"The audacity. I just hope you're here only to watch the hearing go on." Luana stared hard at her and it made her blood boil seeing how much she is underrated.

"And I hope you hold your horses tight Luana because I'm here to defend Wikh. Justice will be served and we have to make sure it is served well." Lyne replied and as her eyes caught Zeidan's face behind the other woman, her heart jumped.

The look on his face held amusement, surprise, and joy.

"Alright, people," Kyle called loudly from his cubicle. "Let us proceed with the hearing now that we have a defendant. Princess Lyne, King Zeidan's wife..."

Somehow the tag excited her and when she looked at Luana, she could see how upset she felt from the way she clenched her fist and looked away.

"On the other hand, we have..." Kyle paused as he looked at Luana from across his place, visibly confused.

Murmuring rose in the courtroom as everybody wondered why he stopped talking. One of the council members hit the table with a metal rod to conduct orderliness and everywhere turned silent, leaving the two women to take the floor.

Kyle dropped some stacks of papers in front of Zeidan and returned to his seat while the King sat up to address the case.

"Following the rules and regulations of Vampire City," he started to say, his deep voice filling the hall. "We have brought in and apprehended the culprit responsible for the overstepping of boundaries and breaking of one of the Vampires laws that state that no one apart from the King and Queen is allowed into the Onyx room."

Lyne's heart did a triple summersault which she wished stopped happening as she didn't want to further feel hurt. If that was the rule and Luana was allowed there, does that make her the Queen?

Had Chloe been right when she said there was every tendency someone else could be made Queen even though she was married to the King? She felt someone wrap her fingers around her hand and she felt calm. Chloe was the exact definition of a good sister and a mother.

"Therefore, I'll call up Miss Luana to read out the case filed against him and prove to us how guilt he is," Zeidan concluded before Luana stood up to the podium, concealing her disappointment with a wry smile. It was obvious she didn't like the way she was addressed, especially by someone she looks up to.

Throwing her hair backward, she cleared her throat and faced Wikh who stood in the box. Lyne glanced towards him and seeing that he was looking in her direction, she smiled at him encouragingly.

"Mr. Wikh Wright, I'd like you to honestly answer some of my questions and ensure you don't hold back anything to avoid further complications. I believe your defendant knows every detail to be able to counter every one of my points."

Lyne's heart jumped as she looked up at Luana whose eyes were glued on her. She hadn't thought of asking what could make Wikh seem guilty although she had asked him the first day he was arrested about every secret he had been keeping from the royal house. Hopefully, his reasons should help.

"My first question is this, what kind of sickness did keep from the royal house, and for how long has it been a secret?"

Wikh shifted in the box and Lyne knew how uncomfortable he always felt talking about his sickness. When he had told her days ago that he knew what it was like living like a freak, he meant he couldn't live as the other vampires. He could feel pain like pure humans and even die forever.

"I had...I was having arthritis." He answered and the whole crowd gasped in surprise and began to talk amidst themselves.

"What a shame!"

"Living all these years with the King when he was a commoner!"

"He deserves to be behind bars!"

"He wasn't competent enough to be one of the royal staff!"

"What a freak!" 

All those words hit Lyne and she felt like they were referring to her. Her lips trembled again and she squeezed Chloe's fingers around hers tightly. 

She could hear Luana chuckling.

"What a pathetic life! Living with the knowledge that if you could be affected by human sickness, you could always..." Lyne felt her eyes on her again. "...die!" 

Murmuring rose again until the rod hit the table once more, calling for silence.

"Princess Lyne," she heard Zeidan call her name formally and it felt bland, causing a nudge in her stomach.

"What do you have to say about this?" 

Rising from her seat, she walked up to the podium and stood beside Luana, facing the crowds. She glanced towards Wikh before going on.

"It's true."

"Nice. At least, you both agreed that being a freak sucks, right?" She could hear her annoying laughter and it took every will in her power not to punch the woman in the face.

"So, Mr. Wikh, for how long has this been a secret?" 

"For...it's been thirty years since I discovered I could be affected with human sickness. I kept it to myself because I didn't want the King to think I was incapable of handling issues of the City. I didn't want to be a disappointment."

"But you already are..."

"Might I ask that you stop forcing words into his mouth? It's not your duty to do that. He knows what to say." Lyne snapped at Luana, her face blaring with rage.

"Okay, Princess Lyne." 

There was silence for a split second before Luana moved to continue with the questioning.

"May I ask why you kept it a secret?"

"As I said, I just didn't want to seem like a disappointment."

"That answer is blatantly unreasonable. I mean, we have one person here that was considered a freak but they still relied on her to do every single thing...including washing their sheets." 

Much as her words sounded like an insult, Lyne made to get the complement within them. She was right, she was always been relied on to keep everything in order.

"What kind of drugs...pills did you use for arthritis?" Luana inquired, arms folded as she walked up to Wikh's box.

"I didn't use to use pills. I started using pills five years ago when I had arthritis and I've been using it since then."

"Which means, he still uses it," Luana concluded and swung on her heels towards Zeidan.

"There you have your evidence."

"We still don't know the kind of pills he uses." Lyne cut in as she strode down the podium and paced the courtroom.

"It must have a name. If you are competent enough to conclude that he is the culprit, why don't we go the human way?" 

Again, voices rose, some agreeing and some utterly disgusted by her suggestion.

"What do you mean?" Zeidan's voice was expressionless, same as his face.

"We run a test and a DNA on the bottle."

"You forgot we have all had our prints on the bottle," Zeidan answered but Lyne only smiled at him as she folded her arms with an air of confidence.

"I still have many ways around it. All I need is time."

------

She scattered the whole table, causing bottles to fall and break. The heat emanating from her body like the fireplace that was in the corner of the room. She ignored Charles' call for her to be patient. 

Grabbing the brandy on the shelf, she downed the drink in a few seconds and her stomach twisted at both the effect of the drink and the final verdict passed in the room. She had been present there in her best disguise trying hard to be undercover, all to witness the hearing and she had hoped. really hoped that the old man would rot in the dungeon.

Her blue eyes turned black and her fangs were out. She looked out of the window into the dark sky as she turned her neck, her claws sprouting and her veins visible. She only had one chance. To kill her. But she couldn't bring herself to. 

Soon, she felt Charles' hands on her shoulders to calm her down but somehow that warmth wasn't working. She just needed to eliminate these people and get it over with. Then, she could conclude whether she needs Charles by then or not.

She cackled evilly. It's now or never.