by Laynie Bynum
Just as I was about to drift off, footsteps roused me from my sleep. Was it already morning? No, it couldn’t be.
The footsteps were coming from the direction of the corridor that led to the interrogation room. At least, I thought of that space where I had woken as the interrogation room. My heart leapt as I thought of Nilsson coming to get me, but instead, two vamp guards brought in a male fae. Of course, they’d bring in all their new prisoners during the night. The three were wrapped in shadows, since all we had in Cell Block 1 were dying torches.
“You’re lucky you get to sleep now,” one of the guards said and rattled off the timetable he had explained to me earlier that day. I turned away on my cot, facing the bars of the cell beside me, not wanting to get in trouble for showing too much interest. The vamps led the new prisoner to the empty cell beside mine. Keys rattled and the lock clicked, then the door opened with a whisper.
“This will teach you to trespass in a vampire’s yard,” one of the guards said.
“I was only delivering a message.” The fae’s voice was strained with struggle.
“Sure. Is that why you climbed over the fence and cannot state the name of your master?”
The male fae grunted as a scuffle followed. I kept my eyes shut, forcing myself to breathe evenly. The prisoner staggered into the cell, just feet away from me. Nothing but open bars separated us.
I wanted to pull the thin blanket over my head, but didn’t dare until the vamps had closed the door with a bang and departed. I listened as their footfalls returned to the corridor.
Then I did pull the covers over my head.
That was a mistake because a second later, the fae whispered, “You’re awake. Any tips and tricks on how to survive this hellhole?”
Oh, no.
I’d heard his voice before. Lowering my blanket, I opened my eyes to a shadowy form inches from me. My cot was up against his cell.
“You!” I recognized the light brown, messy hair, the untamed, bushy eyebrows, the too wide-spaced eyes of a weak blue, the droopy nose, and the too skinny, lanky frame. I narrowed my eyes into slits and lowered my voice to a dangerous pitch. “You stole my plant!”
His eyes widened at the shock of finding me here and he held up his hands, but I could not contain myself and grasped the bars. A volcano of rage rose in me as I tried and failed to shake the iron bars and my palms began to burn. Weakness crept up my arms and I let go, whirling.
I had found the thief, the reason for why I was here. Before I could think it over, I began to scream at the top of my lungs, “Guards, guards!”
There were mutters all around me. Blankets whispered and prisoners shifted. The fae male in front of me tried to shush me, and behind me Kristen said, “Peony, what are you doing? We need the sleep.”
But I ignored them all and continued to scream. “Guards!”
I was not meant to be here. This was unfair, and I would not be treated like this.
Four vamp guards shot into the prison room, two from the corridor and two from down the stairwell on the opposite side of the room. One from the stairwell held a syringe, ready to deal with me.
“Over there.” A female guard pointed at me.
The four vamps gathered in front of my cell, and the female fished for her keys. She glowered at me, all business.
I dropped my arms and forced myself to assume a sweet and submissive tone. “I am so sorry for the disturbance, but you see, I recognize the young man you just brought in. He stole the plant from Mrs. Wu. He’s the thief who has given her so much heartache. I’m sure Headmistress Cardinal will want to question him straight away.”
The three male guards stared at me, but the female said, “I’ll inform the Headmistress to see how she wants to proceed.”
In the next cell, the male fae remained silent. I sat down on my cot and crossed my legs, playing with my hair until two of the guards turned away from me, deciding I wasn’t a threat, while the third one devoured me hungrily. The light from this angle was just enough to reveal the red tint creeping into his eyes. How far would I go? If I could sleep with one of them to get out of here, would I do it? No, I couldn’t disgrace myself like this, especially since it was unlikely that a low-level vampire would let me go. Why would he release a courtesan he didn’t have to pay for? Flirting was all I could do. Give them hope, but keep them at a distance.
Headmistress Cardinal entered the room, a black coat billowing behind her. “Peony, what is wrong with you to wake up half of the castle?”
I explained the situation succinctly, and she nodded once, then turned to her guards. “What’s his name?”
“Caleb Sutter,” one of the males said.
I eyed him and smiled. Caleb had withdrawn to the corner of his cell, doing a good job of plastering a look of confusion on his face.
The Headmistress nodded again. “Bring Caleb Sutter to my office. Chain him and leave us alone.”
I exhaled. Justice would be served, and I would be released. I shot Caleb Sutter—if this was his real name—a triumphant glare, which turned into a gasp as he smiled at me.
“You’ll regret this,” he whispered as he popped something that looked like hard candy into his mouth. Not noticing what he’d done, the guards clamped the handcuffs around his wrists and dragged him away. I watched them, trying to understand if there was magic in whatever the fae had taken. I waited for him to pass out or get super powers, but nothing happened.
Whatever. Lady Cardinal, I knew, had a blood crystal, a fae invention that would allow her to force a fae to cooperate with an interrogation. Plus, she knew I couldn’t lie, at least not on purpose.
Not understanding what the fae stranger was planning to do or why he had been so confident, I waited and waited. The other inmates seemed to have gone back to bed, and Kristen didn’t talk to me, which was fine. I would get out while she stayed for who only knew how long.
To my big surprise, Caleb returned less than half an hour later, escorted by the same guards, and was thrown back into his cell with zero fanfare.
The guards who were with him wore stone-faced expressions, and I didn’t dare to ask them what had happened. But Headmistress Cardinal swooped in behind them like a hawk.
“Peony,” she said sharply, and a tremble went through me as I realized that she wouldn’t release me. “Don’t waste my time again with stupid rumors. If you were not pureblood fae, I’d have to charge you with lying, which carries harsh penalties.”
I opened my mouth, but fell silent as she held up her hand. “This fae was brought in here for trespassing. I questioned him extensively, using my blood crystal. He has no idea about the plant you were working on.”
How could it be? Maybe he was just a half-blood and could lie. And if he was a pureblood? We were supposed to be good tricksters with a talent for dodging the truth without lying. Perhaps whatever he'd eaten had erased his memories of what he'd done and truly made him forget what he'd stolen. “But—”
“You better not create any more trouble again unless you want to be punished by Mr. Chad personally, understood?”
“Understood,” I replied quickly as goose bumps broke out on my flesh. Mr. Chad, my former PE teacher, loved getting high on the blood of fae. He also loved young girls. While I had been at Nocturnal Academy, the bidding ball and my high level contracts had protected my virginity. Now, however, I doubted that anything would stop Mr. Chad from having his way with me.
“Everyone, go back to bed.” Headmistress Cardinal turned on her heels and swept out of the room, the vampire guards following her. Mutters from the other inmates drifted over as they complained about the sleep they had lost because of me.
Great, Peony, way to make yourself popular.
I knew I should sleep, but I couldn’t help myself. I got off my bed and pressed myself against the metal bars that separated me from Caleb, who was now the one pretending to be sleeping.
“What was in the thing you swallowed?” He didn’t reply, and anger raced through me. How
dare he ignore me? He owed me answers after he’d gotten me into this situation. It was the second time I had to suffer the consequences after somebody had stolen and made it look like I was the thief. I was a bitch, sure, but I had never used others to clean up my messes.
“Answer me.” I gripped the bars harder, ignoring the iron’s life-draining properties. Caleb still didn’t reply. I wanted to scream, but knew if I did, the guards would return, this time for me. Even if they only whipped me and didn’t hand me over to Mr. Chad, I couldn’t afford to be weakened any further. Unable to do anything, I forced myself to retreat to bed and closed my eyes, allowing the pathetic and silent tears to roll down my face.
Chapter Six
We woke at five-thirty A.M, just as the guard had promised. More precisely, we were jolted awake into a nightmare by a vamp, who banged a soup ladle against a pot over and over in our Cell Block 1. “Up! The Rehabilitation Program begins in fifteen minutes! To the kitchen!” He paraded through and ascended the steps. More metallic bangs echoed down the steps as I sat up, blinking open my puffy eyes. I threw the covers off, remembering where I was and that my nemesis was in the cell beside me.
“Thanks, Peony, for the lack of sleep,” Kristen grumbled from the other neighboring cell.
I ignored her. Unlike her, I had a chance at getting out of here. Or at least I thought I did. I wiped my eyes as Kristen rose in a hurry, waiting by her cell door as another guard came down the corridor with a key, letting fae out. Everyone ran to the stairs and rushed upward.
“Showers close in fifteen!” the guard with the key shouted.
The idea of showering in this place made goose bumps rise on my skin. Still, I checked my hair. My curls were a mess and not flirting material after that restless night.
Just because you feel like shit doesn’t mean you have to look like it. Mother’s voice reverberated in my head.
Caleb and the other prisoners vanished up the stairwell, and I rushed after them. If I let myself go, I’d be capitulating, practically telling everyone that I deserved to be here. I needed to put my best foot forward even if showering with the others was disgusting and humiliating.
The showers were on the third level. The guys and girls showers were separate, but that was where the privacy ended. No shower curtains separated the stalls, and the gray tile floor looked disgusting. Big bottles with generic shampoo and plain white towels awaited us. I stripped off and hopped into a stall, closing my eyes as the shampoo slid down my face, trying not to think that everyone was seeing me naked. We were all in the same boat, and the others were hopefully too focused on themselves to sneak peeks at me.
Since Nocturnal Reformatory didn’t provide the luxury of hair dryers or even hand dryers, I’d have to let my hair dry on its own. The towels were rough and a bin of awful secondhand clothes sat out for us. Everything was made in an awful gray and tan palette. I slipped on a pair of gray cargo pants and a formless T-shirt of the same shade before rushing to the large, open kitchen, where everyone cooked hash browns and old sausage in silence.
Kristen glared at me as we wolfed down our food with guards standing at the doorways. I ignored her and watched Caleb, who sat across the room, alone. I glared at him, promising myself that I’d find a way to bust him. The thought of revenge provided much more sustenance than my pathetic breakfast. I’d hold on to it to stop myself from going crazy.
After breakfast, the guards ushered us to our first class of the Rehabilitation Program, which was called Conduct and taught by Mrs. Lowen, a vampire teacher I’d never met before. She was young-looking, but strict with sharp features, and didn’t hesitate to use her stick on fae who didn’t know proper servant posture. I got through the class unscathed, and to my disappointment, so did Caleb. He held his posture and was able to bow with grace, which baffled me considering his unkempt hair and out of control eyebrows.
Lunch was more greasy food—tasteless fries with a sad-looking burger and a soggy bun. With horror, I realized Self Disclosure Therapy would take up the rest of the Program today.
Lord Sullivan waited as we filed into Classroom C and took our seats in the big circle. I hurried to find a seat that wasn’t opposite him so that I was less likely to be called on. Out of sight, out of mind, right? But when he nodded at me, his dark eyes flashing, I knew my disruption last night had cost me more than just a loss in popularity. Knees weak, I trembled on the edge of my chair.
However, when the session started, Lord Sullivan didn’t point to me, but to another female fae who sat beside the bald guy today. She jerked to her feet like she was a puppet and Sullivan was moving her strings.
“Yes, Lord Sullivan?” Nervous eyes. Skinny limbs. Thin, brown hair.
“To the chair, Marybelle. You are the first today.”
Why wasn’t he making me go first?
Marybelle shuffled to the chair and gripped the sides.
Lord Sullivan got right to it. “Marybelle, what did you do to get here?”
She swallowed. “I didn’t do anything!”
“Who were you looking at the wrong way? What was that vampire guard’s name?”
“I wasn’t looking at Elliot. Please.”
Marybelle must be a half-fae and able to lie. Even if she was pureblood and not lying, it didn’t matter. The vamps had found her guilty, and the quicker she owed up to her mistake, even if she didn’t think she was at fault, the better.
“Your master saw you glancing at him and lifting up your skirt.” Lord Sullivan smirked. “Tell us what you were thinking, Marybelle, attempting to bed a vamp who was not your master, and without your master’s permission.”
The hint of compassion I felt for Marybelle evaporated. She was either stupid enough to give into the impulses of the flesh, making herself a whore, or dumb enough to believe that the vamp guard would help her flee if she pleased him. It never worked like that.
Marybelle crossed her arms and refused to answer.
“Very well, then. The Simulator.” Lord Sullivan motioned to a pair of guards on the other side of the room. They stood near a large, metal cabinet and now opened it to slide out a glass box on wheels that was seven feet high and three feet wide.
People shifted in their chairs with discomfort. Kristen slapped her hand to her mouth. I had never seen the Simulator before, but remembered hearing from Kristen that a fae teacher had used it during my stint in the dungeons. Apparently word had spread to many fae about its wrath. Marybelle stared at the glass chamber, confused. The guards yanked her to her feet, and her shoulders tensed.
“The Simulator is a recent invention by some of our most brilliant vampire minds.” Lord Sullivan tapped his stick against his palm. “It is designed to scan the fear center of a subject’s brain and then increase activity in that area, forcing the subject to hallucinate, in great detail, their worst nightmares. Watch.”
I eyed the wiring running up the corners of the box and gulped. Could the vampires really do such a thing?
Beside me, Kristen bit her lip hard and shifted in her seat. We were about to witness what happened when you didn’t comply with the vamps, when you refused to degrade yourself.
The guards shoved Marybelle into the box and locked it. The fae stood inside, slowly turning and feeling at the now-closed door. Lord Sullivan produced a remote from his robe pocket and pressed a button. An instant later, Marybelle opened her mouth in a silent scream and pounded at an invisible attacker, fists hitting the glass, which muffled all sound. Leaves sprouted from her fingers as her small amount of magic burst to life, only to smash and shred away a second later. Blood smeared the glass. Tears ran down Marybelle’s face. Her motions became more and more frantic until at last, she punched the glass so hard, her hand hung at an odd angle. Cradling it, she sunk to the floor, her face scrunched up in pure agony.
I felt as if I would throw up.
“That is enough for now,” Lord Sullivan said calmly and turned off the machine.
The guards pulled Marybelle out of the box. She so
bbed and struggled for breath. “My hand. It’s broken.”
Lord Sullivan didn’t miss a beat. “Then you will work with your left hand. Seat her, please.”
The guards did as they were told, putting Marybelle on her chair in the circle. She curled into it and continued to cradle her hand. They’d let her sit there. Of course, we fae healed fast, but not as quickly as the vampires. Marybelle would have pain for days.
“Peony.”
The sound of my name stabbed me through my chest, leaving me unable to reply.
“To the center.” Lord Sullivan motioned to the middle chair with his wooden stick.
They were trying to break me. Shaking, I stood. The box...having Marybelle go before me...it was all a threat, set up to terrorize me before it was my turn. My legs carried me to the chair. It took all of my strength to pull my shoulders back and hold my head high as I sat down in the center of the room.
Lord Sullivan would make me admit all my wrongdoings. On the opposite side of him sat Caleb. I’d have to see the weasel’s smug face for the whole time as I took my fall. Unable to lie, I would have to truthfully answer every question Lord Sullivan presented.
“Peony. A pureblood fae with so much potential.” Sullivan circled me. “Tell us. Why did you throw away your high status for Nocturnal Reformatory?”
With Sullivan behind me, I met Caleb’s eyes, that upon closer inspection were neither blue, nor green, nor gray, but a combination of all three with brown specks in them. His jaw tightened. Good, I wanted him to squirm. That was the least he owed me after everything he had done.
“Peony!” Sullivan tapped his stick impatiently behind me.
“Because I forgot to lock a door.”
“Yes,” Lord Sullivan said. “True. But why did you forget to lock that door,and allow such a valuable plant to be stolen from the Museum of the Magical Plant Arts?”
A few fae gasped. I was the first here with such an offense, then.