Waking Eden (The Eden Series Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

your way to the main hall.”
    Royal couple indeed.
    It should have been her beside Eryx. Not that human-raised commoner, Lexi Merrill.
    Yes. She definitely needed to be more effective with her endeavors in the future. Particularly if it freed up the malress’ throne in the process.
    The steady rumble of voices from the main hall filtered down the long, shadowed corridor, and Thyrus’ heavy footsteps clopped beside her. They entered near the back, stepping into the cavernous room with its domed three-story ceiling. Sunlight streamed through the glass-topped circle in the center to spotlight Eryx and Lexi seated on their thrones at the front of the hall.
    That bitch. Fitted out in a platinum-colored gown, wearing a crown. The crown that should have been hers.
    Serena looked away and clashed gazes with Angus Rallion, a lifelong politician who’d pissed Eryx off one too many times and now swam in the lowest layers of the political feeding pool.
    He grinned at Serena. A smug, superior expression that made her fingers twitch for another dagger. If the idiot hadn’t screwed their schemes up so badly, she might be in a different position right now. Preferably in Eryx’s bed.
    She smiled at Angus instead, lifted her head, and glided beside Thyrus to the defendant’s table. Better not to burn any bridges. One never knew when inside influence would be needed. Low standing or not, Angus had connections. Powerful connections.
    Three short raps of wood against marble clattered through the hall.
    “All rise.” It was the young man who’d called them into trial, his voice rich with formality despite his youth.
    The ellan kneeling on long ivory cushions lined up in rows along the main floor, stood. Elders with higher standing peered over their second and third-story box seats on either side. Eryx and Lexi remained seated.
    “By the authority of the malran and malress, Serena Doroz Steysis, baineann of the deceased, Maxis Steysis, is hereby brought to stand trial before the Myren council under the charges of attempted murder of our malress, treason against the throne, and violation of The Great One’s tenets.” The page looked up from the mammoth book perched on his lectern, and focused on Thyrus. “How does the defendant plead?”
    Thyrus lifted his chin, the motion haughty despite his wiggling jowls. “The defendant is innocent.”
    Rumbles and poorly contained whispers rippled behind her.
    The page scribbled something on thick parchment, the sandpaper rasp loud enough to carry as far as Serena’s table. He motioned to the prosecutor’s table and set his pen aside. “Simmons, you may begin.”
    A handsome man with a lithe build and sandy blond hair stood and tidied his papers. Vibrant jewels accented his stark white council robe, marking his rank as one of the highest among the ellan. Apparently, Eryx was pulling out all the stops in seeing she burned for her crimes.
    Simmons set about his case, regurgitating news everyone already knew. Her former association with Eryx, a tame way of saying they’d fucked like animals and been quite an item a decade ago. Her involvement in Lexi’s kidnapping and failed demise. How she’d mated Maxis and subsequently stabbed him in the heart in a public location with loads of humans looking on in Evad. “The prosecution asserts that Serena Doroz Steysis was not only an active participant in the actions of the Lomos Rebellion, but that she plotted to capture and enslave humans, and murder the malran and the malress.”
    “Hardly a valid assertion considering her fireann is dead by her own hand and the malran and malress are very much alive and well,” Thyrus said.
    Simmons lifted an arrogant brow. “The ellan represent the will of the people. It’s their opinion I’m concerned with, counsel. Not yours.” He paced to his table and slid a document closer to him. “The prosecution calls Neil Vernace.”
    Serena stifled an indignant huff, but barely. Really? A rookie Rebellion warrior