by Laynie Bynum
Tell them what you did, Peony, Mother said. She held me, six years old, in front of the other fae servants, all lined up in the foyer of Lord Tannen’s mansion. I had spilled a bucket of paint on the carpet by tripping over it. I’d been carrying a big, heavy vase in front of me and hadn’t been watching where I’d been going. Tell them all why Lord Tannen has to take away our dinner tonight.
“Because I wasn’t paying attention. I was careless.” Though I had to force the words out when they finally came, relief swept through me.
Sullivan stood in front of me, staring me down as he slapped his stick against his palm. “Why didn’t you pay attention? Why did you allow yourself to become careless?” Lord Sullivan’s words wormed their way under my skin, exposing my flaws. My heart raced in terror. If my answer wasn’t good enough, I’d end up inside the Simulator.
I eyed my lap. “Because I became complacent and took my wonderful position for granted. Because I always ruin things.”
Lord Sullivan turned to the class and motioned for them to get up. They all stood as one, even Kristen and Caleb. The insults and obscenities rained down on me, but I didn’t take them in. All I could hear was the rushing of my blood in my ears, and the tiny triumph I felt at the back of my mind. I had done it. I had escaped the Simulator.
The torrent died down, and I stood, but Lord Sullivan gripped my wrist with his icy fingers. Redness crept into his eyes. “Not yet, Peony. You are not done yet. Lady Cardinal has told me that you need to learn a special lesson today for waking up the entire cell block and disrupting her for no good reason.” He turned to the guards. “Place Peony inside the Simulator.”
Chapter Seven
Resisting the guards was pointless as they shoved me into the glass box, which still had blood smeared on the door. It was as pointless as begging Sullivan to reconsider. Thus, I took a deep breath and tried to gather myself as the guards shot the glass door of the Simulator behind me. I could do this. I might be careless, but I excelled under pressure. I had to unless I wanted Mother to break me.
A low hum started.
Classroom C faded as if it were receding into the dark. I was flying backward through a tunnel and couldn’t feel the floor. Sullivan, the guards, the other prisoners faded into the dark, leaving me alone.
I tensed, sickness filling my gut.
Mother’s face swam in front of me. I blinked, but she remained, training her harsh, dilated eyes on me. Her downturned mouth judged me. Her fists rested on her hips, highlighting her huge bosom that was exposed by her low-cut dress.
This wasn’t real. This wasn’t real.
I closed my eyes.
But she stayed. She would never leave. This Simulator would make me see my nightmares no matter what I did. A warm tingle of magic filled my limbs, begging for use under this immense stress, but I breathed it out, maintaining control.
“I wish I’d never had you,” Mother stated with a calm shake of her head. “What a disappointment you are, Peony. Once again, you failed to make the guests happy. A single flower? Pathetic.”
My magic flared at the insult. I curled my fingers.
This was not real.
Only it was.
I took a step back, pressing my back against cool glass I could not see. I tried to glance past my mother at Sullivan, at anything, to see whether he had started the Simulator, but beyond Mother it was all dark.
She stepped forward, seizing my chin and digging in her fingernails. The pain was real. Her face drew close, and she turned her mouth up into a cruel smile. “There are already wrinkles on your face. Beauty is such a fleeting thing that requires so much maintenance.”
I gritted my teeth, eyeing her layers of makeup. “You would know.”
Her hand snapped across my cheek. Spots flared across my vision, but I bit in the pain. Crying would only get me mocked. I would not be mocked. “Don’t you dare talk back! If only I had been impregnated with a son and not a useless daughter.”
She was goading me, and my hands balled, gathering magic, but I released them. “I thought you said my father was a mistake, that you didn’t want him to stick around.”
Mother let out broken laugh. “You want the truth? Fine. Have it.” She stepped closer until her hot breath brushed against my face, and I could see the irises of her eyes contracting. “Having sex with your father was part of my master’s plan. Said he would reward me, but instead, I was punished with raising a baby alone. He wanted something different, something new. A product he could sell for a good profit.”
Bile rose in my mouth, and a tremor racked my body. These words were new. Mother had told me that my father was a brief fling, a break from her horrible existence. This had to be the Simulator messing with my mind. “But you said sleeping with my father was a moment of passion.”
Mother’s eyes glinted with cruelty as she crossed her arms. “Passion for him, not me. You were a product of rape, created to satisfy the fetishes of my master.”
All of the air whooshed out of my chest. “That’s why you’re so hard on me,” I rasped, grasping the invisible wall of the Simulator. She despised me. I was a reminder of the degradation she had to endure to please her master.
A product.
I had always known that I wasn’t wanted, but hearing the extent of it, broke something inside of me. Shards of glass ripped into my bones. My magic couldn’t take any more. I lashed out with vines, but they swept through the image of Mother, useless.
Mother snorted and ran a fingernail across my cheek. I wanted to flinch away, but if I did, she’d grab my hair and rip it out like she had done the last time I’d talked back. Then she did something worse than yelling. She spoke with a sad tone. “I’m not hard on you. Everything I do is for your own good. But you are hard to love, Peony. You should try harder to be a better daughter.”
I dared to meet her gaze as I grabbed the glass shards within and forced them back together. “I...I will, Mother.” But I wasn’t thinking about her. I turned my thoughts to my future. I’d go much further than she had. I had plant magic. I was not a courtesan to be used and abused.
Mother disintegrated, her body turning to mist before merging with the dark. I blinked and on the other side of the iron bars stood Mr. Chad, my former PE teacher, a vampire who looked to be in his mid-thirties. This wasn’t my cell at Nocturnal Reformatory. This place was much darker and made of cobblestone and wooden bricks. I sat on the floor beside a dirty mattress. I was back in the dungeons I’d been thrown in after being falsely accused of stealing a blood crystal. The simulation was still happening, but it was so real that my stomach rumbled from hunger.
“Peony, you’ve gotten yourself into trouble yet again. Did nobody tell you that stealing was bad?” Mr. Chad grinned.
I squared my shoulders. “It wasn’t me. I swear.”
He opened my cell, and hope swelled within me. Maybe Mr. Chad would take pity on me, and I could finally return to my classes at Nocturnal Academy. A week had passed. The exams were just around the corner, and I needed to place at the top of my class. I had to snag the Independent major. It was mine.
Mr. Chad leaned down and pressed his finger against my lips. “Shh. No talking, Peony.”
My heart sank. He hadn’t come here to help me. He pushed my head to the side, and I didn’t resist. His hand rested on my thigh as his fangs pierced my skin and pain erupted. He slurped greedily, and I sat as still as possible, reminding myself that my future contract was worth too much for him to drain me or deflower me. Finally, he was done. His eyes turned glassy as my fae blood hit his bloodstream, making him high.
“One day, I’m going to have you, Peony, and you’ll enjoy every damn second of it.” He grabbed the bulge in his pants, but I didn’t shrink back. Mr. Chad would never have me. I’d kill him before he had a chance to bed me.
Mr. Chad melted away, taking the darkness with him, and I was back in the glass box. I sat on the floor. Wetness trickled down my face and neck. I wiped away my tears, unsurprised by them,
but the blood at my neck made me stiffen. Quickly, I wiped it away. The simulation had opened a wound on my neck, and another, unseen one inside.
The door unlocked, and the guards stepped closer, but I rose to my feet by myself despite my trembling knees. They would not touch me again.
As I exited the box, I walked past Sullivan. His gaze was cold, but not smug. He was proud of me. I might’ve cried and hurt myself enough to bleed, but I had not passed out or begged. I was strong. I was worthy. I’d survive Nocturnal Reformatory and reclaim my spot in the vampire society. Mother was right. Her harshness was beneficial to me. It had prepared me for this merciless world.
After lunch, Work Time began despite my weakened body and my injuries.
I stiffened as my guard led me under Cell Block 1, into a dirt corridor network, and then into a room filled with piles of huge, chopped tree trunks. I stared dumbly at them, irritation rising within me as Caleb walked into the room, escorted by another guard. Both guards nodded to each other. We were the only two people in this particular workroom. Was this a joke? I was not going to work side by side with Caleb.
“Chop the wood,” his guard barked at him.
“You have two hours, both of you. If it’s not done by then, you’ll be punished,” my guard, a burly vampire who ironically looked like a lumberjack, added.
I bit my tongue, knowing that asking them to assign me to a task that would require less upper-body strength would be useless. The vampires wanted me to fail, and from the way my guard eyed my scabbed neck, I could only guess that he’d be allowed to bite me if my results were disappointing.
“I will.” I forced a smile.
The two guards left, closing the door behind us. Thuds sounded from adjacent rooms as other fae slaved through tonight’s Work Time. I walked over to the table where two axes lay and tried lifting one, groaning as it refused to come off the table. I had never realized how heavy those were. And were the blades iron? Great. That sure helped.
I gritted my teeth, and finally, managed to get the axe off the table. To the popping of my shoulder, I slammed it down onto the trunk closest to me. The dent I made was pathetic. My second and third try weren’t better.
“Well?” I asked Caleb. “Aren’t you going to help or do you like being bitten by vamps?”
“Funny you of all people should say that.” Caleb grabbed his own axe and began chopping wood like he had been doing it his whole life. Maybe he had. I couldn’t help but study as his muscles worked with every move. Soon, his tan shirt was drenched in sweat and he ripped it off. My mouth went dry as I eyed his back. It wasn’t super muscular or broad, but it wasn’t as lanky as I had first guessed. I shook my head and tore my gaze away from him. Caleb was my enemy.
Since I didn’t have enough strength to chop the wood, I called upon my magic to seep into the logs and split them. Or I tried to, because nothing happened. Even after I set the axe down, thinking the iron might be stopping me, it refused to work. Working on dead plants apparently wasn’t something I could do.
So I tried again to chop, but my tiny dents weren’t doing much while Caleb was almost finished with his half of the wood. As if that wasn’t bad enough, footsteps sounded from the corridor, and then the door flung open.
The lumberjack guard peeked his head in and smirked. “Not doing too well, are you, princess?” He swaggered over to me and put his hands around my trembling ones that were still holding the axe. “I could help you in exchange for a favor.”
Disgust rose in me, but I tilted my head. I could bear this. He wouldn’t drink too much. His fangs slid over my skin along with his unkempt beard, and his hand reached low to cup my breast. My lunch rose in my stomach, but before the vamp could bite me or stick his hand underneath my shirt, he cursed and jumped away from me.
“What the fuck?” He glanced at me accusingly, but I had no idea what had happened.
Then I saw the spiky root, sliding away from his ankle and not toward me, but Caleb.
“We still have half an hour left, don’t we?” Caleb asked casually, arranging his cut wood. He dropped a split log onto the others he’d created.
The guard snorted and eyed the ground, but all was normal. “You do, but unless you want to help the girl, I don’t think much will come out of the extra time.” He crossed his beefy arms. “I’d strongly advise that you don’t.” He turned to me and licked his lips. “I’ll be back for you later, babe.” With that, he exited and slammed the door.
Caleb grabbed his axe and began to chop my wood.
“What are you doing? Didn’t you hear him? You’ll get in trouble if you help me.” What was I saying? I shouldn't be worried about Caleb.
Caleb paused his chopping and glared at me, making me regret my words. “Oh, now you’re concerned for my wellbeing?”
I blinked, unable to catch up with my feelings. I was furious at Caleb for getting me here in the first place, but I was also grateful that he’d stopped the guard.
Caleb began chopping again, and this time, I didn’t stop him. I might get into trouble for accepting help, but it was probably better than not getting the task done. The guard would be happy to harass me and drink my blood either way, but Sullivan’s punishment for me failing to fulfill a task would be much worse. Headmistress Cardinal might even extend my stay.
“You’re here because of me,” Caleb said softly as he took a break and put the axe down. “This is the least I can do.”
I jabbed my finger into his chest. “So you admit it. You committed a crime.”
“You’re not innocent yourself.” He grabbed the axe and continued chopping.
“What do you mean?” I screamed to be heard over the noise and Caleb's grunting.
He lowered the axe and grabbed my wrist with his free hand. “You knew what you were creating, yet you still did it.”
I swallowed hard, thinking of that dangerous hybrid plant. “I didn’t have a choice. Mrs. Wu commissioned—”
“You always have a choice, in this world...and in others.” He let go off me abruptly and continued hacking the wood.
I didn’t interrupt him again, but I couldn’t get his words out of my mind. Who was Caleb and why did he think that we had a choice when we were living in a vampire’s world? How had he controlled a plant root in a place where even I couldn't access magic? Had he recently come from the faeland, where fae hadn't yet lost their full magic? It certainly seemed so, given his blatant disrespect for the rules and his ability to use his plant magic this far underground when we were surrounded by iron. I had thought that exposing him as the thief was my best course of action to get out of here, but what if I could do more than get out of Nocturnal Reformatory? What if I could be rewarded?
Caleb was keeping secrets. He hadn’t been trespassing. Perhaps he'd allowed himself to get caught. I’d find out the real reason for why he was here and what he planned.
Chapter Eight
The more I thought about Caleb, the more I wondered if getting him into trouble was the best idea. Someone whose plant magic could survive these iron bars would be useful to me, just as Mother promised I could be useful to the vamps as something other than a vampire’s courtesan or floor scrubber. On the other hand, revealing Caleb’s secrets might get me out of here. Not that Lady Cardinal questioning him the first time around had worked out well for me.
Who was Caleb? How had he been able to resist Lady Cardinal’s blood crystal and not spill his secrets? Could whatever he had swallowed before the guards dragged him off protect him? But even if there was magic to resist mind manipulation that was sold in pill form, why would a nobody like him have it?
He didn’t talk or act like he’d grown up in high society. In fact, I got the feeling that he wasn’t too familiar with living amongst vampires. Onyx Logan back in Nocturnal Academy had been the same way, refusing to bow to them. It turned out that she had ice magic and other tricks up her sleeve.
Onyx scared me.
And though I'd never get the truth for sure, I suspec
ted she'd slipped that blood crystal into my purse back at Nocturnal Academy.
What about Caleb? Could he be useful? Or should I bring him down?
The next few days passed uneventfully. Exhausted from the merciless schedule, I tumbled into bed at the end of each day, falling into a deep, dreamless sleep. Neither Caleb nor Kristen bothered me. Kristen barely acknowledged me, even during Self Disclosure Therapy where she sat next to me. The Simulator, to my relief, didn’t come out again, and Lord Sullivan had moved on to bringing other fae to the interrogation chair. But none of them were Caleb. Once he sat there, he wouldn’t be able to lie, right? Lady Cardinal might have a blood crystal, but Lord Sullivan was thorough. If anyone could get a confession out of Caleb, it would be him. Also, if Caleb really had pills on him that made it possible to dodge the truth, Lord Sullivan would notice the fae swallowing one.
I joined in insulting those who were interrogated, glad it wasn’t me taking the hits. The days became a blur, melting into one another. The lumberjack guard didn’t return, and I hoped he was off on vacation or something. We continued to get up at five-thirty, wolf down our meals, and go straight to classes. But so far, we had half an hour “free” each day to sit in our cells between Self Disclosure Therapy and Work Time which always started earlier than the schedule said.
But even so, something seemed off about that thirty-minute block of time where we got to sit and rest. No one spoke about it, and even though we could see our neighbors and theoretically talk to each other, conversations never took place. Tension lived in the air as people shifted on their cots or tried to use their toilets under their blankets. I thought of asking Kristen why everyone was so quiet since the guards didn’t patrol through here much, but she kept her back to me. Apparently, she was still salty about me waking up everyone on my first night.
During my second week at Nocturnal Reformatory, I found out why everyone stayed tense during that mysterious time.