MAYFAIR DOESN’T DO LEGAL TRIALS the way the humangovernment does—if someone got a parking ticket, they’d likely havegotten it outside Mayfair anyway, and had to deal with theconsequences of it outside the town, too. But Mayfair didn’t havepolice, and they weren’t interested in crimes that weren’t relatedto the supernatural, certainly not petty crimes that took monthsand thousands of dollars from human lives. This did mean thatsupernatural crimes were punished on a whim based on what themayoral council thought—and while some people argued they werealways fair, other people, including myself, knew that oftenopinions could be shifted by influential leaders from each groupoutside of the council, namely Patricia.
They had me sitting behind a podium, with mystill-bound hands set on the wood surface, and Patricia’s glarepiercing my skin. There was a sizeable audience here, now; somepeople from the woods mob, about half of the Bounty Hunters’ Guild,including Allie, who smirked at me, and the entire mayoral councilsitting at varying levels on a raised dais.
I shifted in my seat as the announcer toldthe crowd who I was and what I was accused of.
“In accordance with the council rules,Olympia Carter has additionally served as an accomplice to thevampire Leandra in the murder of Mateo Rivera, helping her escapeto the Faerie realm with knowledge of her crimes…”
“...attacked the witch Francesca Gallo inher home…”
Even through the fatigue of having my magicstolen from me via these draining handcuffs, I couldn’t help butnotice what was left out of the list. There was nothing abouthelping Leandra kill her past self, or taking on a bounty for her;why? Who was trying to keep that under wraps: the council, orPatricia? Did the vampires not want people to know there was a wayto be immortal? Did any of them believe in it? Why was it such abig deal to break free from their control?
I found myself looking over at Patricia,whose deadline I’d officially missed. She had moved on from staringme down, instead fanning herself with a pamphlet for the yearlyChristmas market she’d picked up at the door. Would she still haveme fired and/or killed now? A deadline was a deadline, and shedidn’t go back on her word often. I could only pray thatcircumstances were different enough now that she wasn’t still outfor my life, but her very presence here seemed to say otherwise.Maybe she’d accept whatever punishment was doled out to me by themayoral council as a substitute for whatever she had planned.
A girl can dream.
The other thing about Mayfair is that wedon’t do lawyers for trials. It’s pretty straightforward: if thewitch drowns, she’s not a witch. Maybe it’s not so barbaric and notalways involving witches, but you get what I mean.
In these so-called trials, just about anyonecould pipe up with their own opinion on the matter, as a witness,etc., until the mayoral council shot them down. It did stillsurprise me when Beatrice Newell stood from her seat—nearlytoppling over the person next to her in the process, and having toplant her hands firmly against his shoulders—and announced, “Ibelieve Olympia Carter to be of good character, and not necessarilyinvolved in any kind of shenanigans. She was even trying to havevampires uninvited to her home. Why would she consort with onewhile requesting my sage service?” She sat down just as clumsily,skewing her glasses and having to fix them.
I was oddly touched by her support. I’d beenat a few of these trials myself on the bounty hunter end of it andnever seen her there. The council took her in with little reaction;although Beatrice Newell was a powerful witch, maybe the mostpowerful one in the entire town, she certainly was an oddcharacter, and maybe not one anyone took seriously.
Then, even more surprising, from the back ofthe room: “Olympia rents her apartment from my grandparents and shealways pays on time and is courteous about noise. And she’s a goodcustomer!” I squinted at the back to see Jian there, holding apouty Yuki in his arms. When he noticed that I had his attention,he lifted Yuki’s paw as if to wave at me through her.
“Who let a human in here?” Patriciademanded. “The day I start listening to a human is the day someonefinally drives a stake through my heart.”
“We still listen to anybody who hassomething to say,” the vampire elected to the mayoral council saidgently to his queen. “And unless anyone has anything else to share,it’s time for Olympia’s side of the story.”
“Olympia’s side of the story,” Patriciarepeated in a mocking tone. “I’ll tell you what: Leandra was mysecond-in-command, and Mateo my third. She was always so powerhungry. She disappeared and shirked any community duties and whileshe did, Mateo took over everything she’d been doing. She wasjealous, and killed him. And Olympia not only helped her hide whileshe was gone and not contributing to society; Olympia Carter alsohelped her escape.” Patricia smoothed down the dark fur of hercoat. “And they were lovers.”
The announcement caused a bit of a rumbling.I wanted to shout:That’s not the way it happened and you knowit!like I was on a reality lawyer show. To admit anything,though, would be a grave mistake. They might not use every wordexactly against me in court like humans did, but I had to tread aslightly as I could.
“Olympia?” the Unseelie fairy from thecouncil asked me. “What happened here? If you tell us everythingand lead us to her whereabouts, we may be able to work somethingout.”
The truth was that punishment for lightthings like this always ended up as one thing, and that one thingwas exile from Mayfair forever. All I would have to do is findanother community to live in, which wouldn’t be as devastating tome it could be; it wouldn’t be so hard to uproot my life and startup somewhere else. Bounty hunters were in high demand everywhere,and some of the best ones had a dark, mysterious backstory thatinvolved exile. Heck, it was even romanticized by some people.Hadn’t we all watchedThe Mandalorian? I could easily tellthem the whole truth and also throw the Woods Pack in as potentialfellow accomplices, and just be exiled, without having to give upLeandra’s actions or call her a murderer. There was still a chanceto stay on her side, to stand up for her, and to throw some shadeat the vampire queen before making my great exit. I cleared mythroat to speak and leaned in to the microphone on my podium withthe attention of a hundred eyes on me, and I made a choice:
“I was under Leandra’s thrall for the lastmonth. She fed me her blood every day, multiple times a day, andI’m sorry to say I don’t remember everything you accuse me of. Icrave her even now.”
?
They had me wait in a side room I recognizedas the one that I had previously rescued Leandra from when she’dbeen held here for her own trial (or turnover to the vampires,which was more likely). I’d fed them the lies Leandra told me to atthis last chance to change my mind, and I was experiencing somemild stomach discomfort over it. I hardly remembered any of it, Isaid; she made me do everything, I said; we were never lovers, Isaid, but me feeding off her blood was probably why you could smellher on me so much. I apologize for attacking Francesca Gallo in herhome, which I do remember, but Leandra ordered me to. The WoodsPack did nothing.
Every lie I could think of. Every lie thatwould save my scrawny ass.
I closed my eyes. They had removed thehandcuffs, and I felt the presence of each plant around me oncemore, my magic returning. I was still fucking exhausted, though. IfI got through this without having to repot my life like anout-of-season plant I would need a week of sleep to recover.
The door opened, finally, and the Unseelierepresentative from the council gestured for me to follow him.“It’s good news,” he muttered under his breath. “Your mother hasalready been informed.”
Somehow, I didn’t feel as light as I shouldhave.
They barely let me past the door before theybombarded me with the news: “Olympia Carter is considered notguilty of the accused crimes and can resume bounty hunting.”
Jian met me at the door with an offer of aride home. I sank my hands into Yuki’s patchy fur with relief andbreathed in her musty, undead scent. So familiar.
I was stopped before getting in thepassenger side of Jian’s car by a firm, claw-like hand ripping intome. “I know what you’ve done,” Patricia’s voice said behind me,“and you won’t get away with it.”
She was gone before I even got a glimpse ofher face. I tried to steady the tremble in my hands when I buckledmy seatbelt.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
