“Please, that’s not necessary. I’ll go willingly.” I let out a sob.
Don’t make a spectacle out of yourself. You’re always so dramatic, Peony. Mother’s voice boomed in my head. She was getting louder by the minute.
“You should’ve been more careful,” was all Nilsson said to me before he whispered something to a second guard, who nodded.
“I’m sorry! I’ll make it up to you! Please, just give me a second chance!” I screeched, hating how weak I was, but Nilsson didn’t reply. The two vampire guards dragged me toward the museum exit.
Nilsson turned his gaze away from me and said something to Mrs. Wu who seemed very pleased with herself.
The night was very dark and the alley behind the museum even more so. The guards, both men, threw me into a black limousine. One sat in the back with me while the other took the driver’s seat. As soon as the engine started, the guard next to me produced a syringe.
“Where are you taking me?” My voice wobbled, and tears brimmed in my eyes. Way to go, Peony. I needed to get a grip on myself, try to sweet-talk my way out of this, but how could I when I was shaking all over?
“You’ll find out soon enough,” the guard with the syringe replied and jammed the needle into my left arm.
Burning pain shot through me, and then everything went black.
I woke with a start to find myself sitting on a cold chair, my hands still shackled behind my back, my feet chained to the stool legs. A deep burn had settled into my flesh from the iron. The room made out of black stone was unfamiliar. There was not a single window, and only a dim candle burned on the table before me. The damp smell told me I was in a dungeon, but where and how long would I stay here? Certainly, not that long if Nilsson planned for me to make a replacement plant for Mrs. Wu. I struggled against my chains, welcoming the pain as they burned and rubbed against my skin. My whole body trembled at the contact with iron. I deserved this just as I did the blistering the iron was causing. I deserved it all for being so careless.
Use your damn head. It’s not just there to look pretty, Mother had said so many times. I had never listened. Now, I was paying the price.
I groaned as I remembered telling Mrs. Wu and Nilsson that it would take a moon cycle for me to recreate the fertility plant. If they made me rot in here for twenty-eight days, it would be nobody’s fault but my own.
Steps sounded outside my small room. I realized that a large wooden door was on the opposite side of the table, as well as another chair. I was in an interrogation room, then. The steps got louder, and then a key turned in the lock. I swallowed hard, expecting a brute to come in and give me my first punishment, but the person who entered made me gasp with surprise. The female vampire, who would’ve been middle-aged in human years, but was actually a few hundred years old, had her hair pulled back in a tight bun. Her lips were pressed into a firm line as she closed the door behind her.
“Hello, Peony. How sad that we have to see each other under such unfortunate circumstances. You were such a promising student at Nocturnal Academy.”
“Headmistress Cardinal. Where am I?”
Headmistress Cardinal smirked. “Nocturnal Academy. Where else?”
I glanced around. Was this a different part of the prison school? In the dungeons, I had been thrown into a tiny cell in an unknown location. I had been left alone...mostly. I was given enough food, water, and clothing to not die from hunger or cold. Would I get as lucky this time?
“I’m very disappointed in you, Peony.” Lady Cardinal stepped closer. “I thought you learned your lesson after your theft.”
“I didn’t steal that blood crystal. I swear it.” As a pureblood fae, I couldn’t t lie. “I also wasn’t involved in the plant disappearance.”
Headmistress Cardinal tapped her long stick against her open palm and paced around the table, playing with my nerves. “That might be so, but you must still be punished. You allowed the plant to be stolen and took your position for granted. Nilsson bought you because he wanted a magical fae who could follow the rules. This, you did not do.”
There was no surprise in her voice, just determination, and that’s when the realization hit me. That might be so. “So you knew it wasn’t me who took the blood crystal and you still imprisoned me.” Headmistress Cardinal had never given me the chance to explain myself. I was thrown into the dungeons, and all the weeks I was there, she didn’t visit me once. I only saw her after I had been released.
Headmistress Cardinal gave a nod.
I shook my head. “But if you knew that I wasn’t the thief, then why—”
“Because the blood crystal had still been found in your purse. I needed to make an example of you.” She stepped closer to me and lifted my chin with a single sharp nail, digging into my soft skin. I stared right into her gray eyes, which were rimmed with red vampire hunger. “You needed to learn to be more careful. But clearly, you failed to learn this lesson. Fail again and you’ll end up in the gutter.”
I swallowed hard. “What is my punishment? Do I have to repeat the academy?” What if they placed me into the courtesan major? What if they allowed a second vamp to purchase me? Nilsson didn’t need me all the time. I had a cushy life with plenty of down time. I wouldn’t survive if I was expected to pleasure a vampire. I’d die of shame. Mother would never forgive me. She had trained me her whole life so that I wouldn’t end up like her.
“Repeat the academy? Attending the academy is not a punishment, but a privilege,” Headmistress Cardinal hissed.
“Of course, I didn’t mean…” I stopped speaking as a vampire guard entered the room and began working on the shackles that chained my legs to the chair.
“Take her to the others,” Headmistress Cardinal ordered.
“The others?” I asked.
Headmistress nodded. “The other prisoners. Nocturnal Academy has a rehabilitation facility underground—Nocturnal Reformatory. It’s for fae like you who disappoint after their graduation. You are put to work and given a second and final chance to prove yourself.”
4
The guard grabbed my right arm and pulled me to the exit. I opened my mouth to appeal to Lady Cardinal, but closed it again. Being dramatic wouldn’t work here. From experience, I knew that complying and impressing the vampires was my way out. If there was a chance at survival, then I had to take it.
Unlike me and whoever my father was, Mother didn’t have magic and had failed to impress the vampires enough when she’d been at Nocturnal Academy. Mother was good at the piano, but not good enough to become an entertainer. She hated being a courtesan and didn’t want me to make the same mistakes, and rightfully so.
Nocturnal Reformatory was my final chance. Even though Mother wasn’t here, I could feel her glare boring into me. Pressure settled on the back of my neck and for a moment, I was a child scrubbing the floors again, cleaning up a spill. I bit my lip. Now wasn't the time to go there and wallow in my misery.
As soon as the guard shoved me out into a depressing stone corridor, faint voices echoed down the torch-lit halls. Electricity didn’t exist here, then. The whole place smelled damp and I caught a trace of soil. We were underground. Under Nocturnal Academy and maybe even under the mountain that protected the castle where I had gone to school.
Shivers raced up and down my spine as the silent guard led me down the hallway, maintaining a grasp on my wrists and making the iron dig more into my flesh. Lady Cardinal didn’t follow. The vampire man was stern and stony-faced.
I would be, too.
We came to a T-junction and turned right. The corridor here opened, and a wooden sign above my head told me that we were entering Cell Block 1. Yes. Cells. I counted twelve of them on either side of this wide corridor, and all were empty of prisoners. The iron bar doors were closed and tiny windows near the ceilings looked out on the night. We were mostly underground. Simple cots were perfectly made in each cell as if the occupants were in the military. Each space had a dresser and an open toilet just like in the movies, b
ut the vamps hadn't given us the courtesy of a stone floor. Instead, packed dirt spread out in each cell despite the corridor floor being made of cobblestone. A few measly torches burned between cells. There was no luxury here and no privacy for the prisoners.
For me.
I was a prisoner now.
At least in the dungeons, I had been all by myself and there were solid walls between each one. Here, only bars separated the prisoners. The only thing this rehabilitation facility had in its favor was size. This place looked more like a proper prison.
“Where is everyone?” I gritted my teeth at having ended up in a place for failures. How could I’ve been so stupid? Pull yourself together, Peony. Be on your best behavior and you’ll get out of here in no time.
To my shock, the guard replied. “The prisoners are currently in Self Disclosure Therapy. The Rehabilitation Program runs from five-thirty A.M to noon each day of the week.” He spoke as if he’d said all of this hundreds of times before, which was probably the case. “Work Time runs from five P.M. to midnight.”
Of course, the vampires’ night schedule would determine ours. “So, we sleep from midnight to five-thirty?”
“Yes.” The vamp offered me a nasty grin.
I didn’t dare ask what the space between noon and five P.M. was for. The silence grew between us and the guard kept eyeing me, silently daring me to. The answer would not be good, then. We reached a wide set of steps on the other end of the cellblock. Five and a half hours of sleep. Nilsson had allowed me a full eight hours every day. This was a program designed to exhaust and terrify. I needed to impress the vampires as soon as possible before I became sloppy and lost my drive in this wretched place.
“Thank you for telling me.” I fluttered my eyelashes at the guard. “I will remember that.”
He refused to smile as disappointment came over his features. His grip tightened on my arm as he dragged me up the stone steps. We passed another cellblock on the way up, this one also empty, and entered another corridor on the third floor. This one had electricity judging from the florescent lights and floors made of old tile, with one doorway leading to a plain cafeteria and another closed door that read Headmaster on the front. Lady Cardinal’s office. This floor was where the business happened.
The doors on the right read Classroom A, Classroom B, and Classroom C. I spotted no pictures on the wall, no library, nothing to encourage prisoners to think. We stopped in front of Classroom C and my guard drew a key, undoing the cuffs around my wrists. A heavy weight lifted off my chest as he removed the iron, and I brought my hands in front of me, rubbing the sensitive flesh, my shoulders popping. A tiny bit of strength flowed back into me. But twin bracelets of blisters had formed around my wrists. I gulped. This place was full of iron. I doubted I'd be able to work much magic here, if at all. And without it, how would I impress the vamps?
“Self Disclosure Therapy,” the guard said, nodding to the door.
I was to go inside. “Thank you,” I said again as he waited. If I tried to run, he would catch me.
I opened the door to a plain, white room. More bright overhead lights shone, but they were the kind that gave you headaches if you were under them for too long. Folding metal chairs were arranged in a large circle, one big enough to seat forty or fifty fae.
The fae, who looked to be no younger than eighteen, but no older than their early twenties, refused to look at me as I stepped into the room. Everyone faced the center of the circle, where there was a single chair and a young female fae seated on it. She had dark hair and blonde highlights.
My heart stopped.
Kristen.
A pureblood, but magic-less fae, who had been sold to the Wus. Onyx had used glamour to disguise herself as Kristen to escape Nocturnal Academy with Mei Wu, Mrs. Wu’s daughter, and now the real Kristen was being punished for allowing it to happen, just as I had allowed Mrs. Wu’s plant to be stolen.
“...and sometimes I think of slacking off to get out of work when I have a headache.” Kristen grabbed the chair and swallowed, eyeing the floor. “I’m lazy.”
What was she saying? Kristen had been with my crew at Nocturnal Academy and had worked very hard to impress the Wus. I stood there at the edge of the big circle, watching as she squirmed in her center seat. All of the fae glared at her in silence.
“Yes,” a familiar male voice said. “You are lazy. What should you do about that?” A tapping sound followed.
I didn’t know how I had missed Lord Sullivan, our old vampire History teacher, pacing around Kristen in his black robe. His parted, dark hair couldn’t hide the mean glint in his eye. Still, relief crept into my shoulders. I’d impressed Lord Sullivan before, and I could do it again. Of all the fae students he ever taught, I’d been one of his favorite. Maybe I didn’t need magic to get out of here after all.
“I should work harder for my master,” Kristen recited.
“Not specific enough,” Lord Sullivan said. “A minus for Kristen. Try again.”
“Excuse me,” I said, not understanding what was happening
Lord Sullivan snapped his stare to me and his eyes widened. “Peony,” he spat, the one word dripping with disapproval. “I did not expect you of all my former students to arrive at Nocturnal Reformatory. Have a seat.”
“Of course.” I forced a smile. This was my last chance. My only chance. I walked over to a pair of empty chairs and sat down in one, getting no acknowledgement from the bald male fae seated beside me. He looked to be in his early twenties. Unlike me, he probably deserved to be here. He had a rebel look, and I bet he had told off his master, or worse. I needed to stay far away from people like him.
“Kristen. What will you do to overcome this flaw of yours?” Lord Sullivan looked down his nose at her.
“I will pay attention to my surroundings at all times. I have disgraced my masters by failing to realize that Onyx Logan would disguise herself as me to escape her master.” Kristen flicked her gaze to me, confusion and hope filling her eyes.
Though I had seen only thirty seconds of Self Disclosure Therapy, I didn’t like it. Nocturnal Reformatory should’ve named it Self Degradation Time, a more fitting name.
Perhaps you need some Self Degrading Time.
I breathed out, casting away Mother’s voice. I needed to figure out how to navigate this. How to win. There was always a way if you put your mind to it.
“Yes, you will pay better attention,” Lord Sullivan said sharply. He faced the circle, slowly turning, and smacked his wooden stick against his palm.
“You will pay attention!” the circle shouted in unison. All around me, people rose, some faces reddening. Dozens of glares landed on Kristen. She shrunk in her chair.
Sullivan glowered in my direction, and I followed suit, becoming one of the throng, yelling.
“You disappointment!” the bald guy shouted and shook his fist.
“Work harder!” somebody else yelled.
“Gutter trash.”
Insults flew. The vamps were turning prisoners against each other, forcing them to insult other fae, dividing and conquering. Kristen remained in her chair under the torrent and covered her ears with her hands. She was shaking. Haunted. The potential she once had was turning to dust. She was a broken nobody. I balled my fists, knowing this was a lesson. No matter what happened, I could not allow anyone in here to break me. I had to get out of this place before I lost my sense of self-worth.
Kristen and I had run together before, but I could not let myself end up on the same level. I could not end up as trash, too.
“You worthless bitch!” I shouted, my voice trembling with anger and fear.
I was one of the last people to yell an insult, and Lord Sullivan nodded at me and smiled. I knew what he wanted to say. “A plus for Peony.”
But I felt no joy inside, no tingle of satisfaction.
Kristen slowly turned her gaze up to me. I expected shock. But her eyes betrayed no shock at all, just acceptance and capitulation.
I sa
t back down with the other fae, thoughts racing, heart heavy. Slowly, amazingly, Kristen rose from her chair and walked in my direction, sitting down beside me. Her shoulders slumped forward. She didn’t hiss at me or do anything else that would suggest anger.
I almost wished she would. The silence was worse than rage.
This therapy was designed to cut us down, to put us in our places, to make sure we were good slaves. Part of me wanted to apologize to Kristen, but after hanging out with me for so long, she must’ve known that playing the game correctly and winning points was the only way to survive. She’d understand.
“We have time for two more participants before Free Time and then Work Time.” Lord Sullivan shot us a nasty grin. “Bethany.” He pointed out a fae maybe a year or two older than us.
Bethany, a dark-skinned fae with lots of braids, looked up and trembled, clawing at her jeans. Slowly, she rose, eyeing the chair as if it would electrocute her. I swallowed. It was her turn to lay her flaws bare and take abuse. And if she was a pureblood, she could not lie.
It was a horrifying trap.
Sullivan paced for a long time. As he turned his back, Kristen leaned close to me and whispered in an emotionless tone, “This place is for fae under twenty-five. If we don’t make progress, rumor has it, we’re killed.”
5
I tried not to think about Kristen’s ominous words and instead, focused on how lucky I’d gotten since I wasn’t called forward to participate in Self Disclosure that session. Unscathed, I moved on to lunch, where Kristen and I ate in silence, and then a vampire guard announced to the cafeteria that Work Time started early today. So much for the block of time between noon and five P.M. Another guard directed me to my next activity, scrubbing floors. I threw all my nervous energy into cleaning, while trying not to obsess over the next day when it’d be my turn to sit in the center.
Kristen scrubbed next to me in Cell Block 1. The center of the floor was cobblestone while the cell floors were dirt. Of course, that meant that other prisoners tracked it onto the floor, creating work. The vamps had designed it that way, I was sure. Ten of us fae scrubbed on this level while the others had been taken somewhere else to perform duties. Two vampire guards patrolled, checking progress, and as they did, they both walked into the open cells and tracked out more dirt for us to clean.
The Nocturnal and Fae Prison Academy Boxset [A Complete Paranormal and Fantasy Series Boxset] Page 60
