by Tricia Barr
Phoenyx tried not to think about it, and with so many other troubling thoughts fighting for her attention, it wasn’t difficult to let something else take center stage.
She spent most of the night trying to focus on Sebastian, letting the sound of his breathing ground her. And when he began to snore, the sound was oddly comforting. It meant that he was sleeping deeply enough to snore. At least one of them was getting some rest.
In the morning, a few hours after the sun rose, there was a knock at the door.
Skylar, whose bed was closest to the door, opened it.
“Good morning,” said a girl about their age standing in the hall holding a silver tray with a lid on it. “Breakfast for our honored guests.” Like the majority of the servants here, she looked robotically terrified, masking her fear with a blank face as if revealing it would mean certain death. It just might.
“Thank you,” Skylar said, taking the tray and placing it on the small square table near the window.
“Master Joran would like you all to join him on a trip into London this evening,” the girl said.
“Of course, he would,” Sebastian grumbled sarcastically, pulling the lid off the tray to inspect the food.
“Shall I tell him you accept?” the girl asked timidly, as if her life depended on the correct answer.
“Yes, we will join him,” Skylar told the girl.
She visibly exhaled in relief. “Thank you.” Then she bowed and walked brusquely out of sight, and Skylar closed the door after her.
“What do you think, poisoned?” Sebastian said, half joking as he held up a sweet bun.
“And what would be the point of that, when he could just kill us with one thought,” Skylar said as he took a seat at the table and dished some bacon and eggs onto a plate for himself.
Phoenyx and Lily filed in around the table and began to eat as well.
“I really don’t want to go,” Lily said after a long silence filled with everyone chewing.
“None of us do,” Phoenyx said. “But we have to. While I’m sure this is going to be his first attack on the world, it’s not just about making a statement—it’s also about testing us. Our reactions of this exhibition of his will determine whether or not he lets us live.”
“Which means we have to be fully on our guards tonight,” Skylar said. “He will have all four of us right next to him in the close space of a vehicle. He will have full access to all of our powers, and our minds. We can’t let anything slip out that we don’t want him to see.”
“So no matter what horrible things he does, we can’t even be internally appalled by it,” Sebastian said.
“We already know exactly what horrible things he’s going to do,” Lily said. “He’s going to kill all those men in that prison. And I don’t know if I can not be a crying mess at the sight of hundreds of people dying.”
Lily was no longer eating. She had been holding the same piece of bacon for the last several minutes, and fresh tears were creeping down her face.
Phoenyx rubbed her shoulders comfortingly. “It will be okay, Lily,” was all she could say. Phoenyx wasn’t as sensitive as Lily, but watching the public execution of hundreds of convicted felons was not something she was looking forward to. She wasn’t sure she could keep a lid on her own emotions when the time came.
But more than that, she was worried about Ayanna. Erasing Ayanna’s memories couldn’t change the person she was inside, and that person would never condone the slaughter of that many people, whether they were guilty or not. If Ayanna reacted negatively to this attack, there was no telling what Joran might do to her.
There was also the possibility that Ayanna would not react, at all, and that scared Phoenyx more than anything. That would mean that Ayanna truly was gone.
***
An hour before sunset, the same servant girl came to tell them that Joran was waiting for them downstairs.
They had spent the day confined to their room, not quite comfortable enough to wonder the castle. None of them wanted to run into Joran unprepared.
But now the time had come for them to be confined in a small space with him for the length of the drive to London, and Phoenyx didn’t feel much better prepared for this either.
The four of them followed the girl down the stairs and through the ballroom to the castle’s entrance, where Joran and Ayanna were standing under the open doorway. Her arms were hugged lovingly around one of his and she was smiling up at him.
For a moment, the sight of how happy Ayanna appeared brought Phoenyx pause. Phoenyx couldn’t remember the last time, in any of her lives, that she had seen such happiness radiate from Ayanna the way it did when she looked at Joran. What if being with him was somehow the best thing for Ayanna?
Phoenyx shook her head internally. Joran was evil. Even ignoring the fact that he was a trigger-happy egotistical psycho, he didn’t truly love Ayanna. The fading blemishes on Ayanna’s back were proof of that. People don’t abuse the ones they love. People don’t manipulate the ones they love.
And let’s not forget the fact that he wants to sleep with me, she thought as they approached.
That was her final thought on the matter, as they were now in too close a range to Joran and his soul tapping. It was time to continue playing the game she had started yesterday.
When Ayanna saw them approaching, her smile fell and her body stiffened. Phoenyx tried not to feel the sting of that reaction.
“There you are,” Joran greeted like they were all old friends. “How have you enjoyed your stay so far? Are your quarters adequate?”
“Your castle is beautiful,” Phoenyx said, acting as the spokesperson for the group. “Thank you.”
“My maid tells me you are all staying in the same room,” he said. “You know there is no need to cramp yourselves. We have dozens of available rooms, you could easily each have your own.” He was baiting them.
“Thank you for the offer,” Phoenyx said. “But we just feel more comfortable being together, at least for the time being.”
Joran gave a curt nod. “I understand. Well, shall we go?” He gestured to the two classic black British sedans that were waiting for them across the moat.
“Where are we going?” Lily asked, cleverly feigning ignorance.
“To Pentonville Prison,” Joran said. “I am sending a message to the world. A message that everything is about to change. And it is important to me that the four you be there to witness it.”
Lily gasped, as if she was hearing this information for the first time, and Phoenyx let her initial questions about the prison replay in head. They were all letting Joran see what they wanted him to see, and the way his lip curled upward said that he was buying it.
“Come, my friends. We don’t want to be late.”
Joran led Ayanna to the first car, and the four of them waited with an appropriate amount of hesitation before reluctantly heading for the second car. Lily sat in the front passenger seat, and Skylar sat in the back with Phoenyx and Sebastian, an attempt to stay as far away from Joran in the leading car as possible for this journey.
Phoenyx was relieved that they were to ride in a separate vehicle from Joran and Ayanna. Being forced to sit in the presence of both of them for the long drive while keeping her mind completely clear of any of her true motives and feelings would have been painstakingly difficult. Joran would most likely be keeping a keen telepathic eye on them still if the cars drove close together, so they weren’t out of the woods yet, but keeping a clear mind in comfort was far easier than keeping a clear mind under peer pressure.
When the cars began to move and pick up speed through the beautiful, peaceful landscape of Southern England, Phoenyx found it surprisingly easy to keep a clear head. The scenery offered much in the way of distraction. She just cozied her head up against Sebastian’s shoulder and stared out the window.
Skylar and Sebastian found their own form of distraction, one that came quite naturally to them—arguing. It started with the driver.
; “So are you part of some kind of shuttle service or are you a private driver for the Four Corners?” Sebastian asked him, propping his elbows on the shoulder of either front seat.
“You really have to ask him that?” Skylar asked.
“No, I don’t have to, but I’m bored,” Sebastian answered simply.
The driver laughed. “It’s no problem,” he said, in an accent a little sharper than Sebastian’s. “I was part of a shuttle service, but your group just hired me on as a private driver.”
“And are you happy with this new position so far?” Sebastian asked.
“You bet I am,” the driver said. “The pay is double what I was making before.”
“Wow, good for you,” Sebastian said. “So as a former driver for a shuttle service, you must have seen a lot of the country.”
The driver nodded. “I’ve probably driven to every large city a dozen times, and I know London like the back of my hand. You know, I drove the Prince once. He was drunk and trying to avoid letting his mother know of his nightly indiscretions, so he would use our service to get home every now and then.”
“The Prince sounds like my kind of guy,” Sebastian laughed.
“Aww, and here I thought you and I had something special,” Skylar said in mock jealousy.
Sebastian sat back and took Skylar’s face in his hands. “You know that you hold a special place in my heart. We will always have Vegas.”
“Oh god, you’re not going to kiss me again, are you?” Skylar asked.
Sebastian dropped his hands and they both laughed.
Then Sebastian went on to ask the driver what he liked about England, and the driver asked him what he liked about America, and before Phoenyx knew it, Skylar and Sebastian were arguing about which two countries were better—Sebastian insisting England was better and Skylar rooting for America.
“What do you even know about England?” Skylar asked, getting flustered, which was clearly Sebastian’s goal. “You were raised in America, in the same crappy house as me. Despite that damned accent, you’re more American than I am.”
“But clearly England is better, seeing as it did produce me,” Sebastian said, really just rambling at this point to provoke Skylar.
Phoenyx and Lily had stayed out of the conversation but were enjoying listening very much, laughing the whole time. And the driver, who had first found them charming, had stopped engaging them halfway through the drive. Phoenyx couldn’t see his face in the dim twilight, but she could imagine he was rolling his eyes at every stupid thing Sebastian said.
When the car stopped and the driver announced they had reached their destination, Phoenyx was surprised at how pleasant that drive had been considering the pressure they were under. She was grateful that, no matter how dark or heavy their circumstances became, she had a group of friends that could always make everything feel so light.
The driver came around to open the doors for them, and Phoenyx stepped out in the parking lot of a large group of buildings that looked more like a fancy apartment complex than a prison. She had been mildly paying attention as they drove up the backside, only because the layout was so unique. The building had a fancy entrance like a Roman temple and four long “branches” that all went off in different directions behind it—two perpendicular to the entrance and two at forty-five degree angles.
“Lucky prisoners,” Sebastian said, looking up at the elegantly structured entrance. “This looks nothing like American prisons. I bet they even get afternoon tea. I wouldn’t mind doing time in a place like this.”
“On this particular evening, none of these prisoners can be considered lucky,” Skylar said.
Phoenyx looked around and saw that the parking lot was quickly filling up, and faces she recognized from the ball the previous night were forming a crowd around them. Wait, is that a film crew? There was a handful of people exiting a white van, and one of them had a large camera over his shoulder. Oh no, that’s not good.
She spotted Joran at the head of the crowd and silently reminded herself that her thoughts were not private. He apparently spotted them as well and waved them over. The four of them locked hands and pushed through the growing crowd.
Once Phoenyx and her friends took their places beside Joran and Ayanna, Joran signaled the cameras to start rolling, and then he began his speech.
“Brothers and sisters, both those who know me and those of you at home, watching from your television screens or smartphones.”
Phoenyx kept her thoughts dead silent, but the realization that this was live made her pulse stampede with adrenaline.
In her pocket, her phone lit up. When she took it out, she saw that the camera feed was streaming directly to her phone, and she could not turn it off. With a numbness spreading throughout her core, she put the phone in her back pocket and tried to ignore it.
“The world as you know it is about to change,” he continued, orating loud and clear. “For too long have the wicked inherited the earth while the meek are trampled underfoot. What you are about to witness is the dawn of a new era. An era of peace, where the wicked will be washed away, and the pure will reign supreme. Tonight, I give you the first Cleansing.”
He turned sideways and raised his hand at the building behind him.
“This is Pentonville Prison, a place that uses your hard earned wages to house filth that does not deserve life, let alone the comforts they are supplied with. Watch as I render this shelter for the morally-handicapped out of commission.”
With that, he spun on his heel and walked toward the entrance. As the large entourage approached, the doors flung open, and Phoenyx looked at Skylar to find the answer to her silent query. Skylar’s hard stare was her answer—Joran used Skylar’s telekinesis to open the doors.
Joran stomped into the prison lobby with unbridled confidence. He lifted his hand toward the ceiling and flicked his wrist, and the entire ceiling was engulfed in a blanket of flames, instantly triggering the fire alarms.
He’s using my power too.
Phoenyx really thought she would feel it, feel him tapping into her element somehow, but she felt nothing. It might as well not even be her power. Before any dangerous thoughts of attempting to dissolve the flames could enter her mind, the flames vanished as quickly as they appeared. He wasn’t trying to burn the place down, he just wanted the alarm to sound. But why?
Joran headed toward the door that led into the main prison.
“Uh, sir, you can’t—” a guard began to say as he tried to head them off, but an unseen force propelled him from the spot and he slammed hard into the wall.
The awful crack before he fell awkwardly to the floor made her certain he was dead, and she bit her lip, fighting off thoughts that wanted to internally voice her pity. Whenever Skylar had used his power to repel an attacker, the victim had always survived, so either Skylar had always been extremely controlled in his use of power or Joran meant to kill that poor man.
The door before them once again flew open, and the entire group of fifty or so people followed Joran through a long corridor. As they walked, guards yelled at them and tried to stop them, even aiming guns at Joran warningly, but at every attempt, the guards were flung against the walls or ceiling, removed as an obstacle from their path. The hallway eventually led to a door with a lit up exit sign.
Why are we going to an exit? Phoenyx wondered.
The door did not lead to the exit of the prison, but to a large triangular grassy field. On two sides were the prison walls and on the other was a tall electrified fence topped with spiraling barbed wire. This was the prison’s recreation yard.
The yard was filling up with prisoners all ushered out by guards with guns, and the fire alarm was still howling its siren song. Though it was now dusk, there were tall, bright spotlights illuminating the yard with crystal clarity. There were so many prisoners, way too many to count. Every single prisoner at this complex must be out here.
That’s why he triggered the fire alarm. He wanted all the prisoners to be
in one place, out in the open, where the cameras could see.
It didn’t take but a few seconds for every convict, in their unicolor jumpsuits, to notice the group of colorfully dressed civilians in this corner of the field, and they were all staring at the newcomers with big question marks on their faces.
“Hey, what the bloody hell—” one guard began to shout, aiming a gun at Joran, but before the other guards could redirect their guns, they were all relieved of their weapons, an invisible force snatching the guns from their grasps and holding them up in the air beyond their reach.
“Stand down, gentlemen,” Joran said to the guards. “Your services are no longer required. As for you worthless criminals,” he now addressed the prisoners, “do any of you have any last words you would like to say to those watching around the world?” He gestured to the cameraman beside him.
Confused whispers chorused among the felons as they exchanged glances with each other.
“No?” Joran asked. Then he clapped his hands together and said, “Very well.”
He put his hands out before him and, as he raised them up above his head, the body of every prisoner arched straight up rigidly, their mouths gaping in agony and their eyes rolling up into their heads.
Lily’s hand clamped around Phoenyx’s, and when Phoenyx looked at her, her eyes were squeezed tightly shut, not wanting to see this.
There was a collective thud as every vacant body fell to the ground at once. The guards stood still stupidly, several moments passing before they realized what just happened. One guard rushed to the nearest corpse and felt for a pulse, then looked up at Joran in horror.
“He’s dead,” the guard said. “They’re all dead… What are you?”
“I am Joran, the Shade King,” Joran replied, turning to the camera as he said it. “And the world is about to change.” He smiled deviously into the camera, and a chill went up Phoenyx’s spine.
