I’m frozen. Literally frozen, paralyzed by fear.
What the hell did he just do?
And did he just make me an accomplice to murder? What the hell is that third eye that he had been willing to kill for it?
And if he discovers that I have it, will he kill me too?
5
Rosemary and I have been at odds. She hates that I’m gone all the time, but that’s not all of it. She’s going through stuff, and she needs her sister, but I just can’t help her right now.
I can’t even help myself.
She's convinced that Zoth is all wrong for me, and we fought. She went to see Zoth and tried to sabotage our relationship or something, so we fought again. If only Rosemary knew how right she is, but I’m in over my wings, and I don’t know if there’s a way for me to escape.
It certainly doesn’t help matters that I’m too terrified to go back on campus in case anyone saw anything.
For his part, Zoth dotes on me like never before. He doesn’t even ask about the third eye anymore.
What’s more, he makes a confession.
“I never thought demons could love,” he murmurs, “but they can. I know they can because I love you.”
It’s a toxic love, but I’m sick. I don’t know if he’s messing with my head, with my emotions, with my heart, but I can’t leave him.
It's only by using Rosemary as an excuse that I'm able to leave. But I'm not lying. I go to see her, but along the way, I grab her a present. I open the back door to the cottage and fly into the kitchen. When I spy Rosemary and the disgusting, smelly cheese on her plate, I halt, take a whiff, and wave my hand before my nose.
“If you eat that, you’ll get sick.”
“Maybe I deserve to.” She doesn’t pick up the cheese to eat it, though.
“Don’t,” I shout.
“Don’t eat it? I’m hungry.”
“No, don’t be a martyr. Well, and yes, don’t eat it.” I sit across from her.
“Bay—”
“Don’t.” I hold up a hand. “We are going to pretend it never happened.”
“But—”
“I’m serious.” I grab my purse and dump out an array of cookies. “Dig in.”
"Where did you get these?" She eyes the delicious assortment and picks out a cookie covered in cinnamon sugar. After she takes one bite to reveal the soft buttery cookie inside the coating, she closes her eyes and hums her appreciation.
“Does it matter?”
Rosemary opens her eyes to see my smirk.
“A peace offering,” I say, leaning over and breaking off a large piece of her cookie.
“Hey!”
“A peace offering is meant to be shared.” I wink.
“Did you hear about the professor?” she asks.
I’m sure my face has to reveal my sadness but hopefully not any guilt. “Professor Luna. Yes, I heard.”
"Her course was starting to get really interesting, too, don't you think?"
“It was a lot harder of a course than I thought it would be,” I admit.
“You were struggling?” she asks, sounding surprised.
“Yeah. I’m sure you weren’t, though.”
“I’m sure you’re wrong.” The first cookie’s demolished, so she reaches for another one, a chocolate lover’s dream.
“Really?” I blink a few times. “I would’ve thought…”
“It’s such a personal subject, illumination. I understand why there weren’t any group projects, but it’s hard to open your mind, to allow yourself to see every little thing about you.” She shrugs. “I’ve said before that people have a mixture of light and dark in them, but seeing my own darkness…”
“You aren’t that dark,” I protest.
“Neither are you,” she returns.
I give a small smile and then grab a peanut butter cookie, take a bite of it, and then a bite of the chocolate one in my hand.
“Hey!”
“I’m so dark, but fire and brimstone,” I say, talking with the cookie bites in my mouth yet, “having them together is to die for. Try it!”
She does, and her look says it all—that I’m right.
And just like that, things are better between us, but not all is right in the world.
What am I going to do?
For what feels like forever, I hound and beg Rosemary to go on a double date with Zoth and me, and she's finally agreed. Her date is a half-fairy, half-demon named Damon, who actually is hot as fuck. He clearly loves her, but Rosemary's been gone for another fairy since our first year, a guy named Sage. Rosemary's so damn light that she needs some darkness. She needs someone like Damon to balance her out.
What does that say about me? I need someone a hell of a lot lighter than I am, so if anything, I should be with an angel, not a demon.
Nah. I could never go for an angel. I’m not that kind of gal.
Right now, though, things are great between Zoth and me, and I see no reason to make Rosemary and Damon think differently. When Damon produces fae nectar, I opt to get drunk off my wings. Zoth does too, and soon enough, I think I pass out. I’m not sure, but I think I talk to Rosemary some, something about girl talk and dicks. I can’t remember clearly.
I blink a few times. Zoth isn’t here with me. I’m not sure where he is, but I hear a few voices, so I fly over to see what the commotion is all about.
“What’s going on?” I ask, glad that I’m not slurring my words.
“He did it!” Rosemary screams. “He killed Professor—”
“Tell them the truth,” Zoth interrupts, his tone cold and impersonal. “Tell them about how you were the mastermind behind the murder.”
"I wasn't," I say with a gasp. "Don't you dare say that!"
“She can’t lie!” Rosemary says triumphantly. “Zoth can because he’s a demon.”
“What am I?” Zoth growls.
“A demon!”
He backhands Rosemary so hard that I see red. He’s strong, impossibly so.
Several guards, and Rosemary’s boys—Damon and Sage—all fly at Zoth, and I take that as my cue to hightail it out of there. If Zoth thinks he’s going to drag me down with his burning flight, he needs to think again.
“Bay, where are you going?” my twin calls.
I wince, hating that she sounds so very fearful. Does she really think I’m guilty?
But while I didn't kill Professor Luna, I could've and almost did kill a human. I'm a terrible person, even if I am innocent of the professor's murder.
Desperation has me saying, “I have to get out of here.”
“What? Why? You don’t have to worry. They’ll get Zoth and then—”
“You don’t understand.”
“You weren’t the mastermind,” she says stubbornly.
“No.”
“They just open up to telepathy, and—”
“I wasn’t the mastermind,” I repeat glumly.
Her eyes widen, and her lips part to form an “O,” as she realizes that I’m guilty in a fashion.
“Bay…”
“Just let me go.”
She hesitates, and I start to fly away when Bracken tackles me out of the air. Bracken. He’s a good friend of Cosmo’s and mine, another student at the academy turned guard. I don’t bother to struggle against him as he arrests me.
I’m sorry, Rosemary. I’m sorry you have a fuck-up as your twin.
My twin’s flown off, probably not wanting to witness my arrest. Will she be strong enough to say goodbye? Or will I have to face the future with the belief that I’ve finally done it, that I’ve made my twin hate me?
Somehow, I think this nightmare is just beginning. It’ll be Dark Fae Penitentiary for me. I can’t say I’m thrilled about that, but at least there, I’ll be away from Zoth and his influence. Maybe I'll be able to master illumination and work on my weaknesses. Maybe there, I'll be able to become the fairy I want to be, whether that's light or dark.
But I already know what kind of fairy I am.
I might not be in love with a demon, but I’m a dark fae just the same, and I deserve to be locked up.
6
Hours later, Zoth is sent away to some demon prison, and I hope I’ll never see him again. How could he try to say I was the mastermind behind the murder? Yes, fairies can’t lie, but demons can. Why tell that particular lie, though? Clearly, I don’t mean much of anything to him. He doesn’t care about my wellbeing, and he’s more than willing to let me take the fall for a crime he committed, the worst possible crime there is.
I’m not the mastermind.
But I am guilty.
If I gave him that third eye, he wouldn’t have gone after the professor. I’m certain of it. Not that I ever did learn what it could be used for.
Wait. Zoth seemed to have a vendetta against the Illumination professor from the start. Had it been personal for him?
Pine, a security guard who is dating one of Rosemary’s friends, escorts me out of the building. Bracken didn’t say much to me as we waited for Pine to arrive. My mouth is dry, and I have nothing to say to anyone.
I just wish I didn’t have to wear these cuffs.
As soon as Pine guides me outside, Rosemary gasps. “Let her go,” she pleads.
Pine grimaces and shakes his head. “I’m afraid I can’t.”
“Why not? Bay, please, consider telepathy!”
“Rosemary, you’re only going to make things worse,” Pine murmurs. “If you’ll excuse me…”
“Where are you taking her?” my twin demands, shifting to the side.
“She’s being sent to Dark Fae Penitentiary, and I am going to escort her there personally.”
“What? No!”
She dashes over to me and hugs me.
She stares at me with her purple eyes, so similar to my own. Before, it used to seem as if we were two halves of the same person, but that's no longer the case. Not personality-wise and not look-wise either. I’m a perfect stranger, and I don’t recognize myself.
“Don’t worry about me,” I murmur. “I’ll be fine.”
She stares into my eyes, and her lips part. She thinks I’m lying.
Maybe I am.
“You take good care of her, do you hear me?” I tell Damon.
“Always,” he says softly.
“Rosemary, tell Mom and Dad I love them.”
“Anything else?” Rosemary asks, her voice cracking.
“That’s it.”
She nods, biting her lower lip.
“Rosemary?” I venture.
Again, she nods.
“I love you too.”
"I love you, Bay." She breaks down crying, but Pine's had enough, and we start to fly off until I stop suddenly, and Pine can't get me to move forward.
Rosemary’s tears slow, and our gazes meet.
I gape at her as confusion overwhelms me. "Why do I feel like we have to have a girl talk about dicks?"
When a fairy makes a vow, it has to be fulfilled. We cannot break them, and a vow is forcing us to have this conversation now. It’s hilarious, but I’m not about to laugh. Now just isn’t the time.
"Later," Rosemary tells me. "We can talk about that later."
Pine glances between us. "Seriously? You made a vow to—"
"Don't you judge us," I snap. Despite what she's done, she's still my twin.
"I'm not judging," Pine says stiffly. "I'm just… surprised, that's all." He glances between us. "That enough for you both?"
I open my mouth to answer in the negative, but that would be a lie. After a brisk nod, Pine forces me to fly away.
At least he let me change my clothes before I was forced to leave for the penitentiary. I'll be arriving in style. Like most days, I'm wearing a black choker with an attached glowing purple crescent moon. A killer black bra under a tight, extremely low cut black halter top rests above a super short black skirt with glowing purple along the hemline. My boots are knee-high with parts reaching up to my thigh, almost like spider webs. I still have on my makeup from yesterday, my eyes as dark as the black painted on my full lips. I would've loved to have painted my nails purple just for the hell of it, but Pine scrutinized me the entire time I got changed, and I doubt he would've allowed that. Not because he's a perv. He wanted to make sure I didn't make a fly for it.
The third eye. Will it stay hidden? Zoth doesn’t know that I took it, and he definitely doesn’t know where I put it, that it’s safe and sound in my old room at my parents’ treehouse. Everything should be fine.
Only, it’s not fine. Not nearly.
Still, I can't deny that I belong in Dark Fae Penitentiary. As much as Rosemary wants me to subject myself to telepathy to prove my innocence, I'm guilty of other crimes. Fairies aren't supposed to drink from humans. It's greatly preferred that we ignore the humans, pretend they don't exist because we don't want them to know about us. We're on our own in the world as much as we can be.
Vampires aren’t real, no, but the way I felt when I had human blood in my system… Is fairy dust like that? I never did the drug. And what had Zoth mixed the human blood with that first time? Had he tainted me somehow? And I drank it willingly. What the hell? Am I nothing more than a stupid sex slave?
I hate myself, and if I subject myself to telepathy, Rosemary will learn that I truly am dark. She’ll hate me too, and I can’t have that. I need at least one person flying in my corner.
It's a long flight all the way to Dark Fae Penitentiary. The building is perfectly gothic, constructed entirely of black obsidian stone. Somehow, vines and moss grow on the upper portion of the structure. There are no windows that I can see, and it's at least six stories tall, maybe taller. The lack of windows makes it harder to judge its height.
Pine is silent the entire flight, and I have no urge to speak. I wouldn’t say I’m terrified of being sent here. No, if anything, I’m fine with it. Ever since everything went down with Spring during my first year at Light Fae Academy, I had a feeling I would end up here.
The guard sighs as we approach the gate. Now that I’m closer, I can see the windows. Barred, of course, but windows are better than nothing. They’re entirely black, though, which is why I couldn’t see the windows at first.
With a smirk, I eye the vines and try to infuse a bit of magic. I shouldn’t be able to. The cuffs I’m wearing suppress magic, but I spy a tiny bud. Had it been there originally? I can’t be sure.
“You didn’t kill that professor,” Pine finally grunts.
I eye him. Why is he saying this?
“I understand not wanting to undergo telepathy. It’s a newfangled way of doing this, to prove innocence, but it can be corrupted. Someone can lie to themselves and make it seem like they’re innocent when they’re guilty, and some might be willing to take the fall for another. There are even some who might even want to be imprisoned.”
“Who would want to be locked up?” I mumble.
Pine shrugs. “You’ll be surprised. I’ve met a lot of oddballs in my time.”
My lips quirk. “Am I odd?”
"I think you're guilty of something, yes, but what exactly I don't know. Do you deserve to be imprisoned? I don't know that either. A lot of fairies make mistakes before they grow up and mature."
“So I’m immature. Got it.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “You did deal drugs on campus.”
“Yes, and I wasn’t sent away for that.”
"No, but you being sent here without anyone forcing a confession out of you…"
“Yeah, yeah. Because I’m so damn dark.” I roll my eyes.
“You made your bed.”
“You need to get laid,” I tell him.
“That’s rude,” he counters.
“Maybe so, but you have a stick up your ass.”
He narrows his eyes at me.
“Aren’t you with one of Rosemary’s friends?”
“I… My love life is none of your concern.”
“I know it isn’t.” I flip my hair over my shoulder. “But if my,
ah, scenario should teach you anything, it’s that everything can be taken away in an instant. If you love her, make things right with her. Don’t fuck it up, and you’ll be able to fuck her.”
“Ah, I prefer to think of it as making love,” he says mildly.
“Aw, what a good little light fairy you are,” I tease.
He grunts. “You talk too much. You might want to curb that once you’re inside.”
“Do you know what it’s like?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.” Pine gives me a sympathetic look. “I do have some advice, though.”
“Let me guess. Keep my head down, my wings to myself, and my mouth shut.”
“You got it in one.”
I shrug a shoulder as he resumes flying. We pass through the gate toward the front door. Too bad I’ve never been one to keep my head down or my wings to myself. As for my mouth, it’s always running.
All that might get me into more trouble, but at this point, who gives a flying fuck?
7
The huge doors to the prison rise into the prison itself instead of swinging outward. Two guards fly up to me. They wear dark clothes tight to their muscular bodies, but I barely pay them any attention.
Pine clears his throat. “I called ahead about her.”
“Ah, so this is Bay,” the taller guard says.
“Yes. She hasn’t had her phone call yet,” Pine says.
“She can have it later,” the shorter guard states.
“She’ll have it now,” Pine says evenly.
His fighting for my rights has me side-eyeing him. There’s a flicker of pity in his features. Why does he pity me? Does he feel bad because I’m here? It’s my own actions that resulted in my being in this dump, and I don’t want or deserve his pity.
“Do you know who you want to call?” Pine asks.
“My parents,” I mumble.
Pine glowers at the guards. They nod, all three of them, and Pine flies off.
I hate myself for feeling a flicker of fear, but the guards escort me inside the prison, their hands on me, forcing me along. They bring me to a small room and dial the phone for me.
Dark Fae Penitentiary: First Transgression Page 3
