by Abbie Lyons
“What?”
“I don’t want you starving here,” he said, a little bit louder. “You do...” His cheeks flamed again. “You just could stand to gain some weight, Emerald. Don’t let this place kill you.”
I swallowed hard, my throat dry as the Sahara, as he waved open my cell. I felt shimmery and lightheaded, and the idea that he was going to lock this door back up and walk away was almost unbearable.
But what could I do? “Okay,” I said. “Duly noted.”
Gage nodded, and, as if it was a nervous tic, straightened the sleeves of his uniform. “See you later.”
I nodded. “See you later.”
The words felt more like a promise than they ever had before.
As soon as he disappeared, I let out an enormous sigh and wavered my way to the bed. I wasn’t dying—Nurse Clodia had confirmed as much. But I sure as the seven hells didn’t feel like myself.
I leaned on the bed, letting my heavy head find the pillow and hoping sleep would somehow find me.
“Emerald.”
My eyes flew open.
Sleep hadn’t found me, but Tarian had.
Chapter Twenty
“GODDESS IN THE SIX heavens and seven hells!” I yelped.
And with that, I unceremoniously fell off my bed.
A throaty chuckle sounded from above me as I struggled to get my bearings. It was dark in my cell, and that combined with the dizzying shock of, I don’t know, someone else being in there with me was enough to make me feel completely disoriented and unmoored from reality.
“Feeling all right there, Petal Pink?”
On my hands and knees, I flipped my head upwards, tossing my hair out of my eyes, so that I could see him. Tarian. Standing tall, proud, and arrogant, and pursing his lips around what appeared to be a terebinth cigarette.
“Where did you get that?” I said stupidly. Right, as if the cigarette’s the big issue here.
Tarian exhaled, a bluish plume of smoke that curled into nothingness in the chill black air by his face. “This? I killed a Fae for it. No big deal.” He shrugged and chuckled again.
He was fucking with me. I rolled my eyes, not that he could see. “Never mind.”
A hand appeared in my frame of vision; the prince was helping me up. I took it, not too proud to take some support when my knobby knees gave out beneath me.
“I trust you had a pleasant visit with the good doctor,” Tarian said, clearly loving every moment of his dramatic entrance. I dusted myself off a bit, still humming with nerves and surprise. I glared at him.
“How did you get in here?” I asked, ignoring his question.
Tarian tapped the ash off the end of his cigarette, its spicy-sweet herbal smell infusing my next inhale. “I’m sure you’d love to know.”
“Goddess. Seriously, not now, okay?” I clapped my hands to my face, trying to blot out reality for a second. This was all way too much, way too fast. “I thought I had one place to myself—”
“And I do apologize for that,” Tarian cut in smoothly. “I hate to intrude.”
I lowered my hands. “No you don’t.”
He smirked. “You’re right. I don’t.” He sucked in another drag on the cigarette, then held it out to me. “Smoke?”
I folded my arms. I didn’t smoke, not usually, not human cigarettes or human drugs or any of the manifold concoctions that were available in the Invisible Cities. That said, I could make exceptions. And right now, my nerves were frazzled to hell.
I grabbed the cigarette without a word and put it to my lips. As I inhaled, the heady, soothing smoke poured into my throat and what felt like my whole body.
Goddess, that’s good.
“Good girl, Petal Pink.” Tarian smirked again as I offered him back the cigarette that was fast dwindling to a butt and shook his head. “No, all yours. It’s a filthy habit. Been trying to quit.”
I rolled my eyes but took another drag. It was pretty good, and the terebinth smell reminded me of home. Of nostalgia, those simpler times in the Invisible Cities.
When I’d written Gage’s name in my diary as a kid.
Shit. No. Em. Don’t lose your head.
“I got here the way I get most places,” Tarian went on. “Magic.”
“Well, duh,” I said, pinching the glimmering butt a little tighter in my fingertips. I regretted asking; this was clearly not productive and just a way for Tarian to make fun of me. “And you’re not afraid of getting your ass beat by the Azelorians over it?”
“Them? You mean your lovesick friend out there?” Tarian lifted a brow and inclined his head towards the entrance to my cell. I tensed in an instinctive defense of Gage and dropped the tiny corpse of the cigarette to the ground, leaving an herby trail of smoke in its wake.
“Leave Gage out of this,” I said. “He has nothing to do with your whole...drama with them.”
“I respectfully disagree,” Tarian said. “He’s bought into their hierarchy, and that same hierarchy has a violent, visceral disagreement with me.” He shrugged. “But you’re right. That’s really neither here nor there.”
“Why are you here?” I said. “Just to bring me terebinth and make fun of me?”
I shivered, even though my cell wasn’t that cold. Tarian stuck his hands in the pockets of his uniform pants—which were, annoyingly enough, much better fitting than mine—and looked around.
“Charming in here. Really like what you’ve done with the place.”
“Fuck you,” I said. “You know I haven’t done anything here.”
“No, maybe not. But that’s the point.” Tarian glided a finger along the edge of my bed’s footboard, musing. “Some Fae will absolutely lay waste to their cell in their first few days here. Exercising what little destructive power they have left, I suppose, ripping their bedsheets and leaving the taps to run until the place is flooded. But not you, Emerald Jones.” He turned on his heel and fixed me with his piercing stare. “So I’m glad I paid you a visit.”
“I’m not so sure I am,” I muttered. “What do you want, seriously?”
“I’ve been thinking,” Tarian said. “About our plan.”
“Our plan, is it?” I said. “So we’re formalizing it.”
“Word on the street is that you’ve already invited some co-conspirators in,” Tarian said. “So yes, I’d say you’ve laid claim to some ownership.”
“What do you mean?” I said, heart racing. Tarian chuckled.
“You know what I mean. Your charmingly eccentric redheaded friend? With the...” He traced the outline of a vine tattoo on his cheek.
Okay, so no denying that he meant Delilah. “How did you know?”
“I just know things,” Tarian said, striding to the small dresser that stood opposite my bed and leaning against it. “Also, she immediately told me. Practically shrieked it into my ear. I might suggest, as some constructive criticism, selecting more discreet collaborators for your future crimes.”
“I’m not committing any crimes in the future,” I said automatically. “Besides...this one, I guess.” I rubbed my temples. What was I saying?
“Can we just talk about...this, whatever this is, later?” I said. “I’m tired. I just had a dried-up old Fae poking at me for like twenty minutes in my underwear.”
Tarian fell silent at that. When I met his eyes, he had a distinctly hungry look on his face. My skin prickled with heat.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said mildly. “Nothing at all. Just thinking of what a lucky bloke your Azelorian friend is.”
“He’s not like that!” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “You know that he’s not. None of them are like that.”
Tarian stared at me, then slowly shook his head. “Right. And they don’t pummel inmates without just cause either. I’d forgotten. Total upstanding citizens.”
I tensed my fist. Okay, maybe he had a point. If Cobalt was capable of violating the Azelorian vows to beat the crap out of Tarian, who’s to say that Gage wasn’t capable of...
&nbs
p; But no. I couldn’t think about that.
“Anyway, that’s sort of my point,” Tarian said, pushing himself up to standing straight and staring me hard in the eye. “I think I’ve cracked how we’ll initiate the first phase of the big E.”
“Oh?” My heart was still kicking irritatingly fast in my chest, my thoughts slingshotting between the office with Gage and this moment, now, with Tarian. “Which is?”
“Well, we’ll need some kind of help on the inside, obviously,” Tarian said. “I don’t know what you were envisioning, but this isn’t a kind of ‘dig yourself to freedom with cafeteria spoons’ situation.”
“I didn’t think that,” I said hotly, although I had to admit, I really did not know what a prison break looked like. I’d seen a lot of human TV about it, during late-night marathons with April, but they weren’t, like, how-to documentaries.
“Good,” Tarian said. “Because you’ll be instrumental in getting us that help.”
“What do you mean?” I said. “I’m like the least powerful Fae here. I’m on lunch duty, for goddess’s sake. I have access to absolutely nothing. Shouldn’t that be your job, your highness?”
Tarian gave me a look. “Ah, right. I forgot. I was so endeared to the Azelorians that I should’ve just asked them for a favor! Silly me.” He playfully smacked a hand to his forehead.
“Okay, okay,” I muttered. “What are you after, then?”
“Well, you’ve got lots that I don’t, Petal Pink,” Tarian said. “That’s exactly why you’ll be so useful.”
“I’m not a good fighter,” I said. “Just to make that clear.”
“Oh, it’s clear. And don’t worry. That’s one area where I think your new girlfriend Delilah will be of much greater utility.” Tarian took a step towards me, then another. With a broad, long-fingered hand, he reached into the space between us and gently cupped my chin in the crook of his index finger before tipping my face towards him. “You’ve got other talents, and other...friends.”
“What are you saying?” I jerked myself out of his grip. Any cooling effects of the terebinth smoke had flown out of me, replaced by the adrenaline of earlier, but threefold. My heartbeat felt like it would shatter my rib cage.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tarian said. “You’re going to seduce your dear friend the Azelorian.”
The silence that followed was crushing. It felt like an eternity until I could push a word out of my throat.
“What?” Then I managed another. “No.”
“You think you can’t do it?” Tarian said, evenly, teasingly.
Goddess damn him.
“No,” I said. “I just...I can’t! That’s Gage.”
“I thought you liked him,” Tarian said, with feigned incredulity.
“I do!”
“Then won’t that make it easier?”
I balled up my fists. On the one hand, well...yes, it wouldn’t be at all unpleasant to do seductive things to Gage. Honestly, after the incident this afternoon, being so close and yet so far, my body was aching for it. And it was infinitely preferable to seducing any other guardsman, like (gag) Cobalt. But on the other hand, doing it as a way to manipulate him, especially when he’d sworn Azelorian vows not to touch any female Fae...
That was much, much more complicated.
“I know for a fact that he’s one of the top achievers,” Tarian went on. “Even after the little indiscretion with your little whatever”—he waved at his temple to indicate my head wound—“your guardsman is on the fast-track to a position of authority. If you lay the groundwork now, and his promotion proceeds as quickly as I believe it will, knowing how things work around here...” He tapped a finger to his chin. “We could be sitting pretty with the keys to the kingdom in a month’s time.”
Electricity ricocheted through my body, thinking about it. But no, no way. This was not even remotely a possibility.
“This is a shitty plan,” I said aloud. “You’ve got to come up with something better.”
“Oh? Why don’t you come up with something, Petal Pink?”
My silence was answer enough for him.
“Exactly. This is the quickest route we have to power. I couldn’t even break into the Azelorian ranks, being...well, who I am. But you have the softness and charm that’ll do the trick.”
“Ew,” I said, scrunching my nose. Tarian chuckled.
“Think about it.” He gave me an appraising look. “Because Petal, any male Fae in his right mind would break a vow a thousand times over for you.”
Then, with a twist of smoke and a small pop, he disappeared into thin air.
Chapter Twenty-One
AT DINNER THAT NIGHT, I did something I’d never done before. I sat with Delilah.
Yes, I’d already gotten my fill of her at lunch duty. But Tarian was nowhere to be seen—I guess at this point he saw my cell as a safer place to talk than the mess hall...go figure—and I was feeling the need for a little bit of girl power camaraderie. More than anything, I really just didn’t want to sit alone. Anything to not think about the whole Seduce Gage Plan for a few minutes.
“This food tastes like total garbage!” Delilah complained. “Who’s making this stuff, anyway?”
Was she...joking? You could never tell with her.
“You know full well who makes it,” I reminded her.
“Duh! Yes, I know Babs runs the kitchen. I’m not an idiot! But I mean, most of this stuff comes frozen. And what I want to know is, who makes the frozen stuff! Babs is a great chef, but you can’t polish a turd!”
“I wonder how she’d do cooking, you know, normal food.”
“It’d be absolutely perfect, because Babs is perfect. Whoever gives her this stuff to cook should be locked up here with us. It’s criminal! Absolutely criminal!”
I thought about bringing up what Tarian had told me—that she’d already spilled the beans to him about being in on the plan. But she seemed a little upset, and I didn’t want to make it even worse. Plus, what was the point, anyway? What’s done is done. And it didn’t actually seem like Tarian was all that opposed to having her join us. In fact, he seemed to think she could be useful.
“What if we go on a hunger strike?” Delilah asked. “None of us eats unless they give Babs a little more to work with! What do you say?” She jumped on to her chair, eager to announce her new idea to anybody else who would listen. “Hey, everybody! What do you say we refused to eat until they give our head chef something better?”
If she was expecting a round of applause or cheers, that wasn’t what she got. Most of the inmates didn’t pay any attention and continued on with their dreary dinners.
All except for one unfortunate soul who decided to yell “shut up!” in response.
“Who said that?” Delilah demanded. “Who told me to shut up? You’re gonna be awfully sorry! I’ll rip you to fucking shreds!”
A Fae man ten years or so older than us rose to his feet. He was the beefy type, complete with enchantment tattoos all over his face and even an honest-to-goddess eye patch. Not normally the kind of Fae you’d want to pick a fight with.
“I told you to shut up!” he said, followed by a growl. A literal growl. “And I’ll say it again. Shut. The. Fuck. Up!”
Delilah was off the chair in the blink of an eye, already charging toward the dude ready to head butt him into the air. Not content to just stand there and wait, he too began to charge. Neither of them was going to make it out of this without getting themselves injured. Badly.
Without thinking, I did the stupidest thing I’d ever done in my life.
I don’t even know how I was able to move so fast. Jumping on to the table, I ran up and around the charging Fae. Once I was behind him—again, I had no idea I could move so quickly—I pulled on the back of his prison shirt and...
“Halt!”
Several masculine voices called out at once, and I felt myself jerked back, hard, by several sets of arms.
“Wait!” I cried, but it was no use. Two Azelorians ha
d me in a locked wrestling hold, and they thrust me around to face the wall. “Ow!”
“Let her go,” a familiar voice boomed. “She’s my responsibility.”
I peeled my smushed face from the side of the grimy wall to see Gage, my friend, my guardsman, my hopeful savior, behind me.
The other guards let me go, and Gage immediately snapped magical cuffs around my wrists.
“Come with me, inmate.”
To the oohs and oh shits of the gathered fellow prisoners, I was marched out of the mess hall and into the hallway proper. Gage didn’t stop walking; he had me by the elbow. I had no choice but to follow.
“Where are we going?”
“Discipline,” he said stiffly. “You can’t behave like that, inmate. You should know better, of all people.”
He slid a glance at me. I couldn’t tell if this was all an act, him being the good Azelorian in the public eye, or whether he genuinely was mad at me.
Instead of turning down the cell block corridor that led to the administrative offices, we passed to the left, to a portal. I’d never been this way before, and I didn’t have a great feeling about it.
The portal was fringed with green smoke, and when we passed through it, the air felt acid in my mouth and lungs, to the point where I actually coughed.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“The yard,” Gage said simply. I realized that, for the first time in what felt like ages, I was outside the actual walls of the penitentiary. We were still underground, to be fair, but at least I wasn’t in the confines of the cage itself.
The “yard” wasn’t actually a yard in the “green grass and flowers” sense. It was a bare patch of dirt with a cavern ceiling arching way above us like a European cathedral, but with stalactites.
Gage let me go, although the handcuffs stayed on. He looked back at the portal, then to me, his eyes searching my face.
“Emerald,” he said, his voice softer now. “You seriously do know better than that. What’s gotten into you?”
I swallowed. “I know. But Delilah’s, like, my only friend here—” Well, only friend except Tarian, but now didn’t seem like the time to mention him. “And I don’t like seeing people mess with my friends.”
