Chapter 31 · The Contaminant in the Chair

"You can't walk in there." Leah grabbed my arm at the tribunal doors. "They've already started the purge protocol."

I pulled free. "Then I'm right on time."

The doors opened before I touched them. Asher stood on the other side, smiling like he'd been waiting.

"Judge Hale." He stepped back, gestured me inside. "Or should I say, the defendant?"

The courtroom had been stripped. No witness chairs. No jury box. Just the bench, the center floor, and a circle of silver chains laid out like a noose.

"Where's Kael?" I said.

"In custody. Where contaminants belong." Asher walked to the bench, ran his hand along the edge. "The council voted ten minutes ago. Your bloodline is a corruption. Your rulings are void. Your seat is forfeit."

"I didn't come here to beg."

"No." He turned, and his eyes had gone flat. "You came here to trade. Your life for his clearance. Very noble. Very stupid."

I stepped onto the floor, inside the circle. The silver burned cold through my shoes.

"I invoke seizure of jurisdiction," I said. "Under original tribunal law, an accused justice can claim the bench and rule on their own case if no impartial judge remains.