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“Watch your tongue.” Doc stood from the rock and wavered on his feet for a moment. It kind of blew the seriousness of his tone. “She was chosen by the island. Her gifts were given by the same forces that gave you yours. She has as much right to exist as any one of you.”
“Except for the fact that she has been corrupted by his power. I saw the shard you ripped from your flesh—how do we know his magics have not worked deeper than that?” Thorn looked Gwen up and down with an expression of sheer disgust. “Not that he would need magic.”
Gwen rolled her eyes. “Step off, bitch, seriously. I’m sick of this bullshit. I haven’t done anything to you—literally nothing—and you’ve been trying to pick a fight from the moment we’ve met. Are you just, like, always a miserable waste of air or is this just a personal vendetta of yours?”
Doc snickered and muttered something under his breath that neither Gwen nor Thorn seemed to catch. That was probably for the best.
Thorn studied her for a moment, then shrugged. “You are his little pet. His pawn. You have yet to do a single thing to convince me otherwise.”
“Do you…like…have a partner? Someone you love?” Gwen tilted her head to the side slightly. “Are you with somebody?”
Thorn blanched. “No.”
Gwen gave Thorn a deadpan look. “This is my shocked face.”
Doc snickered again. Even Mordred had to hide a grin behind a wipe of his hand.
Thorn huffed. “I did not come here to be insulted by a literal child. The fact of the matter remains. The Prince in Iron is a criminal and needs to stand trial for his actions against his fellow elementals. That is the simple truth of it.”
“And I heartily disagree.” Mordred cracked his neck loudly and sighed. “And I am leaving. I am done with all of you. I am going home.” He turned and began to walk away. “You can attempt to stop me if you like—we all know how it will end.”
Seeing that she was losing her leverage, Thorn let out a low growl. “Do you feel no shame for the suffering that we all endured? The guilty and the innocent alike? What harm in the world did the Gossamer Lady ever do to Avalon, and yet you imprisoned her with all the rest of us! Why?”
Mordred stopped, and stared up at the sky for a moment, clearly begging for patience. “Because I believed that she could not be trusted.”
“And has your opinion changed?” Galahad asked, speaking up for the first time.
After a long pause, Mordred nodded. “Yes. It has.”
“Then let her decide whether or not you should stand trial,” the Knight in Gold suggested.
Mordred cast Galahad a withering glare. “You believe that I should be put to death?”
“No, my prince.” The Knight in Gold stepped forward. “I do not believe that in the slightest. But…there is truth in Thorn’s insistence that justice should be served. That you should be given a chance to speak your case. No one is above the law of Avalon. Not even you.”
Mordred shut his eyes and let out a long, heavy sigh. “You say you do not wish for me to die, old friend, yet here you stand with the hangman’s noose all the same.”
“I am speaking as someone who holds honor above all else, nothing more.”
“Nothing?” Mordred glanced to Zoe.
“Nothing. Including those I care for deeply.”
Mordred let out another dreary sigh. The metal claws of his gauntlet slid against each other as he thought through the proposition. “And what do you think, Gossamer Lady?”
“As someone who suffered firsthand the imprisonment of the Crystal, I…” She wrung her hands in front of her, that crease between her brows growing deeper as she stared down at the ground. “I cannot say that I believe you will not try again. I find it difficult to believe we could all return to life as we knew it before the catastrophe occurred.”
“Catastrophe—” Mordred shook his head. “What catastrophe? The world knew three hundred years without senseless death and war—without your idiot kin setting cities to ruin without any care for the lives they destroyed!”
“And with no sun. No love,” Galahad dutifully reminded the prince, not like it was really needed. “There was a cost, Mordred.”
“Do you think I do not know that?” Mordred shouted; his patience had clearly snapped. “I am quite well aware of it! And I was aware of it every waking moment of every day—and all my sleepless nights—hearing the cries of those I sent within the Iron Crystal. But I did it to save this world from all of them!” He gestured at those waiting in the woods. “And I shall not stand trial amongst those who would see my head impaled upon a pike simply out of the petty need for revenge. What of all the lives they have taken and spent, all those who could not defend themselves from their onslaught? What of the justice for them?”
Mordred reeled toward Thorn, storming up to her. The literally prickly woman held her ground until the last few feet of approach before he finally called her bluff and she took a staggering step back. Mordred sneered. “You speak of honor. I imprisoned you all to protect the innocents who could not defend themselves. Where is the honor in the actions of my so-called jurors? No. No, is my answer. And no it shall remain. I shall not stand for such a farce.”
“I…I regret to say,” Zoe began, hesitantly, as she grasped the necklace she still wore. The one that bound Mordred—the twisted version of the same magic he had used on his knights and on her. “You do not have a choice in the matter.”
Mordred shut his eyes, his shoulders dropping. “It seems my trust in you has been severely misplaced, Gossamer Lady.”
