by C. R. Jane
“Do you think Seth even knows where the scepter is? I don’t want you to have the warden coming after you before I can get us away because of a mission you can’t even fulfill.”
I thought about it. “I don’t know. If he does, he certainly hasn’t said anything. The warden has him tortured so much that he barely has the energy to talk to me at all. He’s just trying to survive.”
That same look was in Alaric’s gaze. He really was jealous about this. I doubted he would be jealous if he’d watched Seth’s skin be flayed off his back because of the warden’s anger at me.
“Just be careful,” Alaric said. “If Seth says anything about the scepter, come to me before you say anything to the warden. We can come up with a plan together of what to do.”
“I’m never going to get used to not being alone anymore,” I whispered to him as I snuggled into his chest.
“You’ll never be alone again,” he vowed.
At his proclamation I couldn’t deny, I definitely fell a little bit more in love with him.
Chapter 12
It was nearly impossible for me to contain the giddiness I was feeling as I walked rapidly towards the section of the prison where Seth’s cell was located. I couldn’t wait to see his face when I gave him back the crystal.
I patted my pocket for what felt like the millionth time, making sure it was still there. I was sure there were a lot of creatures in this prison that would want the crystal if given the chance.
Hopefully, Seth had a better hiding place for it than he did last time.
The smell of Seth’s cell block hit me first. His area was the worst part of the prison that I’d seen, resembling something closer to a decrepit torture chamber during the French Revolution than anything in this century.
Slipping around the corner, I saw Seth sprawled out on the ground, a pensive look on his face as he stared up at the ceiling.
“Hi,” I whispered to him as a guard appeared to open the cell door. Seth stood up, his face alight with happiness. Most of his injuries had healed. It was a testament to the strength of his power that the only evidence of his torture the other day was the faint bruising on his face. I bet if he took off his shirt, his back would be almost healed as well.
“Selena.” He said my name reverently, and a rush of pleasure spun down my spine at the sound of it.
I felt shy all of a sudden. Something had changed between the two of us from that kiss and our mutual torture session. Something big.
I smoothed a piece of hair behind my ear nervously. Summoning courage, I walked up to him and grabbed his hand. “I have something for you,” I told him, biting my lip.
His gaze strayed to my lips, and I could see the yearning in their depths.
“Did you bring me a present? It’s not even my birthday,” he told me with a wink. My mouth actually dropped open at the lightness in his voice. Words that described Seth best included ‘brooding’ and ‘angst-ridden.’ I wouldn’t have believed he was capable of joking if I hadn’t heard it for myself.
A smile broke across my face. It was delayed because I was absorbing everything about the moment, but I couldn’t not smile at seeing a glimpse of what seemed like the real Seth, before everything terrible had happened to him.
“My delivery must have been terrible, judging by the look on your face,” he said with a wink, and my insides sparked up with a whole lot of lust. Which was surprising, since I was still aching from the rounds I’d just gone with Alaric.
My vagina had become quite the hussy since coming to prison.
A snort burst out of me at that thought, and Seth’s smile brightened even further at the sound of it.
Shaking my head to try and clear it from the euphoria-induced fog I was experiencing, I pulled him closer to me.
Reaching into my pocket shakily, I pulled out the crystal and held it out to him, making sure to keep it shielded between us and out of sight of the always watching guards.
He looked down at it, his smile fading as he stared at the crystal like it was a mirage that had suddenly appeared in the desert.
“How did you…” he began, until his voice became too choked up to continue. He didn’t immediately grab the crystal. He just continued to stare at it like he couldn’t believe it was real.
I took his hand and gently placed the crystal into his trembling palm. He immediately closed his hand so he was clutching it tightly, his eyes closing at the same time as he struggled to control his emotions.
“I’m sorry that you were ever parted with it to begin with,” I whispered, feeling very emotional myself.
“I never explained to you why this was so important to me, did I?” he finally said in a gravel filled voice still choked with emotion.
I shook my head, holding my breath in anticipation of what he was going to say.
“When a royal fae passes into the next life, they leave a part of themselves in a crystal taken from the Othenian caves of the Light Realm.”
“Leave a part of themselves?” I asked, not understanding what that meant.
He smiled gently at the confusion in my voice. “They leave some of their most important memories and some of their power to guide the next generation.” He cleared his throat. “This was my father’s. He left it for me before he was killed.”
“Oh, Seth,” I sobbed, guilt seeping into my skin at the fact that I had given something so precious to the warden, even if I hadn’t known.
“It’s okay,” he soothed, gathering me in his arms and kissing the top of my head gently. He lifted my face up and brushed a soft, sparkling kiss on my lips that I felt all the way to my soul.
He surprised me then by stepping back and placing the crystal back in my hands. “I need you to keep it for now. They search my cell all the time. There’s nowhere to hide anything in here. I’m afraid that it will be taken again if I try and keep it with me. Is there somewhere you can keep it safe?”
The guilt throbbed at me now, until my skin felt hot and tight. I still hadn’t told him. Just a few weeks ago, I would have been the worst person to entrust the crystal with. He’d hate me as soon as he found out the truth. I’d have to tell him sometime, but not today. I didn’t want to ruin today.
Everything was different now.
Before I could say anything, a guard hit the cell door, making us look guilty as we jumped apart like we’d done something wrong. I slipped the crystal back into my pocket and looked questioningly at the guard. Usually, they gave me more time with Seth than this.
“You have a visitor,” he barked at Seth. I turned to look at Seth in surprise. As far as I knew, he hadn’t gotten visitors the entire time I’d been in the prison. Seth’s lips were pursed, and he looked deep in thought at the news.
“I’ll just be going then,” I told Seth. He nodded, distracted, sending me a small smile as I walked out.
I shot a look back at him before I turned the corner, but he wasn’t watching me go like usual. Frowning and worrying about what kind of trouble a visitor meant for him, I doubled back and stayed just out of sight, waiting to see who his visitor was.
Seth wasn’t allowed the privileges that other prisoners got, like being able to meet visitors in the waiting room where I’d met with my mother. So whoever his visitor was, they would be coming to his cell.
The sound of a woman’s bell-like voice rang down the hallway and had me peeking around the corner to see who it was. My view of his cell was still blocked, so I crept closer, unsure what was up ahead.
And then I saw her. If Seth was the gleaming light fae with the features to match, she was his equal.
She had long, silver hair that reminded me of stardust, and even in the dim lighting and that far away, I could see that her eyes were an unusual shade of blue. Her skin was unmarred by a single blemish or freckle, and I somehow knew its golden tone was the exact tone Seth’s would be had he not been tortured and starved on a daily basis.
The closeness between the two was obvious. She was standing just a few inch
es away from him, her hand on his chest. Considering Seth usually hated anyone touching him, the action bespoke of familiarity that had jealousy coursing through me. She was tall and slender, her forehead hitting just under his nose, despite the fact that Seth was well over six feet tall.
“Alania,” he sighed. Was it my imagination that there was longing in the way he said her name? Had he said it with the same reverence that he’d said mine, just minutes before?
My jealousy grew thicker until I felt like I could drown in it.
“I’ve missed you,” she told him in a voice so seductive, it could cause a priest to sin.
I hated her. I wanted to rip her hand off his chest.
For a second, his gaze seemed to meet mine, but I had to have imagined that, because when she stood up on her tiptoes to press her lips against his, he didn’t stop her. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and met her passionately, like he couldn’t get enough.
My heart shattered into a million pieces. I couldn’t take my eyes off of them.
“Guess old princey over there didn’t tell you about his fiancée,” a voice leered in my ear. Spinning around, I saw that one of the guards that frequently watched over Seth had managed to sneak up on me in the midst of my shocked heartbreak.
“Fiancée?” I asked, not comprehending what he was saying. I was still reeling from the kiss that was still happening behind me though. This all felt like some kind of nightmare. Was I going to wake up and find that I had dreamed this all along and I was still lying on my bed with Alaric?
“A little detail he must have missed when you were taking care of the bastard,” the guard crowed.
My body felt overloaded, like I was going to burst out of my skin. I didn’t stay to see anymore or hear anything more from the guard.
I just ran.
Chapter 13
Tears streamed down my face.
I didn’t stop running, shoving past people, not giving a shit.
All I could picture in my mind was Seth and that extremely beautiful fae kissing him. What the hell was wrong with me to believe someone like him, a freaking royal, would really be interested in me? But I knew the answer, and as much as I hurt to admit to myself, it was the truth. I was the only company he had, so he latched onto me.
While I, the biggest idiot in the world, fell and let myself believe I meant something to him.
“Fuck!” I muttered, utterly outraged while my heart splintered.
And what was with the drawings of me? Were they a plot to make me believe he liked me? God, he kissed me, and I thought it meant the world. I shed tears for him, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he was a liar and tricked everyone, and him being here was exactly what he deserved.
I’d done everything to help him, even had Alaric steal the stupid crystal in my pocket. We risked too much, only to discover that Seth wasn’t really who he made himself out to be.
He tricked me, and now I felt like crap. Like I’d been run over by a truck and then it backed over me several times to make sure I was destroyed.
The image of him kissing her kept crashing into me, over and over, and I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Neither could I ignore just how stunning she was… Here, I stood shorter than her, my hair limp, and orange was definitely not my color.
Who was I kidding? I didn’t belong in their league, and Seth proved that royally today. Had he seen me? Had he been well aware I was watching him kiss that girl, and he just didn’t care?
Asshole.
My chest squeezed tight, and I could barely breathe.
For a while, I’d started to think that Nightmare Penitentiary might not be that bad. I’d found myself with three men who made me feel special, who showed me how to love myself.
First, Keon hid the truth of his past from me, and I still didn’t know what to make of him being a serial stalker, and capable of killing. At first, I assumed it was in self-defense, but I started to wonder if that wasn’t the case after all.
Then, Seth showed his true colors about how he felt about me.
Bastards.
My body racked with sobs, I stumbled into a corner in the corridor with cells all around me and cried. I didn’t care when the other prisoners hooted or laughed at me.
I let myself fall, and now it broke me. I cried in my hands, hating myself for getting so emotional, loathing Seth for using me.
Of course the fault was mine… Look where the hell I lived now. How could I trust anyone here?
“Hey, babe, you need some comfort?” a male’s voice droned from in front of me. When his hand touched my arm, I jerked away and shook his touch off me.
“Don’t touch me!” I managed as my eyes blurred behind tears.
I turned and kept running, not even remembering where I was headed, but I didn’t want to stop or admit that I’d made a huge mistake.
This place wasn’t that much different to real life, was it? Those outside these walls used me and saw me as a means to an end to benefit themselves, just like most inside here.
When I finally stopped running, I gasped for air and it took several moments to work out where I stood. Except this couldn’t be right.
Ahead of me lay the corridor that took me to the warden’s office, while somewhere behind me was the shrink’s office.
My head hurt too much to make sense of how I got here without going through security. Except, I remembered when I first arrived at the prison, the walls at this institute shifted around as if it had a life of its own, opening up new passages.
The building had guided me here, and with that thought, Seth’s crystal in my pocket suddenly felt heavy.
I stuck my hand into the pocket and curled the stone with curved edges over my fingers. This meant so much to him, but did Seth really deserve it?
My gaze lifted to the long stretch of the hallway ahead of me. Did I arrive here for a reason? I glanced around with my teary eyes, not seeing anyone around, and biting down on my lower lip, I made the decision to go speak with the warden.
I’d be honest with him and explain all I found out from Seth, which wasn’t much, and say it was a lost cause. Returning the crystal, I could tell him to put me back on full time kitchen and delivery duty. That my time with Seth was wasted.
I swallowed the boulder in my throat, uncertainty clenching in my stomach. My stare remained locked on the corridor, but my feet hadn’t moved yet.
He tricked me into liking him, I hated him a little more as I stood there battling with myself if I should end this with him.
Of course I should. He was a liar. He probably hadn’t even been telling the truth about the importance of the crystal.
Distance was what I needed from Seth and Keon.
I marched ahead before I changed my mind, making my way toward the warden’s office. I wiped away the tears that kept falling because I needed to be strong and not that girl who fell apart. Sure, I fucked up and let them fool me, but now I’d change things.
Outside his office stood two guards, large brutes, rigid and carrying tasers on their belts. Their presence sent goosebumps up my arms.
Several feet in front of me, the warden stepped out from a corridor and marched toward his office, and Alaric was right at his side. Neither of them saw me behind them, but my feet stopped working, and I froze on the spot.
Why was Alaric looking so chummy with the warden? They were talking like friends, and the warden even barked out a laugh.
What the hell?
I stiffened, but as the pair entered his office, I hurried forward to hear what in the world they were talking about.
Alaric never gave me the impression he was close with the warden. He’d gone so far as to warn me away from him.
One of the guards by his door stepped in my path. I craned my head up and offered him a smile. “I’m here to see the warden.”
“Wait by the wall.” His chin lifted in the direction farther down the hall.
I walked over and stood directly next to the door and pressed my back to the wall and d
ug my hands into my pockets.
Then I lowered my head, ignoring the guard’s glare, and tried to silence my hammering heart.
The hallway fell silent, and I strained my ears to listen to what was going on inside the office. The faint humming of voices sounded, but I needed to get closer.
This was the perfect moment for me to have some of the magic mojo from the shrink to have my out of my body experience.
Inching closer to the door, I bit the inside of my cheek, unsure how to get closer without draping myself over the door. Tilting my head to the side, pretending to be stretching, I caught a few words, but they remained garbled.
The guards started chatting in low whispers, something about boyfriend problems and how he found him cheating with his neighbor. As juicy as the story sounded, I shut out the voices and concentrated on what was going on in the room.
The deeper the guards got into their conversation, and turned their backs to me so I didn’t overhear them, the more I gravitated closer to my own eavesdropping.
“I think I found it,” the warden stated with conviction.
What in the world was he talking about? The seconds passed excruciatingly slow until Alaric responded.
“You sure about that? The fae hasn’t given away anything you said, so how’d you track it down?”
My pulse jackhammered now where it rushed past my ears, deafening me for a few moments as I pieced everything together.
The warden had been searching for the stupid scepter, which was why he punished Seth, why he had me going in there to pry information out of him. But what did Alaric have to do with any of this?
His words from our last time together streamed over my mind.
If Seth says anything about the scepter, come to me before you say anything to the warden.
Heaviness dropped through me because I simply assumed he was worried about me getting in trouble. Except he was fishing for information. Did he want the scepter for himself? What the hell was the big deal with this stupid artifact?
It didn’t really matter now, did it?
