After lunch, Lucas called the hotel where we'd stayed earlier. Our former room was still unoccupied and the manager offered it to us at the same rate. When Benicio heard our plans, he phoned the Marsh Clinic and arranged to have all our belongings moved to the hotel, so I could go directly there and rest after the trial. A considerate move, and only the latest of many, which prompted me to admit that perhaps Lucas had inherited more from Benicio than his "natural talent for lying."
The trial did not go well. Weber had retained his own counsel. When I'd first learned this, I'd been relieved. As the trial progressed, though, I found myself wishing he'd let the Cabals assign him a lawyer. As much as I hated to give them credit, I saw nothing grievously unjust in their system and, had they provided Weber's counsel, I'm sure he would have had competent representation, which was more than he had now.
There were two ways to play this case. One: stress the circumstantial nature of the evidence. Two: plead insanity. Weber's lawyer chose both. And that presented a problem. The first says Weber didn't do it. The second says he did, but he can't be held responsible. Using both says he did kill those teens, but you can't prove it and anyway, he was crazy, but not crazy enough to leave any hard evidence.
At six o'clock, the lawyers presented their closing arguments. At six-twenty, the judges retired to council. At six-thirty they returned with a verdict.
Guilty.
The sentence: death.
Weber, not surprisingly, panicked, and had to be forcibly escorted from the room, screaming muffled invocations from behind his gag.
As one of the judges said some final words, I took the notepad and drew a question mark, to which Lucas wrote "no change." We'd heard no further evidence to damn or acquit Weber, and none of our concerns had even been raised. So we would proceed with his appeal.
The judge thanked the witnesses and counsel, and court was adjourned. Benicio leaned over and whispered that he'd be right back, and asked us to wait. Then he escorted Griffin to the front of the courtroom. The other guard followed, but Troy stayed at his post in our row. Benicio, Griffin, and the other guard walked to the door through which Weber had just been taken. Before Griffin stepped through, he turned, caught our attention, and mouthed a thank-you. Then they were gone.
"You must be exhausted," Lucas said, handing me my purse from the floor.
"I'm okay," I said. "Do we need to launch the appeal today?"
Lucas shook his head. "I'll tell my father that we plan to go ahead and he'll relay the message to the Cabals. Tonight we rest and try to put it out of our minds."
I glanced up to see Benicio slip back into the courtroom, accompanied by his new guard.
"There he is," I said. "That was fast."
"Good," Lucas said. "Earlier, he offered to drive us to the hotel and, if you don't mind, I'd like to accept. Then we can tell him our appeal plans on the way, rather than delay our departure by doing so now."
"If it gets me to a bed sooner, I'm not arguing."
Lucas looked up as Benicio eased into our aisle. "Paige and I would like-" He stopped. "What's wrong, Papa?"
Benicio shook his head. "Nothing. You were saying?"
Lucas studied his father's face. At first, I could see no sign of anything wrong. Then I noticed it, the slightest tilt to Benicio's head, not quite meeting Lucas's eyes as he spoke to him.
"I'm sure Paige can't wait to get out of here," Benicio said. "Why don't we-"
A cough. We looked up to see William and Carlos standing on my other side.
"Thomas Nast wants to speak to you, Father," William said.
Benicio waved him away. William's lips tightened.
"We'll wait for you in the car, Papa," Lucas said. "We can discuss the appeal on the drive."
"Appeal?" Carlos said. "For who?"
"Everett Weber, of course."
Carlos laughed. "Hell, little brother, I didn't know you'd taken up necromancy."
Lucas's eyes cut to his father. Benicio rubbed his hand across his mouth.
"He doesn't know, does he?" William said, lips twitching in a smug smile.
"Know what?" Lucas said, gaze never leaving Benicio's.
"That execution sentence?" Carlos said. "Signed, sealed, and delivered."
I blinked. "You mean…?"
"Everett Weber is dead," William said. "If justice was done, it would be done swiftly. Father and the other CEOs agreed on that before the trial began."
Lucas turned to Benicio. "Before the trial began…?"
"Of course," William said. "Do you think he'd let you embarrass us by trying to set a child murderer free? Can't ever leave well enough alone, can you, Lucas? Saving the innocent, saving the guilty, it doesn't really matter, as long as you stick it to the Cabals. Thank God Father didn't tell them you wanted an audience before the trial or who knows what kind of hornet's nest you'd have stirred up."
Lucas stared at his father, waiting for him to deny any of this. Benicio only dropped his gaze. I stood. Lucas looked at Benicio one last time, then followed me into the aisle.
We weaved around clusters of sorcerers and headed into the parking lot. More Cabal clusters out here, having a smoke or getting a dose of Miami sun before jetting home. As we passed one group, a young man caught my gaze. I glanced into a pair of big blue eyes and felt a jolt of recognition. I paused, but Lucas didn't, his attention elsewhere, and I hurried to keep up.
We continued through the packed parking lot in silence. As we walked, I tried to push past my shock and think clearly. Weber was very likely guilty, so his execution, while unnecessarily swift, was probably not unjustified. It might still be possible to speak to him, through a necromancer, and reassure ourselves that he was indeed the killer. As I was wondering whether I should mention this to Lucas yet, a voice hailed us.
"Lucas? Hold up a sec."
I tensed and turned to see a young man striding toward us. Tall and lanky, a year or two younger than me, blond hair tied back in a ponytail, gorgeous big blue eyes. As I saw those eyes my heart skipped. He was a sorcerer, of course, but it was more than that. This was the same young man whose gaze I'd met just a moment ago, whom I now realized I didn't recognize, but felt like I should. Then I noticed the black armband and the recognition clicked. He reminded me of Kristof Nast. Kristof's eyes. Savannah's eyes.
A few paces behind him was another young man, late teens, also wearing an armband. He met my glance with a scowl, then looked away.
"Hey, Lucas." The first young man stopped and extended his hand. "Good to see you."
"Sean, hello," Lucas said, distractedly, his gaze wandering.
"Good work you did, catching that freak. Course, no one's going to send you a thank-you card, but most of us do appreciate it."
"Yes, well…"
Lucas turned toward the road, clearly eager to go, but the young man didn't move. His eyes flicked to me, then dipped back to Lucas. Lucas followed the path of his gaze, then blinked.
"Oh, yes, of course. Paige, this is Sean Nast. Kristof's son."
"And that's-" Sean turned to his reluctant companion and waved him over, but the younger man scowled and scuffed his shoe against the pavement. "That's my brother, Bryce."
These were Savannah's half-brothers. I quickly extended my hand. Sean shook it.
"This isn't a good place," he said. "And I know you guys are busy, but we're staying in town for a few more days, and we thought maybe-"
"Sean?"
Sean shot a glare in his brother's direction. "Okay, okay, I thought maybe-"
"Sean!"
"What?" Sean spun on his heel, then his eyes went wide.