I never thought I would be so glad to be back in front of my special table again.

The king’s dark raven hair glistened in the light. He brought up one of his beefy arms, set it on his knee, and leaned forward. “Mr. Allard, are you ready to begin?”

My eyes drifted next to him. To Yaika. She stood there with determination in her eyes. She lifted her fist and put her thumb in the air. I nodded.

“I’m ready.”

Except I wasn’t ready. I was pulling this out of my ass. I did look awesome doing it though.

“Very well,” Lyili yelled. “Madam Violetta, please take the stand.”

Violetta took her place. “I’m ready too, Mr. Ryley,” she said, looking at me with her emerald eyes. “I’m putting my life in your hands. I… trust you.”

I wouldn’t have trusted me, but I appreciated the gesture anyway.

“Please tell us about your meeting with Volk,” I said. “You mentioned to me that something strange happened during it.”

“Something… strange?” the king asked.

“Yes, your majesty.” Violetta nodded her horned head. “While I was talking to Mr. Volk about the new choreography, he winced and then he hit his foot on the inside of his desk.”

“Wow,” Yaika spoke in her lazy tone. “That’s strange.”

The room was silent. Yeah. This was a dead end. Emphasis on the dead.

I was going to die.

The king stroked his chin. “Very strange, indeed…”

Seriously?

“Just to clarify,” the king started. “Mr. Volk winced and then he hit his foot? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“I guess so…” Violetta said. “But I’m sure he winced first…”

Holy shit, when did the king start offering insightful comments? The wince. The desk. Could it mean what I thought it did? Had Violetta just saved this entire trial for us?

“This is key testimony!” I moved to slam my fists against the table, but then stopped right before doing it, setting them down gently. Fuck the theatrics. Also my hand still kind of hurt from last time.

The audience started to stir.

“You are in your death throes, Sir Allard!” Lyili put her fists down on her table too. She might have done it a little harder than I had. “This information is completely irrelevant to the point at hand.”

“No, it’s relevant as fuck.” Yeah. Nailed the lawyer language again.

“Care to explain for all of us then?”

“Gladly,” I said. “If Volk winced before he hit his foot on the inside of his desk, then we can assume that there was something else that caused him to wince. Or someone.”

“Sir Allard…” Lyili glared at me. “Surely you aren’t going to argue that someone was… underneath his desk.”

I smiled. “That’s exactly what I’m arguing.”

Lyili pointed a glossy white finger at me. “If you’re going to argue that there was another demon we haven’t heard from present in the office that day, then I hope you’re prepared to present some proof.”

“Oh we’ve heard from this demon, alright,” I said. “I’m saying that another Succy Girl was present in the office during Violetta’s meeting!”

“Mr. Allard, if I can interrupt,” the king’s voice boomed like a bomb had gone off. “What exactly… would they be doing under his desk?”

“Uhh… Do I really need to explain this?” I asked. “They’re called the ‘Succy Girls’, you know…”

“H-How vulgar!” Lyili’s glossy cheeks turned bright red. “I should have expected your filthy mind to go in that direction…”

“Don’t try to make this about me,” I said. “There was a scheduling book in Volk’s office. Everyone’s name except Violetta’s was crossed off.”

“You fool. All that does is point to Violetta as the killer.”

“No, if Violetta had done it, she would have crossed off her name to remove suspicion.”

“Nonsense!” Lyili yelled. “As if this girl has the foresight to do something like that!” Ouch, harsh. I doubted Violetta would understand her intelligence was being called into question though. That in itself said a lot.

“Well I think it’s just as likely that someone else left it that way to put all the suspicion on her!” I yelled back. “You can’t deny the possibility.”

“I can and I do, Sir Allard.” Lyili’s cheeks were still flushed. “Proof. I demand proof!”

I did my best to emulate one of Lyili’s smug smiles. “Oh I can prove it alright.”

Violetta gasped. “Mr. Ryley!” The crowd starting cheering. My god, this felt good. It was like everyone was giving me the energy to win this.

The only problem was, saying I could ‘prove’ it was giving my idea more credit than it deserved. All I could do was hope that it would cast enough suspicion on one of the other succubi to serve as a stepping stone.

“By all means, please do,” the king said. He gave me a grin. I could see his hand twitching. Maybe he was fighting back the urge to give me a thumbs up. He would probably need a thumb-based intervention in the near future.

“Mel. Play that video again.” I pointed over at the lizard tailed brunette still standing by the TV. “But this time, I want you to show us the footage at 6:20 and 6:40.”

The king spoke up. “But those are the times when Ms. Cyana and Ms. Goldie finished their meetings…”

Yeah, no duh. “We already saw how Rayne reacted when Violetta finished her meeting. I’m interested in seeing how she reacted after the other two.”

“Fine!” Lyili grit her teeth. “Play the tape, Mel.”

Mel smiled and started rewinding the tape. Was she even capable of frowning? After a few seconds, she stopped and hit the play button.

6:20. Sure enough, Rayne looked up from her desk, waved, and said something.

“Rayne, can we assume that you were speaking with Cyana here?” I asked.

“Yes…” Rayne looked uneasy. “I told her to enjoy her program.”

“Alright,” I said. There was still one more chance. “Please fast forward the tape to just before the 6:40 mark.”

Mel nodded and pressed another button. A moment later, she stopped it and the tape started playing again.

I watched the minutes ticked by. Finally, Rayne looked up from her desk. Then… she looked back down again.

This was it. It had to be.

“Weird,” Yaika said. “She didn’t talk or wave this time.”

Lyili turned her head toward the throne. “Princess, please don’t allow Sir Allard to poison your mind. First it was the lack of ‘Mr.’, now it’s the lack of a greeting? This is trivial. He’s stalling for time…”

“It’s trivial, huh? I guess we’ll just have to see about that.” I cut her off. “Rayne, at this point in the video, were you looking up at Goldie as she left Volk’s office?”

Rayne looked troubled, furrowing her brows like she wasn’t sure of what to say. “Actually…” she started. “It was Volk asking for Violetta to come in next.”

“So you didn’t see Goldie leave the office?”

Rayne’s eyes drifted over to Goldie sitting nearby her. “I just thought… she must have gone to the dressing room already…”

I rose my voice. “Did you see her or not?”

“No…” Rayne shook her head. “I never saw her leave the office!” The crowd lost it.

“Fuck yes!” I yelled. “She doesn’t have an alibi!”

Lyili grabbed her long hair between her hands. “This… This is preposterous…”

I couldn’t let up now. “I call Goldie to the stand!”

Goldie didn’t react, just sitting there with a clueless look on her face. I wasn’t falling for it.

I had all the pieces I needed. All that was left to do was to put them together.