Twisted Together

by May, W. J.

  Right now, it felt like a little of both.

  In a moment of chilling clarity, she was struck with a sudden thought she never, in a million years, thought would have ever crossed her mind.

  I should never have come home.

  “Aren’t you afraid I’ll just break out?” Her eyes flashed, catching what little light there was in the cell, and she took a sudden step forward. “If I’m such a powerful threat, a potential hazard to your entire way of life—what makes you think I won’t just walk right out of here?”

  Carter glanced again toward the door before lowering his voice to a hoarse whisper. “That is precisely what you cannot do! You cannot justify what they’re saying about you.”

  “That’s easy for you to say—”

  “I’m not the only one saying it.” He took a breath and tried to collect himself. “Your mother sent me here to give you that exact same message. This is something to be dealt with from the outside. You are absolutely forbidden to go anywhere.”

  “This isn’t being grounded! This is jail!!” Rae threw her hands up in frustration, unintentionally breaking the cuffs that had somehow survived her incessant pounding. She winced apologetically as they clattered noisily to the ground, and Carter flashed her a pained look. But it was that very look that got her temper up again. “Don’t you even want to hear about what’s been going on this last month? We found Cromfield’s—”

  “To be honest, Rae, I’m more worried about you right now.”

  Of everything that had happened that day, it was those words that made Rae come up short. Those words made her realize how serious this really was.

  If Carter was more worried about what was going to happen to her than he was about Jonathon Cromfield, that was bad news. The worst.

  “Just…sit tight,” he said quickly. “And don’t try anything. I’ll be back when I can.” He was out the door before Rae had a chance to say another word. The iron lock clicked loudly behind him.

  Rae heard him conversing softly with the guards stationed down the hall, and then all was quiet once more.

  For the first time in years, she found herself burying her head in her hands, taking deep breaths like her therapists had taught her to do all those years ago to help manage her lingering trauma about the fire that supposedly killed both her parents.

  She sank down against a wall, bringing her arms up around her knees and clutching them tightly to her chest.

  It’s not real, it’s not real…she found herself chanting. More tricks of the trade, meant to nip her panic attacks in the bud. Except, this time, she couldn’t be more wrong. It felt like the prison room Lanford had put her in years ago. She mimicked the breathing she learned when she was a kid, after her parents died.

  This is real. This is as real as it gets.

  She didn’t see another soul for the rest of the day. When a tray of cold dinner was pushed through the wall several hours later, it was done so by a pair of gloved hands that vanished as quickly as they had appeared. She picked miserably at the food, which looked to be some sort of vegetarian casserole, before deeming it inedible and pushing it angrily to the side. Instead, she tried to conjure up some fish and chips, a little comfort food to calm her down. But after taking her first bite, she spat it out into the plate and shoved the whole thing back through the slit in the wall.

  Molly was right. She should stick to drinks and clothes. She had yet to make any sort of food that didn’t trigger an automatic gag reflex.

  Tiny tears sprang into her eyes as what felt like the weight of the world came crashing down on her shoulders. Her throat tightened up and she bit down hard on her lip, but she forbade herself to cry. If there was one thing she wasn’t going to do down here, it was cry. She made the promise to herself the second she walked through the door.

  Instead, she made herself a mug of piping hot chamomile tea and tilted her head back to the ceiling. The room where they were keeping her was as basic as it got: A simple cot surrounded by four walls of stone and a stone ceiling. But there was a little barred hole cut through the rock about fifty feet up that allowed her a small glimpse of the night sky.

  It was here that she focused her troubled eyes, wondering vaguely what prisoners were supposed to do when it rained. She was still mulling that one over when she conjured herself a thick blanket and drifted off into the rockiest of slumber.

  * * *

  If Rae was expecting some sort of end-of-incarceration miracle the next day, she was sorely disappointed. Aside from another tray of what looked to be ‘swamp’ for breakfast, she didn’t see a single person. They were assuredly banning all visitors, she thought as she watched the sun travel from one side of her little ceiling hole to the other. That was why no one had come.

  She hoped her mom was giving Carter pure hell for this. She hoped her friends were doing the same to the rest of the Privy Council. Her thoughts grew almost smug as she imagined it:

  Beth, the love of Carter’s life, tearing him a new one for arresting her daughter. Devon, the golden boy of the Privy Council, threatening to quit unless Rae was released.

  She wondered what sort of future Julian was seeing for her now. With so many different people and factors in play, it was probably clouded beyond his sight. And what about Molly? She had officially graduated from Guilder; was she already staying in their new apartment? Was she there right now, moving everything in while her best friend sat in jail? If she was down here for a long time, would they begin to move on without her? Like she didn’t exist?

  Those tears threatened to come again, and Rae quickly switched her attention to something else. They insisted on confining her here? Fine. Then she would stay.

  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t make a few desperately-needed improvements…

  An hour later, Rae was kicking back on a giant plush love seat. It had been shoved into the corner, next to her king-size bed. A host of colorful little cups of espresso lay scattered on the coffee table before her, complementing the color of the obligatory Monet replica hanging on the wall. She had even gone so far as to conjure up a simple television, and was just contemplating how she’d go about replicating cable when there was a deep groan, and the door pushed open again.

  Carter blinked in amazement as he stared around the cluttered room.

  It looked like something out of the pages of ‘Home Design.’ At least, that’s the image Rae had had in her mind when she conjured it. And it couldn’t be more ridiculously out of place, juxtaposed against her present location.

  “This is…” he stuttered furiously, “what the hell is…”

  For one of the few times in his life, he was actually so thrown by what was in front of him that he couldn’t find the words to speak. Then his eyes fell on Rae, sitting smugly in the middle of it, and he suddenly found the words after all.

  “Rae Kerrigan!”

  “What?” she asked innocently. “I’m here, aren’t I?”

  She wanted to add, ‘and good luck getting the bed out that door,’ but she didn’t think it would be the best idea to push Carter any farther than she obviously already had.

  “They told me Guider needs a new headmaster,” he was mumbling to himself, pacing in furious circles and tripping over a Persian throw rug. “What could be more of a delight, living with a bunch of rowdy teenagers with superpowers?” His eyes flashed up to Rae and she wisely kept her tongue. “I came to tell you that your situation here is permanent until further notice.” He spoke loudly, and his voice echoed off the walls of the tiny room. “You are to remain incarcerated until such time, if ever, that the Privy Council sees fit to release you.”

  Rae blinked. Then blinked again.

  He wasn’t kidding. She could tell that much. But he wasn’t exactly looking at her either. His eyes kept flickering up to the hole in the ceiling, almost like he was waiting for something to arrive.

  “I’m…going to stay in prison,” she repeated the words slowly, unable to register something so completely insane. “How’re
you letting that happen?”

  When Carter finally did look at her, he was a different man. Stiff. Cold. Like he was back in her first days at Guilder.

  There was something else there as well. Something she couldn’t quite place.

  “I told you, Miss Kerrigan, it’s out of my hands.” He swept back towards the door, but paused before opening it, glancing back at her with an intensity she found almost as unnerving as the message he had come to deliver. “I can only hope that you mind what I’m telling you, and that you’re still here in the morning. You’re to be transferred to a more secure facility… One there’s little hope of ever leaving.”

  Rae’s mouth fell open and she stared at him in shock.

  In the morning she was going to be moved to a permanent facility there was no chance of breaking out of? And Carter wanted her here for that? “What the hell is going on?!” she yelled.

  “Like I said, Miss Kerrigan,” he glanced again at the roof, and this time she followed his gaze, “I expect to see you here in the morning. Once you get to the new facility, it’ll be too late.”

  A chill ran up her spine but she nodded slowly. “I…understand.” They locked eyes and he gave her the slightest of nods. “I’ll be here. Don’t worry.”

  All at once, he was his condescending self again. “I never do.” Without another word, he marched out of the cell, locking her inside behind him.

  She stared at the door for a long time after he’d gone, replaying every word in her head, trying to make sure she had it right.

  Carter was telling her to escape, right? He was saying that, come tomorrow morning, it would be too late, so she had to leave tonight.

  Right?

  Why the hell couldn’t anyone here ever just speak plainly and say what they meant? Why didn’t the PC know about Cromfield to begin with? Why was Rae the only one acting like a grownup in a world full of adults?!

  She glanced down at her newly-conjured cupcake slippers and rethought that last one.

  Nevertheless, she kept her ear to the door for the rest of the night. While no one dared to venture outside her actual cell, it sounded like there was at least one guard stationed at all times at the end of the hall. Rae glanced around the stone walls, and suddenly wished she hadn’t made so much clutter. It would be easy enough to escape, that much was clear, but she wasn’t sure how she was going to do it without making noise, alerting security.

  She went over option after option in her head.

  Transform into an eagle to slip through the bars in the ceiling? No, they were too close together; she’d never make it through.

  Conjure up a giant ladder and literally walk her way up to the sky? No, she’d still have to deal with the bars when she got there. And while she could easily pull them apart with her bare hands, the sound that would make would also attract the guards.

  She was still mulling it over, staring pensively up at the sky, when a shaggy head of blond hair suddenly popped into sight.

  “What the—” She jumped back in alarm, squinting up to try to make out the identity of the person silhouetted against the moon. She didn’t think it was anyone she recognized, not with that color hair, but it was a young guy; she could tell that from how he moved. Furthermore, he was clearly trying to be quick and discreet, constantly checking over his shoulder as he ran his fingers over the thick iron bars.

  Or should she say…what used to be the thick iron bars.

  The second his hands touched them, it was like the metal simply disappeared.

  Finally rid of the only thing that stood between her and freedom, she ditched all her previous plans and literally ran up the stone walls, swinging her body over the ledge and landing on the ground beside the guy who was responsible.

  The…um…very hot guy who was responsible.

  Rae couldn’t tell if she was blushing, or if she was just flushed from the run. But she took a second to collect herself before looking up into a pair of sparkling green eyes.

  “Who are you?” she asked quickly, lowering her voice to a whisper as she glanced nervously around. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” his voice was sparkling too, as light and mischievous as his smile. “I’m here to rescue you.”

  Chapter 2

  “You’re here to rescue me?” Does he not know who I am? Rae bit back a smile. “I really can’t tell you how utterly clichéd that sounds.”

  His smile faded into irritation as he reached forward with a gloved hand and grabbed her wrist. “Whatever; alright, just take my hand and let’s get out of here.”

  He jerked her forward, pulling her along a few steps beside him, before she planted her feet firmly in the ground. When he still tugged her a few steps further, she turned up a strength tatù.

  “What the hell?” he hissed as he was jerked backwards. “We’ve got to leave—NOW!”

  Rae crossed her arms firmly over her chest. She had been tossed back and forth in this magical world of superpowers and high-stakes missions enough times to get whiplash. Needless to say, she certainly knew better than to get swept off in a rescue with the first guy she met, handsome or not. If Lanford, Carter, Jennifer, and Angel had taught her anything, it was that you never knew what side people were playing for and what they could do. This guy had yet to let her touch his skin. For all she knew, he was a stunner just like Julian’s crazy on-and-off-again girlfriend.

  He certainly looks like stunner, she thought with an inner grin, but that’s not exactly what she was worried about at the moment.

  Rae settled her feet firmly shoulder-width apart as she realized she had been under Guilder and was now standing on the football pitch, or somewhere close by it. “Look, I don’t know you. For all I know, you could be working for the Privy Council—trying to get me in even more trouble by breaking me free.”

  “I do work for the Privy Council,” he said openly, “but it’s not exactly what you think.”

  Rae threw up her arms and took a giant step back. “Are you freaking kidding me?”

  “Get down!”

  Before she knew what was happening, he’d tackled her flat to the ground, covering her body completely with his own. She blinked up at him in shock, feeling the warmth from his skin seep through her thin dress. The golden tips of his hair tickled the tops of her cheekbones, and for a moment all was quiet except the sound of their shallow breathing.

  Run, Rae—run! Push this gorgeous guy off of you and head for the hills.

  But something about the way he was holding himself made her pause. There was a tension in his body that put her on high-alert… An alert that soared to even greater heights as she switched to Devon’s tatù and heard what this guy had obviously seen a second earlier.

  A pair of heavy-booted footsteps. The Privy Council’s guards, out on patrol.

  She instinctively sucked in a panicked breath—a breath that smelled deliciously like citrus and aftershave—and held perfectly still.

  To be frank, she didn’t think she’d have been able to push her way past those muscled arms planted in the grass on either side of her anyway. She might not know much about this guy, but he clearly knew how to handle himself. And, as much as she hated to say it, he had clearly just saved her butt.

  His green eyes flickered down to hers as the footsteps walking past them grew quieter and quieter before disappearing altogether. His lips were just inches away from her own, and as she drew in another silent breath, she could have sworn she saw him wink. Another scent of him filled her nostrils; as much as she wanted to hate the smell, it was intoxicatingly delicious. No one smelled this good. Not even Devon.

  “I think it’s safe to go now, but I’d be perfectly willing to stay here another couple minutes if you prefer…”

  Rae pushed him off of her, sending him flying back several feet before he landed with a soft chuckle in the grass. She’d switched to Jennifer’s tatù almost immediately after hearing the guards, lingering on Devon’s for only a moment. She didn’t know quite how
to explain it, but she felt almost…guilty, using Devon’s ability while lying beneath some other guy. “Look, I don’t know who you are, or what you think you know about me, but I guarantee that out of all the girls I’m sure you’ve used that line on in the past—I’m quite capable of taking care of myself.” She stood and brushed a handful of leaves from her lavender dress. “For the record, you didn’t have to tackle me; I would’ve been just fine.”

  The guy leaned back on his arms, grinning without shame as his eyes gave her a lengthy once-over, from the tips of her shoes to the tips of her hair. “Well…I’m wearing black. It’s good color for a late-night rescue mission, you know. And you’re wearing…” his eyes swept over her again, lingering in a way that made her blush, “…well, that. So I figured it would be better if I was on top.”

  A rush of blood blossomed in Rae’s cheeks and she turned away furiously, trying to get her bearings whilst completely ignoring the arrogant Adonis lounging on the ground beside her.

  “Okay, okay.” He got to his feet, putting his hands boldly on her shoulders. “Next time, you can be on top.”

  The next second, he went flying backwards again. His blond hair stood straight up on end, and little curls of smoke trailed from his jacket.

  Rae flashed him a bitchy smile. She had always loved Molly’s tatù. It was one of her favorites.

  “Wow…” He shook his head with a little grin, walking cautiously back towards her. “He told me you were feisty, but—”

  “Who told you I was feisty?” she demanded.

  The time for games had passed. Each second they stayed out in the open was a second they could get caught. She needed answers, and fast.

  For once he seemed to understand the need to be serious, and his face sobered up as he stared intently into hers. “Carter.”

  Her eyebrows shot to her hair. “Carter told you that? You expect me to believe that you’re working for Carter?”