by River Starr
My blue eyes shot open, and I glanced down while breathing through the agony. I was lying on cool, smooth teal marble flooring. Above me, graceful, sweeping arches rose into decorative golden patterns with frescoes dotted between them. The frescoes depicted faeries dancing along the ocean. A city with rings around it stretching into the waves and into the sea beyond.
Atlantis. The city of our fae ancestors. I’d heard the story so many times but had never seen the city. No living fae ever had.
Steeling myself for whatever else I might find, I swept my gaze lower along my body. At one point I must have pressed my fingers, sticky with drying crimson blood, against my side. I pulled them away, gingerly trying to avoid the injury I didn’t remember getting. More blood came away with my hand, soaking my fingers.
What happened?
I remembered coming to the city to steal from fae nobles. Making it to their residential chambers. There was a small altercation, a shout, and then… One of them blasted magic directly at me. I must have passed out, which mean Eos… Eos must have surfaced and run free.
I laid my head back down and pulled in even breaths as my heart raced. My brow and neck were slicked with sweat, the smell of it being swallowed by an even greater coppery scent. All the while, the frescoed ceiling above kept plunk, plunk, plunking more and more water droplets.
Exhaustion swept over me like a heavy blanket, tucking me back into unconsciousness.
No. I had to sit up. I had to fight going under again unless she did more damage.
“What did you do, Eos?” I whispered as shadows danced in my vision. The smell of blood pulsated through the room
No one answered. She never answered.
For one year now, I’ve had another person inside of me. Every night when I went to sleep, I surrendered control to her, to Eos. Usually, that didn’t amount to many deadly wounds in the morning, although I could feel it in my body when she went galivanting across the Cornish village we called home. This time, though…
“Eos,” I whispered as a shudder swept through my body, sending chills spiraling down my spine to my toes.
Gods. What did you do?
Dozens of footsteps thundered nearby, falling in the sharp staccato fashion of soldiers.
I couldn’t stay here on the floor. Judging by the décor, I was still inside the nobles’ home. Given my injury, it was possible Eos had lost control when she’d passed out from blood loss or pain, and I’d woken up in her stead. As I should. This was my body, after all, with Eos the unwanted visitor.
Slowly, inch by inch, I pulled myself into a sitting position and studied the large room, looking for clues. The soldiers’ footsteps grew louder and closer, the sound of their approach quickening my pulse.
My heart dropped.
The altercation had clearly continued after I’d blacked out. I was still in the living room. A fancy one, too, with plush couches adorned with gold-embroidered cushions and pillows, and an ornate coffee table with shattered glass strewn across it. A stained silk rug sat beneath the living area. The blood staining the fabric connected with a sliding trail to a wall where…
“Gods, Eos.”
My stomach roiled. Bile slicked my throat. Two fae, both male, slumped against the wall, each with an orange coral-handled knife in their chests. One Dimitri had given me, and the other Eos must have found on their person. Around their wounds, made more obvious by the blood spilled, was a ring of inky black. Iron-poisoning.
Both sea court nobles were of the highest status, denoted by simple golden headbands on their foreheads. They both had white-blond hair and azure eyes, along with fish scale tattoos across their necks.
“Eos…”
For once, I wished she could answer me. This twin-soul nightmare had gone from bad to horrible overnight. What had started as a magical ritual gone wrong linking Eos and me together had turned from her stealing my body for hours at night to murdering two sea fae nobles. This was supposed to be a peaceful—if not difficult—job. How had it gone so wrong, so fast?
I reached up, clutching the intricate sea glass necklace around my neck, bound by magically hardened seaweed and shells. The one my mother had given me before she’d passed. When she’d gifted me the necklace, she’d said the design of it was a sign of the old fae gods.
No one worshiped them anymore. But more than ever before, I needed some kind of miracle.
The door to the nobles’ home swung open. The next few moments happened in a haze. Soldiers outfitted in leather armor the color of sea foam swarmed the living room. They carried sharp tridents for weapons while fae magic swayed in the air.
All of the soldiers started yelling at me and barking orders. I didn’t pay their words close enough mind as I was too lost within my own thoughts. One soldier yanked me off the floor, ignoring the scream that tore through my throat as my ribs exploded with fire and agony. He bound my wrists with magic-infused coral handcuffs.
I watched as the soldiers checked to see if the nobles were still alive. Watched as one soldier, with long, braided white-blond hair, fell to his knees and showed uncharacteristic emotion. Never in my twenty-three years had I watched a sea fae weep. Granted, I’d also watched their kingdom from afar for most of my life. My mother had been born inside the kingdom but had escaped to the Cornish coast to escape the stoic, sadistic sea court. There, she’d met my father and had had my sister and me before dying tragically young.
Even stranger than his uncharacteristic emotion was how strikingly good looking he was. Startlingly so, even while weeping. His strong jaw and high cheekbones. The way pieces of hair fell loose from his braid and softly framed his face.
“I… It wasn’t me…” My words came weak, my voice breaking. It was true. It wasn’t me. “Eos… I’m Nyx. I’m Nyx.” He had to know that I was innocent. That I hadn’t done this.
The white-blond sea fae on the ground spun, his cerulean eyes as hard as ice. “You wear their blood on your hands. Seize her!” But in the hardness swam a sea of heartbreak so deep, I swore I could feel it too. I’d caused this beautiful man so much pain, and although I couldn’t remember my body committing the act, I wanted to fall at his feet and do anything that would make that heartbreak end. His presence, even in this situation, was overwhelming in the strongest of ways.
“I didn’t—”
The fae stormed closer to me, the tip of his cold trident resting against my throat. He was so close that the scents of saltwater and rain washed over me, calming my frayed nerves despite the situation. Something about this soldier smoothed my pain. Was it his magic? It certainly thrummed through me like the sun.
When he next spoke, his words were tight, his tone rough like stone. “You will pay for this. Every day, for the rest of your life. You murdered my family, and I will see to it they lock you in Atlantis. You will never see the light of day again, outsider.”
I opened my mouth to protest again. I didn’t know why Eos had chosen to murder these two nobles when all I’d wanted to do was steal from them. I hadn’t known she was capable of murder at all.
Darkness swam on the edges of my vision, and when the fae holding me captive swung me around to lead me out of the area, the room spun with wild ferocity.
I fell back once more beneath the waves of unconsciousness, cursing Eos’s name.
3
Nyx
I was wet, bound at the wrists, and held captive by powerful men.
And no, I wasn’t living through some extravagant, erotic fantasy made real, but sitting with heavy iron-infused cuffs around my wrists. This job from Dimitri had turned into a nightmare that never ended. I was trapped in a tiny magic-made coral transport capsule making its way through the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. As it turned out, the ocean got cold. Which wouldn’t have sucked so much if the people responsible for my current predicament cared about my wellbeing. At all.
Spoiler alert: They didn’t. Not the Guard of the sea court who’d sentenced me without trial to life in one of the most dangerous pris
ons in the world: the Atlantis Institute for Dangerous Criminals.
Criminals like me. Well, sort of. Criminals like Eos. Too bad I was paying for her misdeeds.
I shifted my stiff, aching arms, trying to stretch the muscles while simultaneously retesting my searing restraints for the hundredth time. As if a few minutes passing would make the iron-infused magic-muting handcuffs any easier to break. Time, as it turned out, was much better at healing than breaking.
I wanted to sigh, but I clamped the urge down and resettled my back against the cold wall. The thin black top I was wearing did nothing at all to stop the cold from pressing in as we sank deeper. Even if I lifted my back from the wall now, the air inside this magical capsule had nearly frozen over. At the time of my arrest, I’d still been wearing the skin-tight outfit I preferred for my thieving excursions. It was easy to maneuver in. Unfortunately, that was about all it was good for. And when the Guard had arrested and processed me, they hadn’t cared enough to give me more suitable clothing. So here I was, freezing my ass off in a coral transport on the way to prison in a skin-tight suit that left nothing to the imagination, even with my bra.
I must have been giving the three individuals being transported with me a nice show with the thin top stretched across my chest. I tried not to draw attention to it or my discomfort. There was no chance in hell I’d give my fellow inmates any chance of seeing a single sign of real weakness from me. If anyone on this magic transport or at Atlantis Prison thought me weak, I’d never survive. And I had to. My sister was counting on it.
When I’d woken up from that ritual gone horribly wrong, I’d no longer felt like me. I’d felt like us. Eos. We had my body, but we were now twin-souled. The magical accident had called down Eos’s soul from the in between she’d been resting in and slammed it into my body. Now, when I slept or fell unconscious, Eos had free rein.
I didn’t want anyone on this transport knowing that, either. Eos was my secret. And my bane.
Now… Now, I was bound by iron-infused anti-magic handcuffs that were slowly poisoning me just enough to keep me vaguely sedated. I was headed straight for Atlantis Prison. Not the lost city, but the prison the sea fae had built in its stead. Atlantis had once ago been their kingdom’s capital. But it had been sunk by the gods of old, and in the one remaining remnant, the sea fae had built a prison.
What a way to honor a legacy.
“I hope they give us real clothes.” The comment came from the only other female on the coral transport. She had braided silver hair, icy-blue eyes, and a thin face framed by the slightly pointed ears of a full-blooded fae. Beautiful as she was, her frame was built for fighting. As it should have been. The winter court where she was undoubtedly from was known for breeding soldiers. As she spoke the words, her eyes were on me, staring for almost too long as her gaze traveled downward. Was she checking me out, or wondering why I’d been arrested in such an ensemble as this?
I shifted, hoping to free the tight grip my shirt had on me. A lock of my black hair fell over one shoulder, not long enough to cover my cold, hardening nipples. “They better, or we’ll die from pneumonia, at which point this was all song and dance, and nothing more.”
“I was leaning more toward them keeping their hands off you,” the winter fae said, tossing her bound hands in the direction of our two male companions.
Next to her sat a man who couldn’t take his eyes off of me, that part was true. But I was fairly certain it was from the fact that my shirt showed off my neck and he had two pearly white fangs in his mouth. The handsome vampire’s dark, predatory eyes watched the way my chest rose and fell. Every breath, every heartbeat of mine fell under his delicious scrutiny. He was attractive, with dark brown hair, red-lined brown eyes, and a tiny, faded scar on the side of his jaw.
The dragon shifter next to him had the hulking, built form of an athlete, with red scales covering both arms and neck. His piercing, golden eyes nearly glimmered in the low light of the transport, almost giving off the effect of being on fire. His bright red hair held the same gold tones of his eyes. My chest tightened from fear—or maybe even excitement—as I looked him over, gulping hard. He was handsome, sure. But I knew from plenty of stories that red dragon shifters were fiery, aggressive, and capable of wielding actual flames. They got what they wanted, and curse anyone standing in the way of it.
He simply inclined his head. “I could warm you up.”
I clicked my tongue. “If you had magic, sure. Also, that’s literally the worst pickup line.”
He scowled. “Not a pickup line. I’d rather the guards focus on you. For that to happen, you must live.”
The winter fae chuckled and stood from the bench she’d been sitting on. “Wow, you’re sure a charmer.”
“Luckily, humor isn’t a necessity in prison,” the vampire said, his words smooth as honey dripping from a comb. His gaze studied everything I did. My heartbeat raced beneath his scrutiny, and I found myself unable to turn away from him, even when I tried. It was as though his gaze, predatory and full of its own sort of magic, had frozen me in place. Pinned to the wall, handcuffed, my moist shirt pressed against the swell of my breasts. Vulnerable, just as he liked. As all vampires desired.
I swallowed hard as the vampire’s lips curled into a sly, knowing smile.
Oh god. Could he read my thoughts? Or was I simply that transparent?
The vampire leaned forward. “So, how’d you end up here? I hardly expected to find you on a transport with a plan like you had.”
My brows knitted together. Surely, he was speaking to someone else. “No?”
“Come on,” he said. “I told you it was a horrible idea. Too much, too soon.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I’d never met this man before in my entire life.
His jaw set hard. “Why are you acting like this?”
A bang came loudly upon the front wall, saving me from answering. I jumped from the force of it. On the other side of the orange coral wall were the two sea fae guiding the transport with their magic toward Atlantis Prison.
“That’s enough!” commanded a gravelly male voice.
“What else are we supposed to do back here, asshole?” the winter fae called before slamming her head back against the coral wall. “When are we going to get there?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. She had spunk, I’d give her that—a volatile combination with frustration. She was beautiful in that overconfident sort of way. She was sure of herself, and she carried her chin high.
“What?” she asked, her eyes narrowing on me.
“I like that you give it back to them,” I replied.
She grinned widely. “Not like they can do worse to me than what’s already going to happen. I don’t know about you all, but I’m in for life.”
“They could kill you,” the vampire observed coolly. His eyes still tracked every movement my body made. Intimately, too, as though he were literally undressing me with his eyes… A thrilling, warm chill coursed through me at that thought.
This is so not the time for these thoughts. It’s just the allure of a vampire that’s getting to me. And this tight space, and the way he’s looking at me…
I shifted in place on the cold bench again, unable to play it cool.
The female fae nodded emphatically. “Yes, and then my ‘life sentence’ would be over a lot sooner.”
“You’re crazy.” I couldn’t keep the comment to myself, although I wasn’t sure if it was directed at the fae or the vampire. “I’m Nyx, by the way.”
“Frost,” she said, lifting her chin again. “What’d you do to land in Atlantis Prison, Nyx?”
The dragon shifter huffed and moved like he wanted to cross his arms and, when he realized the impossibility of that due to the cuffs binding his arms behind his back, he growled.
“Chill out,” Frost said to the shifter.
The shifter’s golden-fire gaze hardened. “We’re not here to make friends.”
“Of course not,�
�� said the vampire. Finally, his gaze lifted from me and landed on the dragon. “However, it would be easier to tell you to shut up if we knew your name.”
The shifter rolled his eyes. “Titus.”
“Well, there we go, Titus.” Frost’s tone was sickly sweet, like cotton candy melting in your mouth. “It’s nice to meet you, Nyx and Titus. And your name, beautiful?”
The vampire tapped his foot. “Dax.” His curt tone ushered in another setting of his jaw.
Frost smiled sweetly. “Nice to meet you too, Dax.” Then she curled some of her silver hair around one finger. Unlike the rest of us, Frost’s arms weren’t bound behind her back.
Lucky her.
I wondered whom she’d flirted with to obtain that arrangement.
Dax’s narrowed gaze returned to me. “It’s nice to meet you, Nyx.”
Frost’s jaw dropped a little when he spoke to me first, then she scoffed and shook her head.
“Hi,” was all I managed to get out as I shifted once again. I hated this, being so vulnerable and on display for him. It was like I was a mannequin in a store window showing off the latest moistened clothes trends.
Frost clicked her tongue. “So, what are you in for? You didn’t answer my question.”
I blinked away the thoughts of showing anything off for Dax. “It doesn’t matter.” Chiefly because I hadn’t actually committed the crime. But none of the sea fae guards had believed me during my brief interrogation, so neither would my fellow inmates.
Besides, I had a feeling that inside the institute, saying I’d been wrongly accused and was actually innocent might do me more harm than good. Despite Frost’s friendliness and my upbringing outside of the sea court, I knew only the worst of the worst ended up in the Atlantis Institute for Dangerous Criminals. Ruthless murderers and serial killers, fae traffickers, those who had committed treason, and those who practiced magic so perverted that even the most ostentatious fae—who whimsied over magic like cupcakes—wouldn’t dare touch. Necromancers. Diviners. Alchemists who played god.