There's a metallic sound, and I'm pushed forward. Another metallic sound as the cell closes, and just like that, my body is under my control again. Just like magic. The potion must have a release triggered by the sound of the cell opening and shutting.
Drake nods to me, and I nod back and watch as he flies away.
9
Two hands grip the cells. I don’t think until after I touch the cool, smooth surface that the bars might zap me, but nothing happens, and I shift to the side to watch Drake for as long as possible.
“What’s the matter?” a familiar voice calls from behind me. “You couldn’t charm the pants off him?”
I whirl around. “Spring.”
She’s stretched out on one of the beds. The mattress is pathetic, barely even there. Her smirk is unfamiliar, and her eyes… they look haunted. Have they always looked that way? I never noticed before.
She brushes her green hair back from her eyes. The thief and arsonist just stares me down without another word.
“I didn’t charm him,” I slowly say, staying by the bars.
“Aw, does someone want to leave already?” she mocks. “Poor little Bay. You should’ve been locked away this entire time with me.”
I cross my arms, my wings brushing against the cell bars as I glare at her. “I didn’t steal anything. I didn’t—”
“You doled out fairy dust like it was candy!”
“I never took any of it.”
“As if using is worse than selling it. You disgust me. If it weren’t for you—”
“You set fires and tried to kill people!”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” Spring hisses.
“Aw, poor baby. Is she regretting that she didn’t kill me?” I mock. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You think you’re the victim?” Spring bursts out laughing.
"No, but clearly, you do. What? Are you trying to claim that the fairy dust made you set those fires? Yeah, no. It doesn't make you do anything at all."
“Right, because drugs don’t affect people. That’s not how they work!”
I rub my forehead. My head is killing me. My body is dehydrated from the fae nectar I drank to excess, and given that my connection to nature has been severed, the effects of the hangover are amplified.
“Look, I don’t want to fight with you, Spring. I’m sorry I jumped at you. I—”
“You should be sorry for ruining my life!”
“Your actions,” I say through gritted teeth.
“My actions, what, Bay? You deny that you played a role in shaping my fate?”
“I can only be held accountable for my own actions.”
“And you sold me fairy dust!”
I exhale a breath. Illumination. Seeking inward. Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses.
Owning up to mistakes.
“Yes, I sold you fairy dust,” I say, calming down, “and for that, I am sorry.”
Spring’s smirk grows. “So you admit that it’s your fault—”
"But if the only way you can be removed from society so that others are safe from your penchant to set fires, well, then, maybe I can live with myself after all for the role I played in your being captured."
“You bitch!” She lets out an inhuman shriek, and Spring zooms at me. She grabs my hair and tries to throw me down.
I might like to pay attention to fashion and dye my hair and all of that, but I know how to fight, and I don’t fight fair. My hand goes straight to Spring’s throat, and I squeeze until she releases my hair. Her fingers claw at my arm to the point of drawing blood.
“You will leave me be,” I demand.
“You will not tell me what to do! I’m my own fairy and—”
“Then leave me alone! Let me live my life and serve my time in peace—”
“Peace?” Spring yanks my hand away and bursts out into wild laughter. “You don’t deserve peace. You deserve—”
“What is the meaning of this?”
I glance over to see the owner of the sexy, deep voice. A guard stands there, with hair as dark as mine. His eyes are unnerving but mesmerizing, white with black all around. Spellbound, I stare at him until Spring grabs my throat with her hands.
“She’s the reason why I’m here,” Spring says.
“Spring, release her,” the guard says.
“Yeah, she’ll listen to reason,” I spit out, my words a little jumbled from her trying to crush my throat. “One issue, though. She doesn’t believe in reason.”
“She’s right,” Spring says. “I don’t believe in reason. I believe in revenge.”
“Damn it, Spring, if you don’t get back—”
“Damn it, Trevan,” she mocks.
The cell door opens, but before Trevan can enter, I duck down, zooming downward and bringing Spring with me. The moment my feet touch the ground, I bend at the waist. Spring goes flying forward, her grip loosening, and I yank my neck free and kick her hard in the stomach.
She flies backward, and Trevan catches her.
“You two need to break it up,” he spits out, “or else—”
"Or else what, Lightbush?" Spring asks. "Want to give me a kiss? Maybe then, I'll behave."
Trevan smirks at her, and in a flash, he’s cuffed her.
“What the fuck?” she shrieks.
“You aren’t behaving. You know what happens when you don’t behave.”
“Fuck you,” she spits out. “What about her?”
I hold up my wrists. I’m not wearing my cuffs. When did Drake take them off? Maybe I forget or didn’t realize in the haze of being drugged.
Trevan eyes me. “You both were fighting.”
“She came at me,” I say.
“Look at my neck,” Spring shrieks, lifting her chin as high as she could. There’s no denying the marks made from my fingers on her porcelain skin. “She attacked me!”
“It’s called self-defense, sweetheart,” I drawl.
Spring narrows her eyes. “Why I ought to—”
“You need to cut the crap now,” Trevan demands, his tone low but containing a dangerous undercurrent. He’s not quite as muscular as Drake, but he’s solid, and I wish he had handled me the way he had Spring. I would’ve taken the opportunity to rub against him.
Fuck, there’s something wrong with me.
No. No, I can use this. I can do what I always do and make the guards fall in love with me. I may be stuck here for now, but I won’t be here long, and Trevan and Drake, they’re going to help me get out of here whether they want to or not.
“Let me guess, if we’re naughty, we’re punished, right?” I ask Trevan.
He smirks, and I grin. He sees right through me, but that’s fine. I’ll wear him down.
“Not the kind of punishment you’re thinking of.”
“No?” I shrug one shoulder. “What if I’m drugged and willing to do whatever you say?”
“No. I like consent, thank you very much.”
“That’s the thing.” I wink. “I don’t need to be drugged to be willing to do whatever you want me to.”
He snorts. "For now, I just want the two of you to behave. That's not asking too much, is it?" Trevan directs this to Spring.
“You really shouldn’t leave her in here with me,” Spring says mildly.
“You need to get over yourself,” Trevan snaps. “You have a roommate. Deal with it.”
“Yes, well, roommates come and go.”
Trevan flares his nostrils. “You will get yourself drugged if you keep this up, Spring.”
Spring just waves her hand, her cuffs rattling.
Trevan leaves, and I heave a sigh.
“What’s wrong, princess?” Spring mocks.
“Nothing at all. I’m just peachy.”
“I’ve always hated fucking peaches,” Spring mutters.
I can’t help bursting out laughing. After a moment, even Spring laughs too.
I don't think rooming with her will be for the best, but I won't be here long. Tha
t's all I have to focus on. I'll come up with a plan, and I'll get out of here.
Spring, though, she can’t catch wind of my plans because she needs to stay here. That girl is fucking crazy.
10
For about two hours now, we haven't said a word to each other, and that's fine by me. I've been trying to do some deep breathing techniques to help clear my mind, but whenever I start to empty my mind, Spring will mimic my breathing in the most obnoxious way ever. I really don't appreciate it, but I don't want to risk her starting more shit again, so I just deal with it.
Eventually, right when I think I might lie down and try to rest some, hoping it would help get rid of my headache, there’s a single loud chime.
I sit up.
Spring rushes to the door. It unlocks, but she waits. Fairies trickle down the hall, forming an orderly line.
Spring waits for her turn and then enters behind the last woman. I go to follow, but she sneers.
“You’re last of all, newbie. You’ll soon learn that pretty looks won’t get you anything here.”
I wiggle my fingers and blow her a kiss. She huffs and keeps on going, and I wait and wait and wait.
When no more fairies parade on by, I leave my cell. A guard I haven’t seen before nods to me. There’s something overtly dark about him. Might be the scar running down the side of his face, but I don’t want anything to do with him. Drake and Trevan, they’re different, younger, more approachable. Trevan, though, those eyes… I can’t get them out of my head. He definitely had been more against Spring than me. I bet he’s had to deal with shit with her before, and I can’t help wondering about her previous roommates. Had they been swapped to other cells because Spring threatened them? That wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
We march along, and I have to say that irks me a bit. Why aren’t we flying? It feels so very human to have us march like this.
Wait. We can use our wings, can’t we? Wings aren’t magic, so they should still be fine. Man, if I can’t fly, heads are going to roll. Not literally, of course, but this place is already starting to wear on me. There’s no light source, so the place is dark. It’s a bit too cool for my tastes, but I’ve always liked it to be hot. And I want to be outside more than anything. The sun, fresh air…
The freedom. That’s what I miss the most.
But of course I can’t have freedom. I gave that up the moment I neglected to stop Zoth from killing the professor.
We file into a huge room with twin columns of long tables and benches instead of chairs. Already, some of the prisoners are sitting and eating.
The line moves fairly quickly, and I grab a tray with some kind of glop on a plate and a murky-looking liquid in a glass. It’s not a glass made of actual glass, of course, because that could be turned into a weapon. No, it’s a plastic glass. Just touching the plastic makes my skin crawl. Is there anything less nature-y than plastic?
I turn and glance around to see male and female fairy prisoners at every table. Most seem engrossed in their food instead of talking. There's a hushed low-level hum of noise. That's all. Guards are along the walls, but none of them are doing anything other than watching us. Everything is a bit… pedestrian.
I don’t move until I spy Spring. She’s all the way on the right, so I head to the left. No one is looking my way, and I don’t care. I claim a seat at the end of a table. No one else is at this end. Most everyone else is wearing a black jumpsuit, but I’m not. I’m sure I’ll be told to change into one soon enough, but for now, I’m grateful to still feel like myself in this.
“Aw, if it isn’t Bay, trying to look like she’s the shit,” Spring drawls as she approaches me. She reaches toward the crescent moon on my choker, but I block her arm. “Don’t touch me,” she hisses.
“Keep your hands to yourself, Spring,” I say quietly.
A few of the prisoners around us shift uncomfortably. They’re doing that whole watching without being obvious thing.
“Let’s not start this again,” I tell her.
"Why? You think you're going to be protected here? Guards don't give a flying fuck about us. We're nothing to them, less than nothing. They don't give a damn about us, and the prison is overcrowded as it is, so if we knock some of us off… It's no sweat off their back. Yes, there's been a run on dark fae. How about that?"
“Ain’t that just peaches and cream?” I drawl.
I go to take a sip of the… whatever is in the glass, but Spring slaps my hand, and the glass spills all over the table.
“Look what ya did, you little jerk,” I say calmly as I stand. I grip the back of her neck and shove her toward the table. “Lick it up, baby. Lick it up.”
She grabs my fork, yanks herself free, and tries to gorge out one of my eyes.
“What is the meaning of this?” a familiar voice calls.
My heart skips a beat, but I can’t risk looking away from Spring. She still has the fork way too close to my eye.
He marches forward and pushes his way between us, his glittery silver hair a delight to see. I want to run my fingers through it. I want him. He's safe and secure, and I need that right now, desperately.
“Cosmo?” Spring asks. “You’re a guard here?”
“Put the fork down,” he says firmly.
“Wait. Did you transfer here because of her?” Spring asks, her voice rising sharply. “You have got to be fucking kidding me. If you think you’re going to sneak into our cell at night so you can slip your cock inside her—”
“Spring, if you continue to talk to me like this, there will be consequences,” Cosmo says firmly.
My heart is beating so very fast, and my head is swimming. Is he really here because of me? That’s crazy talk. He wouldn’t have done that, right? No way.
But he’s here.
He never once told me about wanting to be a prison guard.
Cosmo and Bracken were both a year ahead of me. When Cosmo graduated, he told me that he felt a bit lost. Thistle attacked Cosmo and nearly killed him. It shook Cosmo to the core, but he never showed that with anyone else. He only let his guard down with me.
So I suggested that he stick around campus, that he was safe now, that he could make it safe for those of us still attending. I had been with Zoth already by then, but I might have been a bit selfish with the suggestion because I loved Cosmo in a way, and I wanted him to stick around.
And then, the professor was murdered, and the campus wasn't safe. Cosmo helped with the investigation, and now, he's here, where I am.
A coincidence? I don’t think so.
“Give Bay her fork back,” Cosmo says calmly.
Spring holds up my fork, bends it until it snaps in half, and marches away, head held high.
Without looking at me, Cosmo marches off, and I slowly sink back in my seat. It’s a bit wet, but I don’t care.
A fairy wipes her fork with her napkin and hands it to me. I smile, but she’s staring at her empty plate.
The gunk has a weird texture, but it doesn’t taste all that bad. I’m still dying of thirst, and I really want to talk to Cosmo. I inhale my food and then try to find him, but another bell sounds, and we have to line up. We have to go back to our cells now.
Even though I didn’t get a chance to hug Cosmo, to congratulate him, to inquire why he’s here, while I’m shocked by his appearance, I am so, so happy to see Cosmo Blackbird. His being here will make things so much better for me.
Or maybe, and this fear curls around my heart, maybe his being here will make things worse for me.
11
For the most part, Spring leaves me be for the rest of the day. We get one more meal but no time outside. Are we ever allowed outside? It’s bad enough that we’ve had our connection to nature severed, but are we denied the sun too?
Actually, I’ve always preferred the night. The moon is what I truly love. I just have a connection to the moon. I can’t describe it. I don’t think that dark fae are drawn to the moon more than the sun. Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. I’
ve been wrong about other things.
After that first meal, there’s a black jumpsuit waiting for me on the bed. Instead of taking off my other clothes, I leave them on underneath. I also leave on the choker. If I’m told to take it off, I will, but I won’t turn it over. I’ll just wrap it around my wrist or my ankle.
Finally, there’s another bell, and the strange light that radiates from the walls dies out. I guess it’s time for us to sleep.
I'm weary to the bone, but I'm not surprised that I can't sleep. It's not because the mattress provides no support. I can feel the springs and coil of the bed frame through the paper-thin mattress.
And I’m tired, exhausted, but my mind won’t shut off.
Even more than that, it’s fear.
Spring.
I don’t trust her.
I should say I don’t trust her now.
When I first attended Light Fae Academy, I immediately fell in with a group of close friends. Holly was first. She actually started to irritate me a little, and I think Rosemary thought of Holly as Bay 2.0. Holly ended up moving away.
Then, Cosmo, Bracken, and Thistle. Bracken and Thistle, those guys I never did anything with sexually. We were just friends, and I appreciated that. It’s not often that I can find guy friends who don’t want to rip my clothes off me.
But then Thistle… I shudder. He fell for Rosemary, hard, and he knew that Rosemary helped to uncover that Spring was the thief and arsonist, so Thistle gave Rosemary a new mystery to solve. He actually killed people so that he could get closer to her. He even went after Cosmo! I'll never forgive him for that.
When I first met Spring, she seemed a little lost, and I pitied her.
“Why don’t you sit with us?” I asked her.
“Oh, I don’t know. I don’t want to bother you. You seem so…”
"What are you worried about? It's just lunch." I shrugged, my long white hair falling forward over my shoulder. “You can come or go. Your choice.”
She bit her lower lip and brushed some green hair behind her ear. It didn’t stay there, though, as she nodded. “All right. I’ll come.”
Dark Fae Penitentiary: First Transgression Page 5
