Chapter Sixteen #2
“I have a list here of your assets,” Hal said.
“And as I have read it, I am well aware of them. Your fortune is such that a hundred silvers, two, or ten times that, is no deterrent at all against trying to rob someone again. It is a petty fine. I find you guilty, and your punishment is that you will experience the exact crime you inflicted.”
Hal stood, prompting all those spectating to stand as well. The moment he stepped out from behind the podium, the spectators came to life, excited, appalled and shocked voices all mingling together. Kas was as speechless as Caeda, who seemed to have gone into shock.
Austin turned once more to Tristan. “I thought your brother was in love with Kas, the way he was watching him.”
“He likely is,” Tristan said with amused fondness. “But he is obsessed with his justice systems. He’s been on this one for two years now: matching the crime to the punishment, exactly.”
“And won’t Kas just kill—ah, but—”
“A great risk to take, now that he’s learned Hal’s admiring eye won’t spare him should he be found guilty of murder.”
Austin tried to process it. He had, on some level, assumed a city packed full of superhuman creatures would be nothing but power struggles and survival of the fittest. He had grown up knowing that everything in life had a price, every crime a cost that, if you paid, left you free to indulge.
But as a merman, Hal was the pinnacle of power, and his brother supported him with his power too.
And what Hal chose to do with his power was—
“Justice!” The word burst out of Austin in utter bewilderment.
Tristan smiled. “His life’s dream. We grew up in a vicious court where crime was abundant, but punishment was dealt out only against those too weak to seek vengeance for it. Our father’s sidestepping of the law taught Hal a good deal about how to prevent it here.”
To have all that power and choose to do something good with it.
The idea couldn’t fit inside Austin’s head.
He thought of his fortune waiting in his own world.
His inheritance had always stunk of something tainted.
Money was power, and power was a horrendous thing.
But as he turned Hal’s ruling over in his mind—the punishment, the accountability, the awful precision of it—he thought of Tammy.
“My assistant is cleaning up an oil spill in Peru with my resources. And we’re saving the polar bears. ” He looked at Tristan, waiting.
“Bears we have in abundance, but I haven’t heard of polar bears before. Are they nearby? I could go take a look.”
Austin’s lips twitched. “It would be a long swim. Their habitat is up near the North Pole, where it’s all ice caps. It’s freezing up there.”
“I’m Northern-raised and quite suited to the cold.”
“They’d undoubtedly try to eat you.”
At that, Tristan’s brows rose. “Do you think they’d succeed?” At Austin’s hesitation, Tristan leaned in, a gleam in his eye. “They’re that dangerous?”
“They can get up to twelve feet high standing on their back legs,” Austin said.
From some deep recess of his mind, the facts that Tammy had spat at him in a rush when she’d proposed the project months ago came bobbing up.
He hadn’t been listening, dramatically covering his ears and leaning away from her instead.
He often did that to Tammy. She was too used to it to let it stop her.
“They can weigh as much as a horse. And more than that, they’re in their natural environment in the Arctic.
By the time you spot one, it’s on top of you. ”
“My eyesight’s better than yours. I’d see it before then,” Tristan said.
Austin scowled. “If you think so, then let me draw you a map. Go ahead and see who kills who first.”
Tristan made a mollifying sound and leaned across the space between them.
He bent and pressed a coaxing kiss to Austin’s shoulder.
“I wouldn’t dream of harming a single member of a species you’re in the middle of saving, never mind going off and hunting one down.
It would be a sightseeing mission only. If I could manage to spot one before it was on top of me, of course. ”
Austin warned Tristan back with a growl, supremely irritated at the flash of amusement in the merman’s eyes. He was gazing at him as if Austin had done something unexpectedly precious, but Austin didn’t know what.
“And what about you?” Austin asked. “Justice isn’t your passion.”
“No,” Tristan agreed, settling back into his chair. “But supporting Hal’s pursuits gives me great satisfaction. And though it does not particularly interest me…” His gaze slid to the court floor, his expression going distant. “It is nice that my territory differs so greatly from my father’s.”
The door into their viewing box cracked open. It opened only a slit, and Austin couldn’t see who was on the other side, though Tristan was angled perfectly to catch whoever stood there.
“Does he look very angry?” a man hissed through the crack. Austin recognised Hal’s voice immediately.
“Quite, brother,” Tristan replied.
A mournful groan came through the gap. “I sent a page to invite him to dinner, but I don’t suppose I’ll ever gaze upon those beautiful eyes again.”
Austin cast a look down at the floor. A man was handing Kas a note, and the fiery look in his eye was familiar. Austin knew that sort of rage: the kind that demanded immediate action.
“I think he’ll accept your invitation.”
“That’s not Char’s voice.”
A breeze rustled the hair at Austin’s nape. The door snicked shut.
When Austin turned, Hal was tucked behind a drape at the edge of the box, holding the fabric out to hide from the audience below.
Hal was undoubtedly a merman. The cold of the ocean radiated from his skin, seeping through his clothes and chilling the air around him.
He was tall like Tristan, but not as lean as Austin had gauged from a distance.
There was the swell of muscles beneath his courtly clothes.
Hal’s blue eyes burned bright with intelligence as they connected with Austin’s and then were overcome with a look identical to the one he’d been wearing for Kas.
Austin considered it fortunate that he’d just personally seen how deceptive that look was.
“This is my brother Hal,” Tristan introduced. “Hal, this is Austin. I mentioned him,” he added, quick and quiet.
“You most certainly did not,” Hal objected without tearing his eyes from Austin. “You said—oh, you little blighter, you said he was very plain-looking for a siren and told me not to come!”
“Plain-looking?”
“I lied, obviously. You’re beautiful,” Tristan said quickly.
“You described me as plain-looking?”
Tristan spared an irritated look for his brother and then showed Austin his throat. Austin couldn’t bring himself to even look at Tristan. Austin was many things, and many of them he wished he wasn’t, but he had never, in all his life, been plain.
“Excuse me, I’m sorry, I’m talking to him when you’re here.” Hal broke eye contact to bow, an elegant, practised movement.
Out of the corner of his eye, Austin saw a few spectators catch a glimpse of Hal before he straightened behind the curtain once more. And then Austin felt attention on him.
“Welcome to my city of monsters. Or, if you like, Justerra.” Hal sniffed. “Actually, I would appreciate it if you’d call the city Justerra. I’ve made an official mandate, but aside from delegations, everyone calls us the city of monsters.”
It was the first time Austin had heard the name. “Just for justice, terra for land? Justice land? A tad on the nose.”