Chapter 270: The Trail Awaits

Theo stood in the middle of Sylas’s living room with her arms folded, and both men stood there like mice that had been trapped and had finally decided scurrying around was useless.

Neither looked particularly interested in making eye contact with her.

"So." Theo looked between them.

Silence.

"What is the trial?"

Sylas instinctively moved to adjust his glasses, but Theo snapped at him, "There are no glasses on your face!!"

His hand immediately dropped.

Zeke almost laughed, but Theo’s raw gaze snapped at him too, and he quickly turned it into a cough.

"Now, one of you better start speaking, or you wouldn’t make it another hour,"

"We wouldn’t make it another hour...?"

"You wouldn’t make it another hour. Full fuckin stop!!"

They both flinched again.

It seems Sylas finally succumbed away from whatever had been forcing him to keep his mouth shut, "I’ll tell you. Let’s go and sit down first,"

"What’s wrong with standing?" She glared at him.

"Alright, alright. The trial concerns what happened to you six months ago."

Theo’s expression changed, "What happened to me?"

"Yeah, the whole death incident and you closing the veil,"

"I don’t understand," She said.

"Your soul left your body." He explained, "And then something else that has been residing there too took over. You have been sharing your body with her since when you were born. When you died, she took over. "

Theo’s fingers slowly uncrossed, "And then?"

"You came back."

"And that’s why there’s a trial?"

"Not exactly."

"The Tribunal doesn’t know what brought you back." Zeke finally spoke.

"What do you mean?" Theo frowned.

"They know what happened physically," Sylas said. "But they don’t know what happened to your soul while it was gone."

Her face became still, "And they think I might be—what?"

"Changed."

The word hung between them, and then Theo’s eyes narrowed, "Changed into what?"

"We don’t know."

"Then why am I on trial?"

"Because the Argent Tribunal has jurisdiction over matters that affect supernatural law," Sylas explained. "And your return has created something they’ve never dealt with before."

Zeke leaned forward. "You crossed a boundary that wasn’t supposed to be crossed."

"Life and death." Sylas finished.

"And what happens if they decide I shouldn’t have come back?" She asked, starting to panic.

Neither man answered.

Theo’s eyes moved between them, "What happens?"

"They could attempt to sever whatever connection allowed you to return."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning they could try to separate you from whatever came back with you."

Her hand instinctively moved toward her chest, "Seraphina?"

"Not your wolf. Your wolf has nothing to do with this."

"Nothing came back with me. I have no demon anymore. Can’t I just tell them that? I mean, what if they try to sever something and cut me off with Seraphina instead? Or something goes wrong and..." She stopped and laughed.

It wasn’t a happy laugh.

"You two are fucking idiots."

"I knew she’d say that." Zeke winced.

"You knew this since I came back to Gravemont, and let me guess...you decided the best thing to do was keep quiet because you thought I was too fragile?"

"No," Sylas said.

"Then why?"

"Because I was afraid."

Theo froze.

Sylas rarely admitted fear.

"I didn’t know whether telling you would make you run toward the Tribunal or away from it," he continued. "And either choice could have put you in danger."

"And because we don’t know what they’re going to decide." Zeke looked down, "We’ve been doing our best to postpone it. They wanted to have the trial immediately after the war but we held them back for six months. Their patience is very thin now. They are already mad at us enough that we forcefully reclaimed the east when they wanted to make it vanish out of existence,"

"The notion was stupid. Make the east vanish," Sylas shook his head once. He found it extremely stupid, "Cain is gone. He was the villain. He had disappeared along with his followers. Why scrape the entire east out with him when thousands of Easterners are still alive?"

"Wait a minute," Theo said, looking slightly confused, "Did you two undergo a trial too? Because you also died and came back, right? And you also have demons,"

"We have demons because that’s what our blood does," Zeke replied, "There’s nothing that can be done about it. Also...we didn’t come back from death on our own. William...helped us,"

"Oh," Her eyes fell.

Silence again.

"What about Aurelius? He is the Alpha now, isn’t he? Can’t he just...cancel the trial?"

"The trial lies under the jurisdiction of the council members. The work of the Alpha when it comes to that...is to implement whatever sentence falls upon you. That’s how the pack has always worked,"

"When is the trial?" Theo asked.

When they didn’t answer immediately, Theo just knew she was in big trouble.

"When?" She demanded, her eyes widening.

"Three days." Sylas sighed.

Theo stared at him, then at Zeke, then back at Sylas, "Three days." She repeated with disbelief.

"Yes."

A slow smile appeared on her face, and Zeke slowly glanced at Sylas, wondering if his brother knew what their mate was thinking about now, because that smile was definitely NOT good.

"Good." She said.

"Good?" Zeke’s brows furrowed.

Theo folded her arms again, "Don’t try to postpone it this time. Let’s have the trial and get this time over with,"

"What if they—"

"They won’t," She said confidently, "The Council would not dare, or I’m going to threaten them. I’m going to hit them where it hurts. If they can’t get their facts straight, I’ll make them all regret it,"

"Threaten them? With what?"

Theo smirked again.

Her eyes were darker than the shadows. She looked like she was having so many crazy thoughts at the moment and her amber eyes were starting to even glow.

Zeke glanced at his brother again, and Sylas glanced back. Both of them looked horrified.

"Oh God...What have we done?"