Chapter 5: Part 2/5

We were taken to an actual courthouse for the trial. Tim had arrived to collect us on his own, for some reason, so he flew us down one at a time. I had zero concept of time in the underworld. There were no clocks, and the sun didn’t seem to fully set even though we were told that the trial would start in the morning. I got some sleep, but every time I woke up it looked light outside, and even at its darkest it never felt like nighttime.

I was asleep when the incubus knocked on our door, and he agreed to wait for us to get ready. He did so from inside the flat, which was a little bit awkward. Alice had chosen a set from Lily’s wardrobe before bed. She said there had been a lot of risque options, but she settled on a pair of leggings and one of those stringed backless crop tops that were designed with wings in mind. I was wearing a matching grey tracksuit that I managed to find in the back of one drawer. It looked genderless, and fit snugly.

There was still a little tension in the air as the two of us went about our morning business. She had ridden the waves of my treachery with plenty of composure the day before, but my last declaration had hurt her. She wanted to forgive me because that’s the kind of person she is, and that often means she’s too sweet for her own good. The last betrayal had hurt enough that she allowed herself the time to be angry.

Tim offered to fuck her again, and she rejected him, before our separate flights to the trial.

The courtroom was packed with demons of both sexes, and it looked more like a runway event. Everyone was glammed up in ballgowns and tuxedos, and covered in jewels, with some even wearing tiaras. A small percentage of the attendees were in full human form, though 90% of the room was still red-skinned. Horns were prominent, tails less so, and wings only visible on a few bodies. Alice and I looked incredibly casual compared to the rest of them.

“They’re dressed like this is a party,” Alice said. It was close to the first thing she had said to me since we were woken up.

“Probably not very often they have a trial like this,” I said, trying to make sense of the atmosphere in the room.

Tim was trudging around, collecting a group of 12 who would operate as the jury. Serena joined us as he did so. She was wearing a similar pantsuit to the day prior, though this one was an emerald green.

“Are you prepared?” she asked, her eyes soft as they held on me.

I was nervous around her, because of the offer that her fellow council member had made to me. At our meeting yesterday, they seemed aligned. They both wanted this trial, because they needed their problem dealt with. Lily was that problem, and if my testimony convicted her, she had a lifetime of underworld living ahead of her. Meredith moved the goalposts, and now Lily’s life was on the line. Serena didn’t know about this.

If the two ladies had been allies before, then this was clearly a powerplay from Meredith, but was it a move she was right to make?

Lily’s desperation for freedom was putting everything at risk. I just wished there was another way.

“Not really,” I answered honestly. Lily trusted Serena. Maybe I should too, but I couldn’t exactly trust Lily at this point.

“We have some character witnesses to call first. They will paint the picture of Liliana that we are all already aware of. Your job is simply to confirm this, and then she will have her ritual powers stripped away. She won’t feel a thing, but she’ll be quite moody for a while.”

The guilty verdict was clearly inevitable, as long as I covered my side of the bargain. Meredith had the vote she needed. My position was simple. If I told the truth, then Lily would die.

“I’ll do what I have to do,” I said, and the blonde demoness smiled.

“We will begin shortly,” she said, before leaving us to take our places on the front bench. There were no lawyers. The council represented themselves, and the defendant would do the same.

Lily was brought out in an orange jumpsuit. She hadn’t been wearing it in the cells. It was as if they dressed her like this to make her look like a criminal. She was a criminal, to be fair, but there was something performative about it that didn’t sit right with me. Many of the elders scoffed and snarled at her as she was led to the left hand side of the council, who were sitting side by side on the judicial bench at the front of the room. Serena was central, and elevated above the other two. Meredith ignored my glances in her direction.

“Court is now in session. Today we’ll be presiding over the case of Miss Liliana. The jury should be aware they are to base their verdict strictly on the information they are presented in this courtroom today, with zero outside influence. Are we all ready to proceed?” Serena said, announcing the beginning of the trial. Lily nodded her head, and the trial began.

I had never been to a trial in the real world, but this one followed a pattern that felt recognisable to my limited knowledge. Lily had the opportunity to present her case first, and she was her authentic self, no reservations.

“I am a human and you all know it,” she started. I laughed out of my nose a little watching her stand and shout at them all in a way only she could. “You wanted to be human so bad that you tried to take over their realm, and you failed. Now you are all stuck here, forever, bitter and angry. It’s not my fault you lost the war, but your failure stole my life. I don’t know what bargain you made with humanity to keep your population stocked with new demons, but it is clear that me and thousands more of my kind in this prison are not the same as you. If you had any dignity, you would free yourselves by any means necessary. With all that being said, there is no truth to the accusations against me. I am innocent and you are all bitches.”