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The demons wept, one of their best and most loved was gone. It was a close-knitted relationship they shared, related or not, friends or not, demons bore the likeness to a tribe, and Queen Jasmine was a flower, spreading the fragrance of her kindness and sweetness everywhere she went.

Humans too mourned, especially those who had in one way been one to receive the kind gestures of the Queen. It was even rare to see humans mourn a demon, so the town fell into a kind of numbness, and even the animals moved quietly through the haze of the grief.

In the palace, in the throne room, two maids in muddied clothes knelt before the throne with bags over their heads. Their hands were tied behind their backs with thick ropes, dried blood in where the rope had cut through their skin. One of them was wailing behind the bag, and the other’s chest heaved in heavy breathing, her face turning in the direction of every sound.

There were whispers of their treason and whispers of the other woman who stood beside the maids. Neera had her hands locked together before her, and she was donned in another one of her black outfits just as scandalous as the one she wore when Jasmine died. She was stoic as a statue and only turned her head when the King entered the hall, and everyone became hushed all at once.

Zavian kept his gaze on Neera as he sat with Azriel standing by his side. He dreaded this; anything that would have to put her into questioning or trial. But Jasmine was dead, Dukes would start flooding at any moment, Selesee would be enraged, and everyone needed answers; answers only Neera could give.

“Begin”, Zavian ordered. Two guards stepped before the maids and removed the bags over their heads. Both Zoe and Rue squinted at the sharpness of the sunlight in the room, and there was a brief assessment of their surroundings before they could come to terms with their location. Rue sagged her weight on the ground and bawled her eyes out even more.

Zavian directed his gaze to Neera. A silent instruction to speak, and so she did.

“Jasmine is my friend. Every demon in this hall here can testify to that,” Neera said. “I love her, but I thought she loved me. Perhaps seeing the King with a concubine was too much for her to bear.”

.....

“What happened in the dining hall?” Zavian asked her.

“She wanted to kill me”, Neera stated. There were ripples of murmurs, and it quietened down as Neera continued to speak, “and it only backfired on her.”

“And what protective shield do you possess that made it backfire?” Someone asked.

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice. Frederick sauntered in with his guards. Behind him was Ryan, bearing the same frown as Frederick.

Frederick approached Neera, and Zavian didn’t miss the leer of his gaze as it appraised her entire body.

“Frederick, Ryan, good of you to join us. Now, step back as I continue the questioning”, Zavian’s knuckles turned white from gripping the handles of the throne. He could break the empty throne next to him and drive a splinter into those lust-filled eyes of the Duke.

Frederick bowed in an apology, and stepped not too far away, Ryan by his side.

“Some days ago, I had some witches perform rituals on me after a near-death experience,” Neera continued. “The ritual has given me some protection, and perhaps the Queen wasn’t aware.”

“Near-death experience?” Ryan asked.

“Yes,” Neera didn’t remove her gaze from Zavian’s. “The maids here can attest to the truth that the Queen paid them off to have me killed.”

The voices in the hall shot up, and their collective shocks amplified. The maids shrunk into themselves as they felt the heat of attention on them now. Ryan stepped forward and glared at the maids.

“Speak the truth now!” He ordered them.

Rue threw herself on the ground, wailing. “I needed the gold for my family, and the Queen promised us a ton if we got her drowned. Please, I never wanted to do it. Please spare me!”

“We thought we had her killed,” Zoe’s eyes brimmed with tears. “But we were wrong. And the Queen was devising another way to have her killed, but she didn’t tell us of her plan.”

“Oh no”, Ryan put a hand on his forehead. “What in the world?”

Zavian looked to the empty throne next to him, the ghost of the past Jasmine sitting next to him. Her listening ears as she dispelled justice, her laugh, her sweet demeanor, the humility that he had seen of her before she became his wife; was all of that false? Just how much could a person hide? And just how blind had he been to all of her actions?

He averted his gaze back to Neera and saw she still kept her artic eyes on him. It must be harder for her; she and Jasmine were closer, friends even. But a larger evil scheme of things had been rolling in motion from the Queen’s closeness to Neera all along.

The noise rose even more, voices clamoring to rise over another, and Zavian stood to his feet, commanding the noise to be sucked out like a vacuum. Everyone waited, everyone was tensed.

“With the presence of witnesses and facts, the verdict of this trial is pushed further till two days time,” Zavian announced. “As for now, the Queen’s funeral arrangement is in motion. This meeting is dismissed.”