didn’t want to hear. “But his brain activity hasn’t changed. There’s still no indication of when — or if — that will shift.”
I stood at the edge of the bed and looked at Elijah’s face, which was the same as it had been every day for seven months — peaceful in a way that would have been beautiful if it wasn’t so wrong.
“He’s in there,” the doctor said gently. “We just can’t reach him yet.”
I didn’t answer. I sat down in the chair beside the bed, and I stayed there until the room went dark.