Tinker's Trial: A Paranormal Reverse Harem Romance (Pyromancer's Path Book 3) by Cassie Cole

Author:Cassie Cole [Cole, Cassie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Juicy Gems Publishing
Published: 2022-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

24

Alyssa

The prisoner walked into the room flanked by two guards. He wasn’t chained, and they weren’t armed that I could see, but the roles were obvious based on how they moved, and the way the guards held themselves at the ready.

Halonyx, the gryphon who had followed us to the Dragonspine Valley and saved my life, walked to his execution with his back straight and his head held high with pride. He didn’t see me as they passed because the nobles at the feast had already begun crowding around, forming a narrow pathway from the entrance to the central platform. He stepped onto it, the place where I’d tried tracing a flare.

I felt sick to my stomach, and it had nothing to do with the memory of that failed trace. I’d nearly used a flare to announce the beginning of the execution that was, at its core, my fault.

Before I knew what I was doing, I was striding toward the platform. Maze grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “Don’t,” he warned.

Once Halonyx stood in the middle of the platform, the two guards stepped a respectful distance away. I could only see the side of his face from here, but it looked like he wore a defiant smile.

“Scout Halonyx,” boomed someone in a ceremonial voice. “You stand accused of the crime of abandoning your post.”

“That’s not true!” I whispered angrily.

“But it is,” Maze said sadly. “You know it is, Alyssa.”

I couldn’t accept it. All I could do was picture him swooping down, saving me from falling to my death. Telling me I was extraordinary. Shouldn’t people be rewarded for such bravery?

“Yet even worse!” the announcer went on. “You are accused of committing the high crime of unauthorized interference of a sporting battle after wagers were locked.”

Angry murmurs went through the crowd. The two women in front of me looked at one another and nodded. “Bloody fool,” the man to my left said.

“Sporting battle?” I muttered. “High crime? Wagers?” Maze stared with intensity at the platform, just as confused as I.

Silence fell over the room. Everyone waited without moving, as still as the night above. “I plead guilty,” Halonyx declared in a voice without an ounce of regret.

A chorus of soft claps went through the room, like polite patrons at the theater. This was the show they were expecting, and everyone was playing their part.

Halonyx closed his eyes.

Before our eyes, his body began to change. His legs swelled and his chest expanded, an ever-growing breath that never ended. He fell forward onto his arms, which were legs of their own now covered in fur, and his back rippled as feathers grew and settled into place. The wings came last, unfolding from his back as if they had always been there, wide and majestic.

I felt a swell of hope. He was going to escape! He could leap to the sky and fly away into the night, avoiding his unfair execution. It was incredibly shortsighted for the guards to not have him in chains, and to not be armed with weapons.

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