Escape of the Fae

by Taylor Spratt

  This reminded me of an age-old truth, told over and over throughout the centuries. Light and Dark did not mix. Creatures of the light and those of the dark never ended up together. By our very natures, we were never meant to be.

  I’d known these ancient wisdoms my whole life and bid them a fine fuck off. But with the woman of my dreams finally in my arms and my father, the king of darkness out to snuff out her light I had to wonder, how long would it be before my darkness threatened her light?

  How long would fate ignore the breaking of nature’s oldest law? How long before my darkness destroys her power of light and she falls in battle because of it?

  Her lips broke from mine as if sensing my increasing apprehension. The look in her eyes was one of mild concern. I pressed a palm to her cheek, rubbing the pad of my finger over her lower lip gently. It didn’t take long to see that no amount of rubbing could silence the questions that burned in her eyes.

  Her head fell to my chest, and we embraced for a few moments that I wished could stretch on forever. I wanted nothing more in the world than to call Jessy my own but I fear my love may bring her nothing but destruction. That was the one thing I would never allow.

  My horde and I would protect her at all costs. Of this there was no doubt. But I could no longer stand at her side, basking in her light.

  Curse my own wicked nature and Hades who made me this way. From today onward I know this to be true, Jessy and I could never be together.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Jessy

  When Broderick and I had escaped Hades earlier, we never saw him again for the rest of our time in the greenhouse. My guess is that he decided to bide his time before making another attempt at my life. It didn’t matter much to me whenever he made his move I’d be ready. Broderick and I had a wonderful day together in the greenhouse and once they called us back inside the prison, we parted ways. I went back to my cell block to shower and wash the dirt from my forest trek off of me and he went off with his block.

  Now my travels through the halls of Pembroke Penitentiary differed from what it had been before I asked Alexandros and Broderick for help two days ago. When I walked from the greenhouse to the shower nobody attempted to attack me. Nobody even looked at me. Word had gotten around that I was now under the protection of the vampires and the demons. An attack on me meant an attack on them and nobody was that brave.

  After washing up, I went to the cafeteria hoping to have dinner with Broderick. I didn’t know why I was so excited to see him when I barely knew the guy. I’d spent all morning and most of the afternoon with him. It was fun but something in me felt something had changed in him after we ran from Hades. Behind his smile I saw sadness. In his eyes there was so much darkness that hadn’t been there when we were in the library.

  I knew he liked me too, but for some reason he was holding back. He almost seemed afraid to have sex with me again even though we were alone in the forest. Whatever it was that was bothering him, I wanted to know it, so we could get past it.

  I pressed open the double doors of the cafeteria and made my way inside. The scent of sweet and savory dishes filled the air. As usual, magical beings of every race, color and size packed the sizable room. They were chowing down to dinner at the numerous benches that littered the white marble floor. Unlike the last time I was in here, there was a lengthy line leading from the cashier, stretching down to the back wall, cutting the room in two.

  My eyes scanned the room for Broderick, hope high in my chest. But he was nowhere to be found. What I saw were his horde members, the same guys he was with today in the greenhouse. They sat at a bench in the room’s corner, their fangs ripping into their dinner ferociously.

  That end of the room was so crowded, if not for the black sleeve shirts they wore with the cut off sleeves you could hardly tell it was them if not. I made my way over to them, squeezing past two tables. One filled with green skinned ogres the other rammed with angels whose wings hung gracefully at their backs as they ate dinner.

  My legs bumped into the table filled with Broderick’s men and their eyes shot up at me. They were nice enough to me earlier. So why did none of them look happy to see me? They almost seemed troubled by my appearance, meeting each other’s gazes before looking back at me.

  “Hey guys!” I said cheerfully a warm smile gracing my face. “Seen Broderick around?”

  “Yeah, he’s really busy right now. He told us to tell you, he’ll come visit you when he has time.” A demon with blonde hair said as he laced his fingers together and rested his elbows on the table on either end of his tray. He didn’t sound sorry either, his tone was rather curt and nobody else bothered to correct him.

  When he had time? Seriously? That’s what he told them to say to me after we spent the entire day together?

  It hurt my feelings, no doubt about it. But there was no way in hell I would let them see that. That was not the Gilcrest pack way. We always hid any sign of weakness. That was the only way to survive in this world.

  I straightened, keeping my smile and said, “Okay then, no problem.”

  “Good, then.” He replied, and I turned away, not sparing them another glance. Keeping my head held high, I strode back between the table’s filled with angels and ogres and just like that I was back out the cafeteria door.

  Humiliation boiled in my blood and shame pooled in the pit of my stomach. So that’s how Broderick wanted it, huh? The old hit it and quit it? Well whatever, who needed him anyway?

  Ok, Jessy. Cut the crap. This was no time to be fantasizing about a hot demon like an academy girl. You know what today was? Today was the 14th. The day you’ve been waiting for. Before I entered the prison, I had to put everything in place so I could get everything I needed to escape. Today was the day that the first part of my plan was set to commence. It was time for the next phase of operation ‘bust the hell out of Pembroke’

  This was a maximum-security supernatural prison with soul eaters guarding this place tighter than Azkaban. And to make matters worse, Michael was being held in a super-secret cell that I had no access to.

  One way or the other I would find my way down to his cell block and when I did, there was only one way Michael and I were getting past those soul eaters. We needed Shiso leaves.

  These leaves were small, bright green and rare as hell. They were revered for their raw supernatural power and they were the only thing in Dominion capable of stopping soul eaters in their tracks.

  Luckily, I had an ace up my sleeve to get this little powerful piece of contraband no problem. I’d planned it all out before I got arrested. Today was the day of the drop off and now it was time to pick it up.

  After leaving the cafeteria I went down a series of hallways. Most were dingy and dirty with some of the vilest creatures known to the magical world crawling the halls. I didn’t even know what most of those passages were for. They just seemed to stretch on forever with a series of twists and turns every couple of feet. It was like a trippy maze.

  Along the way, some walls were red, some were blue, some were every color of the rainbow but one thing remained the same, a whole lot of wall. One hallway had egg shells littering the ground. Another had a weird icky green slime oozing down from the ceiling. It was as if a giant had sneezed and forgot to clean up after.

  All I knew was I was getting deeper and deeper into this rat’s nest they call a prison and with every turn I took, I was getting closer and closer to my shiso. I’d been following the signs along the way. If it wasn’t for them, I’d have gotten lost hours ago.

  After one last turn I saw a sign overhead. Written on a big wooden plaque were the words, ‘cell block one.’ This was the place. I entered the cell block and looked around.

  Funny, this place was more luxurious than my block by far. As a matter of fact, this area made my block look like a steaming pile of yuck in comparison. They painted the hallway walls a soothing beige with paintings of men and women in renaissance clothing trailing all the way down. Even the air in here smell
ed fresher.

  And the cells? There was no grey in sight. They were big, with soft beds covered in actual blankets, unlike the glorified coffin I slept in. They even allowed the residents here to hang pictures of friends and family all over their walls as was evident by the string of pictures that hung on the walls of every cell. Okay, they weren’t all friends and family. I mostly saw a lot of porn actresses gracing the walls. Still, the place was fancy by Pembroke standards.

  Who did the residence of this hall have to fuck to live here?

  As I continued my stroll past the paintings, I scanned the faces one by one. I didn’t think I’d seen these faces before, but rooms filled with old paintings always seemed to bring me back to my childhood memories.

  Two hundred years had passed since Michael and I left our parents’ mansion, the waking nightmare that was once our lives. I was the one who they tortured but as the person who’d always loved me more than anyone else, my suffering had always been Michael’s too.

  For a ninth birthday most children would dream of birthday cakes, clowns and merry go-rounds. But for me, that day was a nightmare. I could see it now.

  My parents brought me to the mansion swimming pool. The Olympic sized pool was long and deep. and stretched over the dark, bottomless water was a tightrope. It was the type you’d see in a circus tent. But there was no acrobat walking the line. They put the line there for me; I was the one they expected to cross it.

  Crying in fear, I begged for mercy as my father put me to stand at one end of the rope. Tears drenched the chest of my tattered old dress while he prodded me with a stick from behind, demanding I cross the tightrope.

  “Discipline, strength and courage, these are the qualities valued in a fae, and necessary in a Gilcrest.” These words reverberated in my head over and over like a broken record player. This was the sick, twisted reasoning behind every act of cruelty he inflicted on me. He wanted to strengthen me so I wouldn’t embarrass him or the rest of our sorry excuse for a family.

  I stepped onto the rope, struggling to keep my balance as I slowly crossed. My eyes trailed down to the dark bubbling water beneath me. The bubbles increased as the water began to ripple violently. Soon I saw piranhas clustered beneath me. They jumped and danced through the water hoping, even praying, for me to fall so they’d have their first meal in days.

  Michael stood poolside, tears staining his eyes. The hope of all the world shone in them as he prayed I wouldn’t fall, prayed that today wouldn’t be the last day we saw each other. They never put him on the rope but he suffered just as badly as I did every time they forced me to cross it.

  I eventually got across, just as I made it through every other one of my parents’ torture sessions throughout my long childhood.

  I’d transformed on the outside, growing into the powerful fae I am today, but on the inside, an enormous part of me was still that scared little girl. Terrified of her parents and secretly yearning for their love and affection.

  More than anything I wanted revenge, wanted to show them I wasn’t the weak little girl they once knew. Then maybe I wouldn’t have to carry around the shame of knowing I ran from my demons instead of facing them head on.

  Deep down I knew the cold hard truth was I couldn’t face them even if I wanted to.

  Every time I went back to that mansion of horrors in my head, I felt just as weak and terrified as I did as a child, and that fear is the most terrifying thing of all.

  A rattling sound coming from a nearby cell pulled me from my thoughts. I spun on my heels, searching for the source of the sound.

  “Looking for something, fae?” A greasy-looking guy with messy hair, black pants and a wife beater tank top came out of one of the fancy cells.

  “Yeah, I’m looking for the ice cream man,” I said sarcastically. “I was sure I heard the ice cream truck song somewhere around here.”

  “Hmm feisty, I like myself a feisty fae.”

  “Yeah well I like men without food stains all over their shirt. Oh yeah, and I also prefer when they have a dick.” I responded, patting the tips of my fingers under my nose.

  His nostrils flared, and he bared his teeth as rage took over him. He stormed towards me, drawing back a fist readying to launch it at my face.

  “I wouldn’t if I were you,” I said calmly, and he froze, still holding his fist in the air. “See I’m in a bit a hurry to find cell number 12. And if I don’t get there in oh, I don’t know, the next twelve seconds one of us will know what that painting over there tastes like.”

  I pointed over at a painting of a mother and child on the wall a few feet down. I then shot him a fiendish expression, one that said, ‘you do not want to mess with this crazy bitch. She. Will. End. You.’

  His fist fell as sweat trailed down his face. “Um, right down there.” He yelped, jabbing a finger to a cell at the end of the hall. He then scurried away like the roach he was.

  I entered the cell, searching for what I came for. There it was, an antique chair in the corner behind the bed. It was supposed to be right here, this was the agreed drop off point. Before I got arrested, I’d paid the harpies of the Willis Order good money to slip the shiso to their buddies on the inside. Cell block one, cell number 12, under the chair. This was the place.

  I rolled back the chair and saw a loose black brick under it. I jabbed my nails into the rim of the brick, flipped it over and peered underneath it.

  I froze, my jaw falling. What in Dominion was this? There wasn’t a leaf in sight. All I saw was a couple of dead ants, dust, and an old candy wrapper with the words ‘juicy mama’ written across it.

  I dropped the brick back in place and sprang to my feet. That was the last straw. Someone had a lot of fucking explaining to do. Without that shiso Michael and I would die in here.

  I didn’t want it to come to this, but now I knew there was no choice. I had to make a call to my pack and fast. And in all the time I’d been in this shithole, I’d only seen one com device. Drake’s.

  Looks like it was time to pay that tyrannical dragon shifter a visit.

  ***

  It was pretty late in the night, not quite time for lights out yet though. So, most of the prisoners still hadn’t gone back to their cells. Now was my perfect opportunity. I’d seen where his cell was after that arrogant bastard of a dragon had forced me to his cell on the first night.

  If I was going to get into his cell before he came back to it, I would have to move fast. I made my way back to cell block five and snuck my way into his cell. All the doors were wide open as was usual outside of lights out.

  The Gods couldn’t have been any better to me if they’d just slid Drake’s com device right into my pocket.

  I glanced inside his cell, scanning past the chair and table at one end to the bed on the other. Sitting pretty as a picture on the bed was a little black box with a white stripe across the back.

  My prize unguarded? Perfect! I’d be calling home before lights out.

  I tiptoed inside, the sides of my lips curving up into a devilish grin as I approached the bed. How could he be naïve as to just leave something so valuable here, unprotected? Most prisoners in here would give their left foot to have a way to contact the outside and he just left his lying around?

  “Dragon Boy, you really have a lot to learn,” I murmured as I outstretched a hand to reach for it. The moment my fingers wrapped around it someone behind me said, “Not as much as you do if you think you’re getting that phone.”

  I nearly jumped out of my skin.

  Oh hell, he’s behind me. The dragon was here.

  “Hey there.” I said merrily, turning to shoot him a warm smile, my hands folded behind my back as if I weren’t trying to rob him.

  With a raised brow and his jaw tightening with annoyance, he slid forward. Bringing his masculine features into clear focus as the dim cell light made his honey brown skin almost seem to glisten.

  He made his approach.

  “What do you think you’re doing in my cell?” He b
arked, and I saw a glint of gold in his eyes. The mark of the dragon. His inner beast was fighting for release, itching to rip the cause of his master’s rage limb from limb.

  “Well, you see. I just thought you were so friendly before I’d come by and say hello.” I said, stretching one hand behind me to slide the com device between my fingers as discreetly as I could.

  “Ah, I see. And what’s that behind your back?” He asked with a ruthless edge to his tone. “Give it here, Fae Girl.”

  He raised his hand, gesturing for me to come to him, but I stayed right where I stood near the bed.

  “Listen, Dragon Boy. We’ve had this conversation before. I rarely like to repeat myself, but for your sake I will. I do not take orders from-”

  But before I could finish my sentence, his hand shot out of nowhere to grip me by the arm, pulling me into the expanse of his chest.

  The spicy sweet scent of his body sent shivers down my spine. His powerful muscles grated against my chest in a way that was anything but subtle and he then leaned down to whisper in my ear.

  “I told you not to mess with the dragon, Fae Girl. I warned you that there was no end to the pain I could deliver if you disobeyed me. You’ve brought havoc to half the prison in just a couple of days. You’ve sent dozens to the infirmary and now you want to steal? From me?”

  His grip around my arms tightened in an ominous threat that said, ‘move one inch and prepare to hear a snap’.

  I tilted my head to the side, my eyes meeting his, our lips precious inches apart.

  “You're just mad I snuck into your cell and not your bed, Dragon Boy. We both know you’ve got a thing for me.”

  I thought I was lying when I said it. But the hard poke of what must have been an enormous dragon cock now bore into my belly after what I’d just said. And what was that I saw in the gold hue of his eyes? Was that Lust?

  “If I ever caught you between my sheets, you wouldn’t be smirking like you are right now.” He threatened. “I’d enjoy picking apart that smile of yours one hard thrust at a time, till all you could do is cry out my name. And do you know what I would do to you after that?”