Words of Power (Alice Gray Book 3)

51

"Thank you so much for joining us," Adelaide purred, taking the baton of questioning as soon as a handsome man was the target.

So transparent.

"Of course, it's my duty as an agent," Stephen replied, his voice empty, eyes focused straight ahead.

Maybe he'd heard the scuffle from Becca's interrogation and decided to play it straight. I couldn't say that I blamed him. Adelaide would eat him alive.

"So noble," Adelaide sighed.

Could this chick be anymore unprofessional?

"Was that a question?" Stephen asked, drawing a laugh from the crowd despite his emotionless voice and serious features.

"I just think that it's important to acknowledge how difficult this must be for you in light of your history with the accused. After all, you have sacrificed a lot of yourself for the DPA in this case." Adelaide's words were spoken with a current of concern that was amplified by the perfect brows tilting down over her deep brown eyes.

Angry heat flickered to life in my belly. How dare that bitch bring up our false relationship? What the hell did that have to do with Mary and the Baroness's deaths?

"There wasn't any sacrifice," Stephen replied bluntly, keeping his eyes focussed on some spot in the distance.

"Ah, don't be so modest, not many agents would give themselves mind and body to a case in the way you did when you were assigned to Alice Gray," Adelaide said, a maggot of distaste souring her concern when she said my name.

And there it was, she just had to do it. Referencing the fact that Stephen had prostituted himself to fake a relationship with me, just in case anybody in this trumped up courtroom was unaware of how gullible I really was.

Stephen and I had come to an understanding. I'd seen it all through his newly emerging life-force that very night in the cemetery. He had lied to me for all those years, but he had loved me too. As much as I had loved him. But that knowledge didn't make it any less humiliating. Especially in the face of Adelaide's innuendo.

"There was no sacrifice," Stephen ground out, this time directing his clear, truthful blue eyes at me.

"Oh, but there was. You have lost something so very precious to your relationship with Alice Gray. The one other person who remembered your mother and father, and your brother. The sacrifice that I speak of was not yourself, but your Aunt Mary."

I watched as Stephen's eyes glazed over with a sinking feeling that travelled straight to my gut, dowsing the anger that had sizzled there and leaving only dread. Adelaide was right, the five-year deception of our fake relationship was nothing in the face of Mary's death. Just one more reminder of how self-absorbed I was.

"Alice did not kill Mary," Stephen said, his voice low and disarmingly calm.

"But she was there, she could have protected her. Didn't Alice free you from the very same fate that Mary met? Why could she not do the same for your Aunt?"

"I don't know the circumstances. When Alice freed me the Baroness hadn't returned and we had help. Maybe she couldn't fight off the a vampire and save Mary at the same time."

"Maybe." Adelaide spoke softly, eyes searching Stephen's face. If I didn't know better, I'd think that she was actually considering his words. "But what if Mary was the intended sacrifice all along?"

"No. Alice wouldn't do that. She couldn't, she didn't have anywhere near enough experience to lay a circle like that, and why would she want to? The silver power is already hers."

"That being the case, please explain to the court how your Aunt came to be in the cemetery on that fateful night."

It was a reasonable question, but Adelaide's smirk told me that she knew just how deep she was sticking the knife into Stephen right then. I would have done anything to spare him the pain of admitting just how evil Mary had become.

Anything but admit to a set of false charges and condemn myself to death.

"I have spoken to members of the Southern Coven who remembered Mary as a child. I am convinced that she acted the part outlined by Alice and Becca," Stephen said, his skin blanching even paler.

I couldn't blame him for stopping there. Coven members still lived whose missing pets had turned up mutilated all those years ago. Animals taken apart and put back together again wrong. Monstrous creations reanimated and sent back to their owners for nothing more than a bit of fun, as though it was all a typical childish prank.

I'd seen that lunatic at work. The mangled, mismatched parts that she called her dollies were nothing to laugh about.

"You expect us to believe that you had no idea? That the woman who had given up her life to care for you for over a decade was hiding such a dark personality?"

"That appears to be the case, yes," Stephen said, chin up, meeting Adelaide's incredulous pouting face with a hard look.

"There are more forces at play here than you know," Adelaide said, pity softening her eyes. "What if Mary was nothing more than a pawn. What if she really was the kind old lady that you knew so well?"

Don't listen Stephen! Hope you're enjoying the story.