by Laynie Bynum
“And used a power you’re not aware anyone in this prison possessed, to kill him in the dead of night?” I stared at her dumbfounded. “This doesn’t scare you? At all?”
“Sure, it does.” Mica turned around and put on a clean undershirt before putting her uniform back on. “I have laundry duty today, so I can’t stick with you, but afterwards, I’ll come back to our cell, okay?”
“Okay, but you’re acting awfully calm for someone who heard someone else was just murdered in the very same prison we’re in!” I couldn’t help but raise my voice a little, even if I tried to talk on a whisper-volume.
“It’s no use freaking out about it. I’m sure the guards will tell us more about it soon, and like I said, maybe someone had a vendetta against Orion. I can’t say I liked him much.” She hesitated. “I mean, nothing but good about the dead and all that, but he was a bit of a jerk. I can say hands down Lycus had nothing to do with his dead, though. They were like real brothers, those two.”
Lycus. I remembered how scared, how devastated he had looked last night. Like a man who had lost a person he cared about a lot. Not a hair on my head had believed he had anything to do with Orion’s murder, even before I had seen what had really transpired.
“Aiden.” Mica grabbed my shoulders and turned me, so I was forced to look at her. “Breathe. Stay calm. If we start flipping out now, we’re only making matters worse. Let the guards do their job.”
“But…” I took a deep breath. “Someone here is a murderer, Mica!”
She shook her head. “People have died during the Trials before. Some of the people locked up in here have done horrible things before they got put here. It’s a prison, Aiden, not a theme park. You don’t get locked up with innocents. Some may be, but certainly not all of them.”
Her rant reminded me of what Orpheus had said, about how some people deserved to be stuck in here, and shouldn’t be let out, no matter what. Still, I felt sick at the thought that I was locked up in here with a murderer.
“Stay calm,” Mica recommended. “I’m off now. See you later.” Just as she moved toward the door, the lights outside our cell flipped on, and the button next to the door jumped from red to green.
Seven o’clock. I needed to get to the gym and train with Dryas. Glancing left and right before exiting my cell, I hurried outside, and then rushed toward the gym. I rather be in the company of others than left to my own devices.
A day ago, this prison had seemed like a strange new opportunity. A place I could potentially call home, even if it meant being locked up behind bars. At least Mica was here too, and people who had similar powers to mine. But now… It had turned from a potential second chance into a dangerous, locked-up facility where something unseen could attack us at any moment…
When I barged into the gym, the other members of my team were already busy training.
“Ah, there you are.” Dryas stopped giving instructions to a blonde-haired girl who was lifting smaller weights and walked over to me.
“It’s barely seven. How did you all get here sooner than I did?” I asked.
“We all just got here, but most people already know their routines, so they get started right away,” Dryas explained. “Come on, let me introduce you to the others.”
He introduced me to the other team members one by one. There were too many to remember all their names, but I did notice neither Amphion nor Eris were here. Didn’t they train with the others?
After Dryas finished giving me the grand tour, he shot me a curious look. “Anyway, no offense, but you look as if you didn’t close an eye all night. I thought Ava managed to fix you up?”
“It’s not from pain. I just didn’t get any sleep at all.”
“Getting used to a new place?” Dryas gestured that I could get started on the treadmill.
I opened the buttons on the top part of my prison outfit, revealing the white tank top I wore underneath. Tying the sleeves of the uniform around my waist, I shrugged. “I guess.”
“Or did something else happen? Mica give you a hard time because you joined us?”
I wanted to tell him the truth. He seemed a lot friendlier towards me after our fight at the Arena. He had invited me to his team, and I wanted to trust him. But if he spilled the beans, then the guards would put me into solitary… Mica I could trust, no doubt in my mind, but Dryas?
He punched a few buttons on the treadmill, and the machine beeped into life. The pace was steady but slow enough that I could still breathe and talk. “Mica wasn’t particularly happy, but we talked things through.”
“So, what’s bothering you then?” Dryas crossed his arms in front of his bare chest; the top half of his prison uniform was tied up similarly as mine.
I had to resist the urge to stare. He looked like a bodybuilder, not an ounce of fat, the kind of guy only pretty girls managed to get a chance with. Which basically meant I was out of the competition from the start. I could understand why Keres had dated him, though.
“Uhm, well…” I struggled to find the right words. “Okay, fine.” I pushed the button on the machine, and the treadmill came to a screeching halt. Lowering my voice, I said, “I can tell you, but not here. And you have to promise me that this stays between us.”
Dryas frowned at me. “I promise, but this better not be a lame excuse to get out of work-out.”
I rolled my eyes. “Right. Can we talk in private somewhere?” I glanced over my shoulder at the half a dozen other team members who were training in the gym, all of them potentially eavesdropping on our conversation.
“Sure.” Dryas still looked suspicious, but he led me outside the gym, and to an empty room at the end of the hallway. A guard patrolled down the hallway, but barely glanced in our direction before moving onward.
“This is the meditation room,” Dryas said when he opened the door, “but barely anyone uses it, especially at this time of day. A lot of people are working on chores in the morning—you’ll probably get yours soon enough.”
The room was empty, safe for some yoga mats rolled out on the floor. The walls were painted a dull green, and everything about the room seemed to lack style.
Dryas closed the door behind us.
“So, what was it you wanted to tell me?”
“You have to promise me you won’t tell anyone else. Swear it,” I told him. “Swear it on… on Ares.”
Dryas seemed a little taken aback. “Okay, I swear on Ares that I won’t tell anyone what you’re about to tell me, but this better be good, Aiden.”
“It’s not good.” I shook my head, reliving the same anxiety I felt this morning when telling Mica about what had happened.
I went on to explain Dryas in detail about the guards waking me up in the middle of the night, about Orion being killed and the culprit being nothing but a shadow. The more I talked, the more the color drained from Dryas’ face. His skin was almost grey by the time I finished.
“By the gods,” he said. Halfway through the conversation, he had grabbed a chair and sat down, and now he was pinching his nose, trying to think. “Who could’ve done that, and why?”
“Do you… Did you… know Orion?” I asked. “I mean, he wasn’t a friend of yours, I hope?” I had been rather graphic about the details.
“No, not a friend, but I knew him. Lycus will be devastated by this. Orion was his best friend. Do you know what they did to Lycus?”
“I have no idea, but I don’t think they could’ve left him there while…” I sighed, unable to finish the sentence.
“They probably put him in solitary, so he doesn’t alarm anyone,” Dryas said. “It’s good that you acted calm afterwards, or they would’ve thrown you into a solitary cell as well.”
“Mica said I should calm down, but I didn’t sleep a minute all night. I kept on thinking: what if that shadow can enter all our rooms, and kill us, just like that?”
“Nothing like this has ever happened here… A murderous shadow.” Dryas shook his head, as if he could barely believe it. “The
Trials are deadly enough that we don’t need something like this happening on top of it.”
“Did he have enemies, that you know of?” I asked.
“Sure. Me. Most of our team. Charon and his crew. But enemies in the way that we would butt heads or go for a one-on-one duel in the Arena, but not like this. Never like this.”
“Should we tell the others? Maybe Amphion?” I barely dared to suggest it, because if yesterday’s lunch was any example to go by, then Dryas wasn’t too keen on Amphion being regarded as a potential second leader of this team.
“No.” To my surprise, Dryas didn’t seem annoyed that I had brought it up. “Not right now. The guards can’t keep this a secret. They’ll probably inform everyone by the end of today. If they don’t, then we can see what we can do…” He looked up at me. “But if they threatened to put you in solitary, then we better make sure as few people as possible know about this. The more people know, the bigger the chance someone runs their mouth. You only told Mica and myself?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Then let’s keep it that way for now. The others deserve to know too, but I don’t want to put you at risk. Solitary is… Well, it’s not just a cell where you’re all on your own. In fact, solitary is probably the most crowded place I’ve ever been in.”
“How do you mean?”
“Never mind that now.” Dryas stood up from his chair. “Let’s focus on this first. I’ll pretend I don’t know, and we don’t breathe a word of this to anyone else. Okay?”
“Okay…”
“Are you all right?” Dryas took my hand. “It must’ve been horrible to look at, and you seem pretty shaken.”
“I…” I stared at his hand, softly caressing my palm. Despite the hours he spent working out or fighting, his hands were surprisingly soft. “I’ve never seen a dead person before. The smell was… I can’t describe it. Sickening. I vomited right next to the body.”
My voice broke, and a sob racked through me. “There was nothing I could do. Even when turning back time, I couldn’t bring him back, all I could do was watch him get mauled by this shadow and…”
“Ssssh, shhh.” Dryas pulled me against his chest, enveloping me in his arms. “You don’t have to tell me, if you don’t want to.”
Sob after sob poured out me, and I hated myself for how weak I was, but on the other hand, if I didn’t show emotions after seeing a human being get killed, what kind of person was I?
Dryas rubbed my back, trying to calm me down. “It’s okay, just let it all out.” He kept on whispering how it was okay, but the more I cried, the more I realized it wasn’t okay. It wasn’t okay that I let Dryas hold me like this, even if it felt good and comforting. I still didn’t know much about him, so I should keep my distance, but at the same time, I didn’t want to.
While we stood like that, the door burst open, and Keres and her cronies came on waltzing in. The first two seconds, Keres was too busy chatting to Tristan to notice us, but then, her gaze dropped on Dryas and me.
I backed away from Dryas immediately, but the damage was done. Keres had seen us hugging, and judging from the look on her face, she had drawn her conclusions.
“What in the gods’ names are you doing?” Keres shouted at Dryas while she dropped her yoga mat on the floor. “We just broke up, and you’re already with someone else? And that ugly little duckling, of all people?”
I stared at her in shock, unable to find a suitable reply.
“Shut the hell up,” Dryas said at her. “First of all, that break-up was your idea because you wanted to see if you stood a chance with Amphion. Because you thought the son of Zeus was a better catch than the son of Ares. Turns out he wasn’t as big of an idiot as I am, and he wasn’t interested in you in the slightest.”
My neck and cheeks turned hot, as if someone had turned the heating up several degrees. I didn’t want to be part of this fight between the ex-couple, let alone be the cause of it.
“I was just upset, and Dryas was comforting me,” I told Keres, trying to explain. Not because I cared what she thought of me—family of Mica or not—but because I didn’t want Dryas to get in trouble simply because he was being a good person for once.
“You stay out of this. You’ve done enough.” Keres pointed a threatening finger at me.
“Leave her alone.” Dryas moved in front of me protectively. “And don’t ever insult her again.”
“Or what?” Keres put her hands on her hips. “You’ll defend her honor?” She let out a barking laugh. “Don’t you realize? She might have got you wound up around her little finger, but she’s a freaking murderer, Dryas!”
The ground disappeared under my feet, and I swallowed hard. “Why… why do you say that?”
“Oh, now you’re going to act like it’s a coincidence,” Keres said. “That you coincidentally happen to come here the exact same day Orion gets killed by a shadow—while none of us have powers even remotely similar to that!”
My body turned to sludge, and my heart stopped beating. No. No, no, no, this can’t be true.
The color drained from my skin, and my ears whistled.
Mica. No.
“That’s enough, Keres.” Dryas shot a worried glance at me, and then strode over towards his ex-girlfriend.
“Enough? I’m just telling the truth, and soon enough, this entire prison will now. She killed Orion! Isn’t it obvious? She just got here, and someone dies! You can’t put one and one together?”
“Why would she even want to do that? She doesn’t know the guy,” Dryas said.
“Are you sure? She could’ve known him from before. Have a vendetta against him.” Keres kept on firing words like a machinegun. “You know nothing about her!”
“I didn’t have anything to do with him getting killed,” I snapped at her. “And I hope you rot in the underworld.”
Before Dryas could stop me, I rushed past Keres, bumping purposefully into her shoulder.
Tears spilled from my eyes, and I refused to let any of them see it, especially not Keres. If that shadow came for her next, he could have her for all I cared.
Because I had realized the horrible truth. There was only one way Keres could’ve known about Orion being killed, and specifically, being gutted by a shadow.
Mica.
My best friend since we were children, the person I considered the sister I had never had. She was the only one who knew and could’ve told. This morning, she had been in such a rush to get to the laundry area—more like, to rush toward her alpha, Keres, and share my secrets.
My best friend had betrayed me, a murderer was on the loose, and now this whole prison might think I was the culprit.
Coming soon
End of Part One
Find out what happens next in
THE DAUGHTER OF TIME
RELEASING IN 2020
About the Author
Author Bio
Majanka Verstraete studied law and criminology, and now works as Legal Counsel. Writing is her passion ever since she learned how to read.
She writes about all things supernatural, her books ranging from children’s picture books to young adult novels, all the way to new adult academy and reverse harem books.
Check out her website for more information about her current series and her upcoming projects: http://majankaverstraete.com
Supernatural Prison in Nisiea by Keisha Thomas
Chapter One
Koyama Miho
My soul was as restless as a canoe swept up in a tsunami. There were times like these when I wished I could see by sight and not by my senses. Tilting my head to the left, I felt the wind whip my hair around me. The silken strands tickled my lower back as the strands slid inside my panties. According to the second sun, it was my twenty-third birthday. This birthday terrified me and excited me at the same time. It was the day that father would explain my heritage. The gift and the curse of being a Kravonesh was the power that the Goddess of the Universe, Qiaris, gave me and the burden of wielding such po
wer.
Heavy footsteps approached, and my shoulders slumped for a minute before I held my head high. I’m Princess Koyama Miho, daughter of King Takishima Miho, and I would never show anyone the irritation that coursed through my veins. Just one time, I would like a moment to myself, but I would not get what I wanted. Not in this lifetime, but maybe in the next.
“Princess Koyama, King Takishima has requested your presence in the throne room,” Chalen said.
I extended my hand in front of me. “After you, Chalen.”
Tuning out the howls of the wind and the moisture in air, I followed Chalen and the three guards that stood just outside the window.
I’m not sure why I bothered coming up to the roof of the palace when the imperial guards just came up here after me. Most of the time, I dismissed it, but today I couldn’t. There was something deep in the pit of my stomach that warned me that after tonight, nothing would ever be the same.
Walking down the hall, I caught a faint whiff of Bakutha. Bakutha was an ancient oil that the elders rubbed on themselves when they prepared to embark on a one-way mission. My palms sweated as I inclined my head, trying to determine which of the guards wore it.
Breathing deeply, my voice rang out. “Stop right now!”
The guards suddenly stopped. Chalen was standing over to my right, so I could smell the spicy scent on him. His heart was beating loudly and I could hear it.
My heart fluttered in my chest. I’d always loved Chalen but waiting until he was promoted to the imperial guard was a mistake. When you love someone, materialistic things shouldn’t matter. I felt no different about him when he was a fruit picker than I did now that he was a part of the imperial guards.
Would he embark on a suicide mission and not tell me? It doesn’t matter. I will forbid him to go on a mission. The gift of his life belongs to me.