21. Phial
twenty-one
Phial
I 'm sitting in the crowd of others who are all allowed to witness the trial. For the most part, it's the family and friends of the defendant, the piece of shit father, who sold Avery to the smugglers. I try not to look over at the large group of people who all sit in the rows of seats behind where his table is set up.
If I'm not careful, I'll memorize all of their faces and work myself into such a fit that I'll kill them all. I doubt they're all bad people. Maybe they just can't believe that the male they're so close to is capable of such things. Surely, they can't know about what he did to Avery.
"You good?" Jovi asks me, his upper hand reaching behind me on the bench we're sitting on.
Sloane's on his other side, and Alik is on her other side. Helna and Essa are right behind us. Helna's wearing a pheromone blocker like the one Holoth wore when Avery first joined the ship. Now would be an awful time for her to scent someone, so I guess she offered to wear it so she could be here to show her support for Avery.
"I'm fine," I say, letting out a long breath and looking over my shoulder to look around the room.
When we arrived, Skia took Avery to a closed-off room and told me I had to wait here with everyone else. When we leave, I'll be allowed to be near her again, but for right now, we have to be away from one another. Skia will keep her safe, though. No one will even get near her with him around.
"I'm sorry she had to do it now." Alik leans over his mate and Jovi to tell me. Sloane pushes at his arm, which is squishing her face, and he moves again. "I wish I knew who demanded it happen now."
"You already know it'll have been the defense," I grumble.
We're technically not supposed to talk about the trial, but I mean, who else would've thrown a fit over when Avery could testify? If anything, I'm sure they denied the request to do it after her heat because they didn't want her showing up at all.
I can only hope that her heat doesn't start to affect her until she's said what she needs to say. She doesn't like anyone seeing her when she goes through it, and I doubt she'll want anyone in this room to know how much she was altered because of her father's selling her to the smugglers.
Someone up front makes an announcement, and everyone in the room stands. I left the pack with everything Avery could need with her, but I wish I had saved some water for myself. I need something to fiddle with to keep me from doing something stupid.
The judge and her Sombran enter the chamber. Each Intergalactic Alliance appointed court has a Sombran that filters through the answers given on the stand to ensure the truth is always spoken. It doesn't happen with all trials since the Sombrans have to be hired and shuttled here, but I'm not surprised to see another one for a case of this high caliber.
The beginning part of the trial is boring. I look around the room and notice the comm screens that hold the various jurors for this trial. Intergalactic Alliance regulations say that trials can either take place on the planet where the crime was committed or in IA-specified court sites. Since this is a multi-galaxy operation, Avery's father is being tried first here on Earth for his crimes of kidnapping and trafficking humans off the planet and then will be tried on an IA site for the rest of it.
Both sides recount things that happened previously in the trial to bring the jurors back up to speed. After what feels like hours but has only been maybe one, the prosecution announces their first witness of the day, Avery Crawford. Maybe once this is over, we'll do her Earth tradition of marrying and sharing a last name, preferably mine, because I don't want her to share a name with her father anymore.
The courtroom is eerily quiet when Avery is announced, but when the doors open and she comes walking in with Skia right behind her, murmurs break across the group behind her father's defense table.
I want to hiss and snap my teeth at all of them, but Jovi's hand is on my shoulder, a firm reminder that this isn't about me. No, this is about my sweet human who's walking forward with her head held high and a flush on her cheeks that I can't tell if it's from her heat or embarrassment.
Skia's eyes cut over to me and his lips turn down in a way that tells me everything I need to know. Avery's a brave, strong female, though. If she thinks she can get through this, then she can.
Skia's gaze falls behind me to where Essa and Helna are sitting. Something in them darkens as his shadows lift from his skin ever so slightly. He pulls them back close and forces them to drop to the ground as he follows Avery up to the witness stand.
"State your name and species identification for the court and jurors," the prosecution instructs Avery.
"Avery Crawford, Rytahrian altered human."
There are more whispers from the people sitting on the opposite side of the aisle from us, and this time, I shoot them a glare that I hope they all feel. The only thing that makes it better is that most of them look horrified when they see Avery up there.
Maybe they don't know what her father did to her. It would be even crueler for her if they knew and did nothing. It's already bad enough that she found out some of her family knew what her father was doing and chose to look the other way. Avery has no interest in reconnecting with any of them, but that doesn't mean seeing them isn't difficult.
The prosecution asks her a few more questions and has her vow not to lie before she finally sits down, her face even pinker, sweat starting to break across her temples.
Skia stands behind her, the backpack dangling from one of his hands. Avery barely looks over at him before he unhooks the canister with the meal I made and hands it to her.
"Avery, would you please recount for the jury how you came to work with the Intergalactic Alliance Sentient Smuggling Department?"
Avery unscrews the lid of the smoothie and takes a long pull from it, her cheeks flushing and her eyes dilating. I feel bad for her that she's having to recount all of this right now while also trying to fight back the symptoms of her heat.
"Every year, my family has a get-together—extended family and all. We meet up at one of the family properties and spend about a week together. I was putting together a slideshow of pictures from all the events through the years and thought some of the images were kept on my father's computer." Avery takes a deep breath, her words coming out a little fast. She breathes through her nose, trying to calm herself, and when she starts again, she's a little calmer.
"I found family pictures, but I also found other things. There were images of 'cargo.'" She adds quotation marks around the word as she says it. "Images of human males and females collared with listing prices on tags around their necks. I dug a bit further, making sure it wasn't just some weird fetish or something. That's when I found the financial records. I sent everything to my own comm and then forwarded it to the Intergalactic Alliance's smuggling tipline. From there, Althin was in contact with me. I fed him information, and he started building a case against my father."
"What happened to you on the night of your disappearance?" the prosecution asks.
Avery closes her eyes tightly, and I hope it's just because the memories are hard and not because the heat is getting more difficult for her. When she opens them again, Skia hands her a shirt from the pack, one of my shirts that I didn't pack in there. Avery holds it close to her, her knuckles turning white as she grips it hard and brings it up to her nose.
She hasn't looked at me yet, but I know it'll only make it harder for her if she sees me. Maybe I should go invisible so it's not even more difficult. Jovi squeezes my shoulder again, and I want to hiss at him for keeping me from doing what I want to do.
"On the night of my disappearance," Avery says the words with a scoff because it wasn't a disappearance; it was an abduction. "I got a message that the family dinner for that night was changed at the last minute. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was grabbed in the parking lot by an unknown male. He injected a drug into my neck that caused me to blackout. When I woke up, I was in a smuggling ship operated by a Rytharian male named Vyron."
"Do you know who kidnapped you?"
"No."
"Were you ever made aware of who kidnapped you while on board the smuggling ship?"
"No. The male who kidnapped me was never named. Only his employer."
"Objection, outside the scope of the question." The defense's lead lawyer stands.
"Objection granted." The judge gives Avery a soft smile. "Keep your answers only to what was asked." Her attention turns to the comm screens that make up the jury. "You will disregard anything after Ms. Crawford's answer of 'no.'"
Avery takes another drink from the canister and sighs loudly as it flows down her throat. My claws are so extended they're carving into the wood of the bench I'm sitting on. I want to be up there, holding her, telling her it's okay that I'll take care of her.
"On this smuggling ship, do you know what they did to you?"
It takes everything in me not to gnash my teeth at the male for making her relive this, for not just asking her who was named as the kidnapper's employer. I'm assuming he can't because of the objection or hearsay or something. I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. All I want is for her testimony to be over, but now he's asking questions that have no relevance.
"I was altered to be more Rytharian than human in some ways."
"Could you describe to us what those ways are?"
Avery's breathing picks up as her hands start to shake. I don't know if it's the heat, a flashback, or something else, but I don't like it. Skia looks toward the other side of the room where the other Sombran is standing next to the judge. The other Sombran makes a quiet comment to the judge as Avery tries to calm herself down.
The judge lifts her hands and has both the lead prosecutor and defense step up to her podium. They all speak in hushed whispers to one another. I stare at Skia, wanting to know what just happened. He cuts his eyes over to me and shakes his head softly, either telling me not to worry about it or not to make a fool of myself. I'm pretty sure the left side of his mouth tips up in almost a half smile before he covers it.
The two males step away from the judge's podium and back to their own tables. The defense sits down while the prosecution walks closer to Avery.
"I'm sorry to make you go through this, but we would all appreciate you telling us how you were altered."
Avery nods, her hand moving to her face to wipe at a tear about to fall. "My DNA was altered first so that I would go through heats like Rytharian females. It was later altered further so that I would go through heats every month. I was given a genetic disposition to need to consume male ejaculate to keep me functioning. They thought it was funny to keep my sense of smell the same, so I could never find a scent match. And," Avery presses her lips into a tight line. A harsh inhale is sucked in through her nose as her jaw clenches. As she exhales, she tells them the cruelty done to her. "And they sterilized me."
Silence falls over everyone in the room. Jovi's fingers are squeezing my shoulder so tight they might leave bruises, but he's not growling, and neither is Alik, so that's good. I don't look at anyone but Avery, even as the sniffles start from the others on the other side of the aisle.
I already knew all of this. Of course, I did. Avery's my best friend, my partner forever now. We know all of each other's secrets.
"Thank you for telling us, Avery." The prosecutor speaks to her slowly and gently, like she's a wounded animal and not the strong female she is proving herself to be. I bite my teeth together and wait to see what will happen next. "Are you aware of a smuggling ring that abducts humans, gives the females Rytharian traits, and sterilizes them in order to sell them at auctions?"
"I am," Avery says, wiping at her tears and drying her hand on the shirt she's holding.
"The prosecution moves to extend Ms. Crawford's testimony to case number 484392. In accordance with IA regulations, she has provided truthful testimony that implicates her victimization in an intergalactic crime, one the IA has been building a case against for almost a decade."
I squint at the prosecutor, unsure of what he just said. My eyes flash over to Skia, who gives me another barely-there nod. I think this means he'll tell me about the statement later tonight.
"Approved," the judge says, and then the trial continues.
The prosecutor asks Avery many questions about the documents she found on her father's computer. He'd pull some of them up on a large comm screen and have Avery tell us what they meant. After a couple of hours, the prosecution finishes speaking with Avery, and the defense is allowed to speak. Jovi has to press harder on my shoulder to keep me from reacting.
"The defense has no questions for this witness, your honor," the defense says before sitting back in his seat.
Avery and I both let out audible sighs of relief. She's thanked for her time and released back out of the room. She winces when she stands, and the Sombran next to the judge whispers something to her.
"Recess for ten minutes."
The rest of the room is a flurry of movement as Skia helps get Avery out of her seat and down the steps. All the while, his shadows are dancing around at hip level, flowing down to the floor before coming back up. He walks close behind Avery, and I give her an apologetic look because it's probably because she's soaked through her pants. At least the judge allowed for a break for the mess to be cleaned.
Skia leads her out of the room as a few other guards keep everyone else in their seats until they're gone. As soon as the guards tell us we're okay to get up, I'm out of my seat and scrambling after Avery. A hand on my forearm has me turning around fast and snapping my teeth at an older human woman with Avery's features. She winces when she sees the anger on my face, but she takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders.
"Did my husband do that to our daughter?" she asks the words through clenched teeth, her eyes already rimming red with emotions.
I don't trust my words right now, so I give her a firm nod and turn to leave. She calls out for me but doesn't reach out again. She knew what her husband was doing. She only cares now because her daughter was hurt.
In my peripheral, I can see Jovi and Alik blocking the small aisle. I make quick work of getting through the crowd and back to where I left Avery and Skia the last time.
The door to the small waiting room opens before I get to it, and Skia's staring at me with his normal, unamused expression. His shadows are dancing around like they're excited, though. Whatever, I don't have time to think about his weird hyper shadows right now when my Avery's in pain and needs me.
Skia grunts before leading me into the room. Avery launches herself at me as soon as she sees me, her hands wrapping around my head, her lips finding mine. Her body feels like it's on fire, and she's already trying to strip from her clothing.
"Not yet," I murmur, chuckling against her lips as she keeps kissing me even as I try to talk to her. "Let's get you home so you can make a nest, okay?"
Avery whines low in the back of her throat, but slowly, she pulls herself off me and nods. I wrap my arms over her waist, keeping her pinned to me. She's not leaving my side until this heat is over, and I'm going to make sure she never goes through another one alone again.