by G. Bailey
He steps aside and motions to the door with his dimpled chin. I hate that he’s right and that I do, in a lot of ways, depend on him to keep me safe. I’ve never felt this vulnerable before. Maybe having a sexy warden on my side isn’t such a bad idea?
“Okay, okay.” I lift my hands in supplication and slide past him into the hallway. “You’re cute so I’ll listen.”
A flicker of a smile plays on his lips. “Get goin’, Dawn.”
I grin back at him and slowly veer down the hallway. Survival is a strong suit of mine, yet it’s got nothing on my level of seduction. If I’m being framed for murder and trapped here against my will, I need to start making allies stat. It’s time for Operation Unicorn—make friends in prison—and I figure Warden Luke is a good place to start.
He leads me into a corridor filled with female inmates who each give me an assessing glance. I keep my gaze fixed on the steel doors at the end, refusing to appear meek or timid despite being the freshest meat in the pack. I do notice one thing, though—their cells are all different from mine. They’re actual prison cells instead of cages. Great. So I’m the only one who needs protection, as Luke put it. That could either make me look bad-ass or weak in this place. I need to make sure no one mistakes me for the latter, or I’ll become the punching bag here.
At the end of the hallway, voices carry from the opposite the electric doors. My heart speeds up as I take a sharp breath.
Time to see what I’m up against.
Luke steers me into the mess hall crammed with inmates of both genders, all of them wearing the same collar as me. Most are sitting at the long tables with little plastic stools, eating food from trays or playing card games and trading items. At least twenty wardens guard the walls, keeping a close eye on their prisoners, and there’s constant noise in the background; inmates chatting, doors buzzing, gates slamming, the electric click of the tasers and collars activating, wardens yelling commands, arguments and fights breaking out, voices sounding from the speakers at each corner of the hall.
The focal point is the servery at the other end where many are still gathered like vultures around a corpse. My stomach recoils at the thought of eating, but Luke may be right. Who knows how I’ll feel after today is over? Maybe it’s better to fill my stomach with something.
He guides me past the pool tables where all the men playing stop to look at me. It’s like I’ve got five heads or something. I approach the servery by myself and grab some fruit.
“Hey, cutie. What you after?”
I pause at the front of the queue and look up at the inmate serving hot food. He winks at me and smiles, the soft dimples in his cheeks unexpectedly endearing. It seems to be the only thing soft about him—the rest of him is built like a bodybuilder. He’s all muscle, with bulging tattooed arms and short dark hair. His eyes are the most striking though, like the blue of a flame, burning into my core.
There’s a flutter threatening to kick off in my stomach, but I crush it down. Now isn’t the time for getting all gooey-eyed over hot-as-fuck inmates. Now is the time for allies and survival, then later revenge.
“All right, Axel?” Luke greets him, folding his arms as he comes to a halt at my side.
“Is this your new cutie?” Axel asks the warden, shooting me another cheeky wink.
The muscles work hard around Luke’s jaw. “Prisoner. I thought you were workin’ in the arena now?”
“You know me, warden. I like to shake things up every now and then. Figured I’d also help out in the kitchen for a while.”
As I watch their exchange, I slide a banana onto my tray. The continental selection looks way more appetising than their fried stacks of heart attacks.
My stomach grumbling, I peel and take a bite of the banana. That’s when I can’t help but feel all the eyes burning into the side of my head. I glance at the men standing in the queue, impatiently waiting for Luke to shut up and go away. Sure enough, they’re all staring like they’ve never seen a girl eat a banana before.
I look away and continue eating. It’s hard not to lash out at them for their creepy leering, but I’m not in the ‘normal’ world anymore. I’m in a prison filled with goddess knows what.
Pick your battles.
“You ready, Dawn?”
I nod at Luke and prepare to walk away, but Axel’s voice catches me.
“Dawn?” he repeats, lifting a middle finger to the guy who’s bickering about waiting too long. “That’s a pretty name.”
“It’s Izora,” I tell him over my shoulder, throwing a smile at the last second. “Izora Dawn.”
He grins at me and continues serving the others. Meanwhile, I follow Luke over to the bench by the barred window. A few girls already sitting there leave the second I sit down with my tray. At first, I think it’s because of me, but as I look around the mess hall, I notice how none of the other inmates are being accompanied by their warden. There’s many of them standing guard close by, but none are sitting with their wards. Only me.
“Watch out for Axel,” Luke warns, leaning against the bench, his gaze fixed on the servery.
“He seemed all right,” I counter quietly, finishing the last of my banana and tossing the skin onto my tray. “And I need to make friends here.”
“I think you’re forgetting somethin’, jaybird. You’re not at the academy anymore. You’re in prison. Trust no one.”
“Not even you?”
He looks my way then, and there’s a strange glint in his cobalt eyes. “Not even me. Every person in this place would sooner slit your throat than help you out. Just wait until this afternoon. You’ll see. The best thing to do is to keep your head down and stay away from people like Axel.”
I force down another bit of fruit, though the grape seems to lodge in my throat. “Who is he?”
“He runs with Memphis’s lot. The two of them pretty much rule the roost here, though some of the wardens beg to differ. Just be careful. There’s only so much I can protect you from.”
“Do you really care if I get hurt?” I press him, watching his reaction closely. “Or are you just worried about my pretty face?”
Luke arches a brow and looks away, shaking his head. I think he’s about to laugh, but then he pushes off the bench and his expression sours. “Eat up, it’s time to go.”
I stuff what fruit I can into my mouth and follow him out of the mess hall. Now that I’ve realised I’m the only one with a different cell and a Shadow Warden bodyguard, I understand why everyone’s eyes are drawn to me. I really do stick out like a sore thumb.
This is my mother’s fault and I know I’m going to get punished for her life choices. Being a Grand Warden is everything to her and she told me once that her record for proving cases as guilty was unbeaten. For all I know, she could’ve sentenced everyone in here. I can’t really blame the inmates for hating me. It’s just going to make my idea of Operation Unicorn all the harder. I thought about it all night and even gave my master plan a name. You know, to make it real and all. Operation Unicorn is my plan to get close to the governor, somehow, and then get my ass out of here.
It’s not a great and well thought out plan…yet.
Luke escorts me through the maze of hallways as my thoughts scramble. The sunlight darkens the deeper we venture into the bowels of the prison. I follow him up three flights of seemingly never-ending stairs. Wherever he’s taking me, the other inmates are also gathering there. They happily run past me on the stairs, and their excited chatter fills my ears.
After the fourth staircase, we join a crowd of people gathered inside an auditorium. There’s nothing inside apart from TV screens and benches. It makes the hall cold and carries voices around like an echo. The main wall at the back consists of crystal-clear glass, but I can see the corners of the windows shimmering in the light, signalling it’s a magical structure. That’s not what seems to have captured everyone’s attention. It’s the gorge inside and the pile of dead bodies that lay there.
“Yikes. This week is a total blood
bath,” an inmate states beside me.
I flinch at her words, listening closely.
“Well, it is in the name, genius,” her friend remarks. “They don’t call it the Blood Trials for nothing. Told you Tom would die. Pay up, you owe me.”
Her friend grumbles and hands over a packet of cigarettes. “I should’ve known he wouldn’t stand a chance against that Alpha. Markle is a nasty sort.”
Bile rises into my throat. Were those girls betting on whose dead body they’d find? I glance anxiously at Luke, who’s also staring out the window, and then back at the gorge. Inmates in pale blue scrubs fish out the bodies with machinery to dump them on the surface, which is the same level as us. The gorge itself is more like an arena carved into the ground, but it stretches so far down that I can’t see the surface.
A man in a sharp mahogany suit steps out of the window and the glass ripples like water. Some applaud his arrival, mostly wardens and keepers, and the hall falls eerily silent as he takes centre stage.
“Another successful event,” he begins in a deep, powerful voice. “For those eager to sign up to next week’s Blood Trials, you may do so now, but I caution you to bring more than strength to the table. Only the strongest make it out of this arena alive.” Glancing at the few sniffling in the audience, his dragon-like eyes flash like molten gold as he adds indifferently, “The Green Room is available to those who seek counselling. You may pay tribute to the deceased once what remains of their bodies has been identified.”
I gawp at the man, digesting his every word and syllable. He’s obviously the governor. I feel sick just from listening to him, but every single person in here, including the guards, hang on to his words like it’s gospel. He’s a little more rugged than I expected from a governor. His ash brown hair is short and shaved at the sides but locks fall onto his forehead, accentuating the symbols tattooed on the side of his face. He’s beautiful, yet it’s a deadly kind of beauty, like a ruse I bet he uses to lure unsuspecting victims into his traps. Beautiful and wild. His golden, reptilian eyes are almost hypnotic. The only other person I’ve seen with eyes like this is Zander, the Shadow Warden back at the academy, and I know it means they’re descended from Draconians. Figures they’d put a Draconian in charge of the prison. They’re the harshest species in the entire Forest.
“I’d like to welcome all of our newest inmates,” the governor resumes. “I trust your induction this week will go smoothly. I’m the governor. You can call me Gov or Gold, whatever the fuck floats your boat…” He pauses and a dark shadow drifts over his face. “My rules here are simple enough. Follow them, you and I will get on just fine. Break them, and it might be the last thing you ever do. Now, as for the Blood Trials. You enter at your own risk, and once you sign up, there is no way out unless you beat me in the final round. I’ve seen most of you fight and I know why you’re here, but trust me, you won’t win. Other than in the training rooms and arena, we don’t hurt inmates. You have a problem? Tell a warden and I will sort it if I think it’s worth my time.”
“I think I can take you,” some fool shouts.
Gold merely affords him a dry laugh. “Then sign up. Prove your worth to me. The Blood Trials’ prizes are worth it. You will win a better room, with your own tv, a double bed and all the luxuries of the human world.”
“I will!” The same idiot who spoke all but sneers. “And then we will see who is boss then.”
With a smile, Gold walks right up to the now nervous prisoner and looks down at him like he’s filthy. “When you piss yourself in the arena and beg for your pitiful life, I’m going to laugh and let you die a long, painful death. Congratulations on catching my attention.”
A chill slides down the length of my spine. How can someone so beautiful be this inhumane? He’s talking about it all like we’re just meat—as if this ‘Blood Trials’ is simply a sport he enjoys to watch and participate in.
Too busy watching his exchange with the prisoner, I don’t notice the girls moving from my side. I do, however, notice the hard pinch of my ass, and I spin around, glaring up into the face of a class A jerk.
“Nice and firm, babe. Just what I like.”
White-hot fury bubbles through me.
“Leave the fresh meat alone,” another guy tells him, pulling on his shoulder.
I clench my hands into tight fists. I know I shouldn’t do this. I know I should be making allies here, not enemies. But there’s one thing I cannot stand for—people who think it’s perfectly okay to sexually assault others. I couldn’t give a flying fuck if this guy is an expert predator. I’m not letting it side.
Before Luke can restrain me, I muster all my strength, all the anger and hurt I’ve been bottling up since I was sentenced, and I release it by punching this ass right in the fucking throat.
The idiot wasn’t expecting it.
He falls down like a sack of bricks and lands on the floor with a thud that everyone makes room for. My hand throbs as if I’ve broken it, but it’s a good kind of pain. Guards rush over, including Luke, and they seize me, but then the governor lifts his hand, just barely, and they all stop. Their tasers and guns fall by their side, and they step away from me. When I look back at the governor’s face, I find that he’s smirking, almost like he’s impressed by what I just did.
“Let that be a reminder to those who break my rules.” His incineration eyes search the crowd coldly, and the smile falls from his face like melted snow. “As I just stated a few moments ago for all you dumbasses, under no circumstances are you allowed to lay a hand on another inmate. If you want to act like an animal, you save it for in the Blood Trials. Beyond those walls, you keep your hands to fucking yourself or I’ll have every last bone in your body pounded into dust.” Clearing his throat, he resumes as if nothing happened. “Now, where the fuck was I…”
My jaw hangs open, stunned by his reaction. I expected to be punished for retaliating—not pretty much congratulated. Luke digs his fingers into my shoulder and spins me around towards the exit.
“You’re right,” I whisper to him, my body shaking with adrenaline as he drags me away. “This is Hell.”
Luke doesn’t say a word as pushes me down the many flights of stairs. His light magic literally cackles from him in anger, even lifting the hairs on my own body. By that alone, I can tell he’s a powerful Shadow Warden.
A powerful and pissed off one.
“Where are you taking me now?” I dare to ask him over my shoulder. “I’m sorry I lashed out back there. That guy was a fucking creep and I couldn’t just put up with it. Then everyone would think I’m an easy target.”
Luke stops short and glares at me. “I get that. What you really need to get into your head is that you’re locked up with people worse than him. You’re just gonna make my job harder if you go keep goin’ around tryna assert your stupid dominance.”
I frown at him, irked by the words. “I’m not just some silly little girl.”
His features soften a little. Damn if it doesn’t do something to me. “You can handle yourself, I’ll give you that. That punch wasn’t half bad. But choose your battles wisely, or I’m gonna have nothin’ but blood to clean up once you’re gone. Give me your hands.”
I hold out my hands, deciding not to push him further. Operation Unicorn really depends on me getting on his good side.
Luke handcuffs me again and my frown returns. Then again, maybe this means he’s taking me outside? It’d be nice to get some fresh air.
He continues leading me back to the front of the prison. Instead of entering the girl’s wing, he takes me out of the main rooms. I still can’t shake the images of the dead bodies from my mind. The way the inmates just hauled them out like they were nothing… Is this really my life now? Is this really all I’m worth—people making bets over?
Not if I can do anything about it. I’m not going to be one of those bodies lying at the pit of the arena. If need be, I’ll use their bodies as a ladder to get out.
On the other side of the hallwa
y, a pair of wardens take their sweet-ass time opening the gate, then we step through it. Luke pauses outside a row of doors with frosted glass windows. Every single one of them is guarded by two wardens who barely blink our way.
Luke turns to the wardens with an annoyed frown. “Room three is activated.”
In seconds, the doors siphon open and Luke pulls me into the third room. I barely step over the threshold before he stalks back out, shutting the door behind him. I look around the room where there is one chair facing a pool of shimming white water. It looks almost like milk from way back here. Not having a clue what this place is, I sit down on the chair and stare into the pool. The surface bubbles like it’s simmering and a sphere of water floats into the air. It slowly blurs and transforms into the image of my mother in her office back home. Her normally cold eyes are bloodshot, the bags under them heavy and blue, and the exhaustion on her face is evident. She must have just got back from work because she still has her court robes on and her blonde hair is slicked back into a tight bun, so tight it pulls her skin back.
My lips part in surprise. The image is so clear it’s like she’s in the same room with me. I’ve never communicated this way before and I can hardly believe what I’m seeing. I figure this must be magical water sourced from the Faerie Pools, but I didn’t know you could do this with it.
“Mum?”
She wipes her eyes with a handkerchief and gives a pained half-smile. “Izora, my darling child. How did this ever happen to us?” Her voice cracks ever so slightly, which is unlike her. We’re both obviously aware that this phone call of sorts is being recorded. She’s always told me that one can never appear weak in our world, or in any world, now I think about it. So why is she letting herself cry like this? I don’t think I’ve ever seen her shed a tear in my eighteen years.
Clearing my throat, I squirm on my chair, at a loss for words. I’ve wanted to see her so badly but now I’m here, I only feel lost and scared.