by Abbie Lyons
I closed my eyes, but all I saw was April’s face. A tear dripped out of my stinging eye. How badly had I failed her if I was still here? If whoever had killed her was out there—some fucking sadist like this Azelorian?
“I’m leaving you here,” Cobalt announced. He snapped, and a portal appeared beside him.
“How...long,” I rasped.
“No questions!”
No sooner did he leave the room than a Warden announcement boomed out over me.
“Inmates,” he addressed us, “I’m receiving many worrying reports about your recent behavior. Let me remind you that failure to obey any command you receive from an Azelorian is unacceptable. If things continue to move in this direction, as I’m afraid they will, you’ll be forcing me to take drastic action. Do not test me. I’d be more than happy to make your lives even more of a nightmare than they already are.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“GEEZ, EM, WHAT’S THE big idea here? Now I owe you two whole life debts. A girl only has so many life debts to give.” Delilah stopped as I walked further into the kitchen, getting a closer look at me. “Oh, wow, those fuckers really did a number on you. I can tell they gave it to you bad. Are you holding up okay?”
“I’m...”
Finding the answer was difficult. Yes, I was alive and walking. But I’d never experienced anything so brutal in my entire life, and I hoped I never would again. And that wasn’t even getting into the fact that it’d triggered even more painful memories. Eventually, I’d been taken back to my cell, but I barely remembered it. Now I was on my feet again, but not feeling even remotely good.
“I’ve been better,” is what I settled on.
She looked me up and down. “Yeah, but you also look like you’ve never been worse. Give me a hug.”
She didn’t give me much of a choice. Her arms were wrapped around me before I knew it.
“Hey Babs!” she called out. “Get over here and give Em a hug. She needs it.”
The next thing I knew the two of them were both on top of me, smothering me with more affection than anybody had shown me in weeks—well, aside from that kiss, which I didn’t really want to be thinking about.
“I hate to see you girls hurting,” Babs said. “It breaks my heart.”
“I’m okay,” I told her. “Really.”
“Yeah, well you let me know if you need anything at all, dear,” she said before returning to her preparations. Did she have any idea that the reason a fight broke out in the first place was because Delilah was defending her cooking?
We didn’t even pretend to do any work. With my injuries, sitting in the freezer wasn’t exactly a compelling idea, so instead we found a little corner of the room and sprawled out on the floor.
“So your guy did this to you, huh?” Delilah asked. “I didn’t think he had it in him. I’m gonna tear his balls off if I ever get the chance! That’s a promise.”
“No, no,” I assured her. “It wasn’t Gage. He didn’t do anything to me.”
Aside from kissing me. But she didn’t need to get caught up on all those extra details right now.
“He was going to have us pretend like he punished me,” I said.
She smiled. “Aww, how sweet. See, he really does have the hots for you! What’d I tell you? He’s absolutely goo goo for you!”
I had to laugh. How couldn’t I? “Goo goo? What’s that even supposed to mean?” I was getting far more comfortable joking with Delilah these days.
“You know!” she exclaimed. “Goo goo! It means he’s nuts about you! Absolutely bananas for you! You make his heart feel all warm and fuzzy. That’s what goo goo means! Duh.”
She would’ve been right yesterday. He’d really had feelings for me, that much I was sure about. But after everything that happened, I don’t think he wanted me in his life at all at this point. His career—and his vows—would probably be better off if I just up and disappeared. Or escaped.
“Can I ask a personal question then?” Delilah asked, in a stunning show of restraint. Usually, she’d just go ahead and ask without warning. I gave her a nod. “Who did this to you? Or phrased another way: whose balls am I gonna have to rip off? This is valuable information I’m gonna need.”
“Who do you think? Cobalt. That scrawny piece of shit is even worse than I thought.”
Delilah didn’t say anything. After more than a few seconds of silence, I was worried. Anytime she was quiet for that long it must’ve meant that something was up.
“What is it?” I asked. “Is there something you’re not telling me.”
Her face was more serious than I’d ever seen it. “If he has it out for you...well that’s real bad, Em. Real bad!”
“Yeah,” I agreed.
“No. It’s worse than you think! You know how I always say how I’m good at noticing stuff? Like how I knew you and the prince must’ve been talking about the E word?”
“Sure.” She was definitely clever that way.
“Well, I got to noticing something. And this was just the other day, so don’t you yell at me for not saying anything sooner! The way Cobalt bursts into rages sometimes. It reminds me of somebody. And you don’t know this, Em, since you’re still so new, but he used to be around a lot more. That jerk used to always be right on my ass! That happens less now. And I got to thinking about when that started and, well...it was when we got a new warden.”
“Are you saying that—”
“I’m saying that whenever Cobalt isn’t on guard duty, he marches his busted ass over to the warden’s office and makes those stupid fucking announcements. They’re exactly the kinds of things Cobalt would say! It’s actually kind of brilliant! Sick, but brilliant! He got promoted to warden, but by staying a guard he gets to keep an extra close eye on us.”
I wasn’t sold. Delilah was as perceptive as she claimed—the way she’d automatically known what Tarian and I had been talking about in a personal conversation was proof enough of that. But this was a big claim she was making, and she wasn’t giving me much hard evidence other than some little things she’d noticed.
But it wasn’t completely ridiculous. Cobalt had been pretty damn cagey when we passed the warden’s office. Hadn’t he even used some magic to fix the chain on his door? And the things he said when he was torturing me could’ve come straight out of one of the warden’s announcements. It was all circumstantial, as they might say in court—I fancied myself a minor legal expert now that I’d been through the system—but it was worth considering.
“Do you believe me?” Delilah asked. “You can say you don’t. Honest. I won’t lose control.
I sighed. “I don’t know. You might be right. You might not be.”
But then a jolt of fear burst through me. If she was right—if—then it wasn’t information I could just sit on. I needed to go tell Tarian as soon as possible.
“I’ve got to go,” I said. “Now.”
“You didn’t ask me,” she said, “but yes you have my permission to tell the prince. I know that’s what you’re after anyway.”
I told Babs I’d be leaving work early which, as always, she was perfectly fine with, and made my way out into the mess hall. Inmates were beginning to arrive for lunch.
Tarian was easy enough to spot in his usual spot, already with an array of fancy foods in front of him.
Where does he get those from anyway? Because Babs isn’t making any of it. I stopped. No time to think about that now.
“Goddess, Petal, it’s good to see—” He stopped abruptly. The look on his face fell. His eyes flamed. “What happened?”
“What do you mean?”
“Look at you!” he all but roared. “You’re...” He seized my wrist, staring at the bruises, the evidence of my torture. “I can’t believe this,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Calm down,” I said, even as Tarian seethed. It was unnerving, how much my being hurt set him off. And yet reassuring. He didn’t want me hurt.
“Listen. I learned something,” I s
aid, quickly taking a seat next to him, my voice at a whisper. I didn’t want to waste time going through any weird relationship bullshit right now. “It’s not for sure. But Delilah just got the idea in her head that maybe just maybe Cobalt is the warden. Like he spies on us as a guard and then goes and does his thing in the warden’s office. She doesn’t have much proof but—”
Tarian was silent for a long moment.
“Say no more,” he said. “Well, shit. It makes sense. And if that’s the case then you and I are in a lot more danger here than I thought. He absolutely despises me. Of course, my life is already on the line...maybe irrevocably so. But you...now he knows how close we are. Your life’s on the line here, too, Petal Pink. And what’s done to you...”
He choked on the rest of the sentence. Tensed a fist.
“It’s over,” I said gently. “It was awful. But it’s over.”
Tarian looked around the room. Sure enough, Cobalt was on patrol. “Look at that twerp. Exactly the type to put on a big scary voice and yell at us about how we should be cowering in fear. I’ve seen his kind hundreds of times in the royal court. If he really is the one in charge, my days are numbered. He’ll find a way to get away with me having killed, and I don’t mean in the typical executionary fashion.” He blew out a hard breath. “And if this is how he’s going to treat you...I can’t stand for it.”
“So what does this mean?” I asked.
He considered it for a moment. “Don’t go to sleep tonight.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
THERE WAS NO WAY I was going to sleep that night. I almost didn’t need Tarian’s command.
Instead, I lay rigidly awake, clutching my blanket to my chin. I didn’t know what to expect, and maybe that was for the best—that way I couldn’t get anxious about whatever Tarian was planning. But at the same time, the not knowing meant that I couldn’t do anything to prepare. I’d just have to wait here and then...go ahead with it.
I stared up at the ceiling of my cell, the cracked patterns in the mud-colored stucco that I’d gotten almost fond of, looking at them every night before I fell into an exhausted slumber.
It would be so fucking good to be out of here.
“Guardsman!”
Someone yelled into the hallway, and I jolted. At first, I’d assumed it was Tarian, but it was a woman’s voice.
Delilah.
“Guardsman, oh man, come quick. I’m sick, I’m so sick.”
Quietly as I could I jumped to my feet and padded to the bars of my cell.
“I’m gonna hurl. I’m gonna puke all over the floor if you don’t get here.”
Lower voices murmured, presumably the guards. I didn’t know which ones were stationed for night patrol, but maybe that was the point—they were supposed to be interchangeable. Just like we were to them.
But that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“Back to sleep!” yelled one of them.
“I’m gonna blow chunks,” Delilah whined, really relishing it. “I ate something real bad today, I just know it. I’m gonna just sprinkler it out—”
“Dammit, someone get the girl outta here!” yelled another, deeper but still feminine voice. “I don’t wanna have puke smell interrupting my sleep!”
“Yeah!” yelled someone else, and soon the corridor was ringing with a chorus of agreement.
“I’m gonna do it,” Delilah said, somehow louder than everyone else. “I really am!”
Bootsteps thudded down the hall, and the chorus quieted. Then it was almost still, almost back to normal, but I kept every muscle tensed.
And then it came.
“Unh!”
A crackling sound shot through the air.
“Gottem!” crowed Delilah. A faster set of footsteps now, not boots but her soft-soled prison shoes. Because next thing I knew, Delilah was grinning through the bars of my cell, wielding one of the guards’ swords.
“How did you—”
“Kicked him in the nuts,” Delilah said. “Come on!”
With a single slice, she cut through the bars of my cell, which rather than cleanly splitting like ordinary human metal, dissolved into sand at the touch of the blade. I couldn’t help but widen my eyes even as Delilah yanked me out by the elbow.
Cacophony had erupted in the other cells as we dashed down the corridor, hands fluttering through the bars, everyone hollering at us.
“Go for it!”
“Get the seven hells outta here!”
“Run, Forrest, run!”
I guess I’m not the only Fae who likes human culture.
“What are we doing?” I panted. Delilah was wicked fast, even toting a massive sword in her hand.
“Keep running,” she said. “Towards the yard. You know where the portal is?”
I nodded. It was close, too, just around the next corner, that fateful green barrier between us and the yard where I’d kissed Gage.
Gage. My heart squeezed. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to say goodbye.
The second time I’d missed it.
“Tarian’s going to meet us,” she said. “I mean, I think.”
“You think?”
“Look, you try coming up with this whole plan in a single day!” Delilah cried, still miraculously not out of breath. “That guy has a fire under his ass. He wants out of here. Wants you out of here, I should say.”
We skidded at the corner. Boots were thundering behind us, but far enough that we still had the lead.
“Go!” Delilah yelled. But then something massive hurtled into the ground in front of us.
“Ah!” I was thrown backward, off my feet, hitting the ground with a sharp pain in both my wrists. Delilah’d been flung back too, but landed into a crouch, sword blade brandished. I pushed up to standing as quickly as I could. It was a stalactite, stabbed into the linoleum of the hallway and sending lightning-bolt-like fissures through the ground.
“What the fuck?” Delilah cried, looking upward. I followed her gaze.
And there was Tarian.
“This wasn’t part of the plan, you dipshit!” she hollered.
Tarian’s wings were massive and brilliant, a deep, iridescent blue that moved with a hypnotic internal motion, a shimmer that was otherworldly. His face was contorted with fury and concentration.
If he had decided to extend his wings and fly, things must have been serious. He’d blown through a hole in the wall, hence the stalactite, the sizzling aura of whatever spell he’d cast to destroy his way through still humming around him.
“It’s too late,” he called down. “They’ve already—”
A missile struck him in the shoulder, spinning him head over heels in the air.
“Tarian!” I screamed.
It was one of the Azelorians, firing blazing arrows from a handheld crossbow. He’d come from the other direction, the direction of the administrative offices.
“Dammit!” Delilah cried. From the direction of our cells, the other guards were fast approaching. She moved her stance, sword out. “No!”
With another wordless cry, she slashed at the first Azelorian to reach her. The blade glanced off his uniform with a thick, metallic ring—clearly they were armored against their own weapons, which only made sense. To my right, a shing sounded as the missile that had hit Tarian fired right back where it had come from—still glancing off its Azelorian target, but messing up his aim long enough for Tarian to move out of the line of fire.
“Emerald!” Tarian plunged from the air above us down to my side. “I’m sorry. This wasn’t supposed to go this way.”
“What the hell way was it supposed to go?” I said. “You can’t just explode like this! We were supposed to have a plan!”
“I couldn’t take it any longer,” Tarian spat. “Not if they were going to keep torturing you. And not if I was going to die. I’m innocent, you’re innocent. And we’re caged up here like animals. I want this place destroyed. If...” His voice hitched. “If I’d known what it was like here when I was still
on my throne I would have had bigger priorities than just my fucking stepfather.”
“Halt!”
We spun around. The guards at Delilah’s end of the hall had flattened her to the ground, holding her firmly spread-eagled with enough magical bindings to restrain a raging bull. Seven, eight, ten, a dozen...I couldn’t tell how many there were, swords drawn.
Tarian lunged, moving to do goddess knows what, but I yanked at him.
“Don’t,” I said. “You’re going to get yourself killed.”
He looked back at me, wild-eyed. “They’ll kill me now or they’ll kill me later. What difference does it make?”
“I don’t want you to die now,” I cried. “That’s what difference it makes.”
He hesitated. But then he pulled back.
“Warden coming!” cried the Azelorians in unison. They lowered their weapons, falling into a lock-step position.
The air felt chilly and taut. None of them moved. Delilah whimpered. Tarian’s breathing was heavy in my ears.
“Well, well, well.”
The nasally, high-pitched voice was only too familiar.
Sure enough, as the Azelorians parted, Cobalt strode into view.
He wasn’t wearing an ordinary guard uniform anymore, but a similar outfit in bright silver, bedecked with medals and epaulets and topped off with a thin-billed hat. He was no more physically intimidating than he’d ever been, but something about the new uniform, and the fact that I now knew unequivocally what he was capable of, made me utterly, hopelessly terrified.
“The murderous prince and his latest disciples,’ Cobalt went on. “Delilah, I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Delilah made a muffled sound of protest, then what sounded like a giggle. Because of course.
“But Emerald Jones. I’d thought you were going to be a model prisoner. You seemed like you’d commit one crime and then learn the error of your ways. But unfortunately, you’ve chosen to use your brief time in Enchanted Penitentiary to engage deeper with the criminal element.”
