Page 209 of Maksym

Silence.

The prosecution counsel looked down.

For a second, I thought he might press again. Part of me wanted him to. Not because Maddie deserved more, but because every additional question risked making his case bleed out in public.

He must have understood at last.

“No further questions,” he said.

Maddie stepped down only after the Magistrate released her.

She did not hurry back. Her heels clicked across the stone with the same measured defiance she had carried to the stand. When she reached the defense table, Nikolay rose.

He still did not touch her until she chose.

Maddie looked at him for one suspended second, then put her hand in his.

His fingers closed around hers with visible care, as if he feared strength itself might become another harm if mishandled. They sat together. Hands joined openly on the table now.

The Magistrate looked toward both tables.

“Will the defense call additional witnesses?”

I stood. “No, Honored Magistrate. The defense rests.”

The prosecution did not look surprised. He looked relieved in the bitter way of men who wanted the bleeding to stop even if the wound remained fatal.

The Magistrate inclined his head. “Closing statements. Defense may proceed.”

I rose.

For one second before I stepped forward, I felt Maksym’s attention from the dais. I did not look at him. If I looked, I might have found pride or fury or both, and I had no room left inside me for either. Not yet.

I took my place before the Council.

The chamber looked different from this angle after testimony. Not kinder. Never that. But exposed. The prosecution had begun with a clean story: jealous vampire prince, humble wolf Alpha, sacred territory, dead body. Now that story lay on the floor in pieces, and my job was not to admire the wreckage.

It was to make sure no one pretended the pieces had never fit another shape.

“Honored Magistrate. Members of the Council.” My voice carried without strain. “The prosecution told you this case was about territory, jealousy, and murder. They told you Madelyn Baucaum went willingly to Ironwood. That she found comfort among wolves. That she had been hurt by Prince Nikolay Kozlov, and that his later actions were driven by rage rather than necessity.”

I let my gaze move over the thrones one by one.

“Some of those facts are true.”

The prosecution went very still.

“Maddie Baucaum went willingly to a moonlight run. She did long to be among wolves. She did believe she had found friendship in Ironwood. And Prince Nikolay Kozlov did fail her before all of this began.”

Nikolay did not lower his head this time.

Good.

“But a true fact placed inside a false frame becomes another kind of lie.” I turned slightly toward the gallery, toward Ironwood, then back to the Council. “Witness after witness established that the friendship Maddie trusted was manufactured, encouraged, and used. Sloan Lynch was instructed to keep her close. Others questioned her repeatedly about whether a wolf might be more suitable than the mate chosen for her. Her pain was not treated as pain. It was treated as an opening.”

The truth spell was not active over me as a witness, but the chamber carried the weight of everything already sworn.

“Maddie ran beneath the moon because wolves love to run. She stayed because she believed she was safe. Everything past that trust was false. Her phone was taken. Communications were intercepted. Responses were sent or received in ways designed to make her believe the people who loved her were farther away than they were. Her wine was altered without her consent. Her judgment was impaired.”