Imprisoned Heir

by River Starr

  Zavian’s eyes narrowed. “Because you haven’t been here long enough.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “It’s only been days since you entered the institute.”

  My mouth dropped open. “So you have to hit some minimum incarceration length quota before you begin sending inmates to the Deep One? That’s some twisted shit right there.” Unless, of course, you died in a trial. But by that point, your death had already served the purpose of providing the sea court entertainment.

  Zavian’s expression hardened. “That’s not what I said.”

  “You didn’t need to.” I backed up a step. Suddenly, the room felt smaller and more oppressive than when the Deep One had tormented me. “Well, I hope you enjoyed the show either way.”

  Hurt flashed across Zavian’s eyes. “You think I enjoy this?”

  I nodded. “Sure do. Just like all the other sea fae.”

  Zavian’s form stiffened as disgust crossed his features. “Like all other sea fae? Like you how enjoyed murdering my brothers and watching iron slowly poison them to death? We should have let you bleed to death on that floor.”

  I raised my hands between us. “Then why the hell didn’t you? You caught me with their blood on my hands.”

  Zavian closed the space between us, rage balling his fists. The aggressive, sudden movement startled me, but I held my ground even as his breaths grew angry, his brow twisted. “Because you deserved every ounce of misery you’re given inside this prison. Every injury, every night in solitary confinement. Every bit of pain they can cause. You deserved it all for you committing murder in one of the worst ways possible for our kind. You deserved to slowly rot by iron in a cell of your own making, and I intended to watch every single moment of it.”

  Deserved. Past tense. “Do you not think those things anymore?”

  “I’m here, aren’t I?” Zavian asked. “I seem to be incapable of not saving you. I can’t stay away, even when I try. I think you deserve to be imprisoned for your crimes, but I don’t wish torture upon you. Not anymore.”

  More tears pricked my eyes. Traitors, they were. It was one thing to be found crying, but to actually cry in front of Zavian because of him and everything else made me furious. It made me feel weak. “You know nothing about me.”

  “I know enough,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “I’m innocent.”

  Surprise crossed his features. “That didn’t work on the authorities, and it sure as hell won’t work on me. Even now.”

  “That’s because none of you fucking believed me!” I reeled back my fist and slammed it into his armored chest. Zavian didn’t even budge. It was like I hadn’t hit him at all. It only made me more furious.

  Zavian caught my fist and held it so tightly between us, I was convinced it would bruise or break. “You killed my brothers.”

  I let the tears fall this time as they poured down my cheeks. “What she did was awful. I won’t deny that. But I’m not going to sit here and take this shit from you because I didn’t do those things.”

  An incredulous, exasperated expression overtook Zavian’s face. “How dare you claim innocence when I was there when you were arrested? I saw with my own eyes what you had done. The blood on your hands. The wound one of my brothers had dealt you before they’d died. I only wished I had done it myself.”

  I raised onto my tiptoes so that our eye levels were closer to being even. So that Zavian would not misunderstand my next words, even if he then chose to dismiss them. “I did not kill your brothers. The other soul inside me did. I am innocent, and I do not deserve to be here. But go ahead and enjoy this cruel game anyway. That’s all you full-blooded sea fae want. But I, for one, am done letting you walk the fuck all over me like you have any idea what’s going on.”

  I spun and walked to the door. He’d left it open, although I had no doubt that other guards were in the hallway in case of this exact scenario. More tears fell—tired, exhausted tears—and I viciously wiped them from my face.

  Before I made it through the door, Zavian grabbed my arm and spun me back around. My breath hitched as our gazes met, and I both loved and hated the feeling of love and home that filled me in that moment. There was no doubt in my mind about Zavian being my mate. About this pull between us. But it seemed we were fated to hate each other for the rest of our lives rather than enjoy the very thing that made us whole.

  Concern reflected in Zavian’s stare, his rounded eyes and relaxed features. He licked his lips and opened his mouth to speak, but no words came.

  “What?” I questioned harshly. “Just lead me back to my cell and be done with me.”

  And there came back the hard glint, the stiffened exterior. The prison guard seeking the revenge he was meant to be, even as confusion slipped across his face. He leaned down and kissed me fiercely. For some reason, I let him.

  He pulled back, a slight smile playing on his lips. One that confused me oh so much. “I will never be done with you.”

  20

  Nyx

  Zavian and the other guards led me back to the cell block and into my cell. Titus was already in his cell with Dax. Had he been sent to solitary as well? Or had his injuries been punishment enough? It certainly seemed so, given the way he cradled his black and blue face.

  As soon as Zavian and the guards had disappeared from our end of the cell block, Frost hopped off the top bunk and stalked toward me. “What happened?”

  I sat on my bottom bunk, grateful for some comfort and quiet at last. It didn’t escape me that I was pretty far gone if this thin, uncomfortable bunk counted as comfort. “The plan didn’t work.”

  “Clearly,” Frost said.

  “Are you okay?” Dax asked across the corridor. I nodded to him.

  Frost watched the exchange. “What’s between the two of you, anyway? You share a cell for one night and suddenly don’t find each other awkward. In fact, you two seem pretty comfortable now.”

  A headache began pounding away on the side of my head. “Not now, Frost.”

  She sat next to me on the bunk. “What do you mean, ‘not now’?”

  I shot her a glare. “I just spent who-knows-how-long in hell. I’m exhausted. That’s why not now.”

  “Three days,” Titus groaned from his cell. “Or so Dax tells me.”

  Okay, that was a long time to spend in solitary confinement. My stomach growled with a vengeance at that realization. I clasped a hand over it. “Damn.”

  “Yeah,” Titus said.

  “Did you see the darkness, too?” A vague question, to be sure. But I didn’t want to imply I’d actually seen the Deep One if no one else had.

  “It was dark in the room, if that’s what you mean,” Titus said as he turned his head toward me. His eyes weren’t full of tired terror. No, only I’d been party to the Deep One’s horror.

  Fantastic. Thanks, Eos.

  “Yeah,” I said, my tone hollow.

  “We need a new plan,” Frost said, her voice low so that Dax and Titus could hear her but no one else. “And quick.”

  “There is no new plan,” Dax replied, his voice just as quiet. Everyone’s words became whispers.

  Titus lifted his hand. “I remember what the circle looked like. It wasn’t a total failure.”

  I shook my head slowly as fatigue washed over me. “There is no escape.” Unless the Eos’s words were true. That the “faithful” were coming and somehow that’d allow at least me to escape. But I had no idea what that had meant, or what might be coming and what form that rescue would take.

  Frost stood and paced the length of the cell before turning back to me and hissing, “You were almost fed to the Deep One, Nyx. Next time it might really happen.”

  Apparently not. Somehow, I figured telling Frost the truth about Eos and me wasn’t going to have the effect I wanted. No one had believed me about Eos except for Dax, and that was only after he’d spent so much time with her. Besides, I doubted Frost or Titus would accept my claims without meeting Eos first, and tha
t was something I definitely feared.

  I wondered if she’d already introduced herself while I’d slept.

  No. This was my burden alone to bear, and if we didn’t escape and I couldn’t find a cure for her death curse, my sister would pay the ultimate price for that burden.

  “Then maybe that’s our fate,” I said.

  Frost swiped at the air. “No, I refuse that fate. I don’t stop fighting.”

  “If we have the circle runes and I can figure out how to utilize them, the original plan is still on,” Dax said. “Just give me a few hours to decode the runes.”

  “If we don’t escape successfully, they will kill us,” I said. “And if they don’t, the Deep One will.”

  Frost locked eyes with me. “Then help us. What about the one plan we had, with you seducing that guard who clearly has the hots for you?”

  My stomach flip flopped. “I did sort of get him to level with me. Sort of.” My confession had not been received well, but he had heard it.

  Frost raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Oh really. Like floor level or…?”

  “Not like that. Nothing happened except an exchanging of words.” I hoped my lie was convincing enough. Nothing had happened between Zavian and me this time, but before… for sure.

  “Boring,” Frost said as she shrugged. “But that’s a start. If you can seduce him, maybe we can use the distraction to get to one of the rune circles. Easy.”

  “It is an option.” As much as I hated how it meant manipulating Zavian. But the sea fae here had done far worse to us.

  Except Zavian had been right. Eos deserved the punishment we had received inside this prison. Dax did too for the empire he ran. And Frost, for her espionage work. Everyone but Titus, who was innocent, and me. How they’d separate Eos from me, I didn’t know. I was sure someone in the world knew how to do it. I just wondered if the sea fae did as well.

  As nice as Dax and Frost had been to me, releasing them back into the world could cause a whole lot of damage. Yet there was no way I’d escape here without their help.

  “Okay,” I said as I gestured to Dax. “Work on the circle. I’m going to get some sleep.” My stomach rumbled loudly.

  “Sounds like you need something to eat first,” Frost pointed out. She giggled.

  I swung my legs on to the bunk and closed my eyes. “Wake me when it’s time for dinner.”

  That dinner would have to wait. Sometime after shutting my eyes to rest comfortably for the first time in three days, Frost harshly woke me up. At first, I worried it might have been because of something Eos had done while I slept, but Frost continued shaking my arm.

  “Nyx. Get up. Your hot guard is here.”

  I groaned and opened my eyes slowly. My thoughts were slow, my mind full of fog. I doubted even Eos could have surfaced in the exhaustion I felt. Sure enough, Zavian stood behind Frost with a pair of cuffs in his hands. “Can’t I get a moment’s peace?”

  Frost leveled me with a stare, even though she smiled. “We’re in prison, girlie. Your chances for a moment of something look great, though.”

  My cheeks flushed with warmth. I pushed her away and sat up. “What’s going on?” I pointed the question toward Zavian.

  He held the cuffs out to me. “Stand up.”

  “Unless we’re heading toward the mess hall, no.”

  Zavian stepped forward, nudging Frost out of the way, and pulled me from my bunk. In the next moment, he’d deftly handcuffed me with my arms behind my back. “Let’s go.”

  I scowled and let him lead me out of my cell. Frost smirked at me the entire way, blowing kisses as I left.

  Zavian led me down the long corridor of the cell block to the runic teleportation circle at the end. As we passed by the other cells, shifters, vampires, and fae alike all called out to us. Some called me harsh things, and others screamed at Zavian for simply being a guard.

  I kept my mouth shut and my head held high. I wouldn’t be party to their verbal abuse, but I also sure as hell wasn’t going to appear weak before them.

  Before long, we’d reached the circle and teleported to another area of the prison. It was the same floor where we’d been given uniforms and then wetsuits a few days later. My pulse raced in anticipation. I was convinced Zavian was leading me into his office again. Instead, Zavian led me inside of one those spartan sea stone rooms, bare except for chains hooked to a reinforced loop at the center.

  “There,” he said, pointing to it.

  I walked over as asked and he connected the chains to my cuffs. The chains jangled and scraped along the stone floor as I lifted my hands. “What fantasy are we living out now, hmm?”

  Zavian crossed his arms. “Prove you’re innocent.”

  I blinked. “What?” Of all the things I thought might occur in this room right now, this conversation wasn’t it.

  His jaw locked tight. “You claim you’re innocent. Prove it.”

  How the hell was I supposed to do that? It wasn’t like I could make Eos walk right out of my body and join us in this room. Nor could I summon the Deep One and have him wrap Zavian in tendrils. I was such a pawn, a puppet, in so many ways, that doing as Zavian asked would be impossible.

  “I don’t know how,” I said. “I just am, and whether or not you believe me is your choice. It certainly doesn’t seem to bother you when we’re making out.”

  His hands fell to his sides. “Prove it!” he shouted, although it was ridiculous to ask that of me without any evidence I could provide beyond my word. “You want me to believe that you’re not the person who killed my brothers. That you aren’t the person we arrested with blood on her hands. Find a way to prove that wasn’t you.” There was a slight edge of pleading in his tone.

  “I already told you when you and your friends interrogated me the night of the murders. There is another soul inside of me, and she did those things. I know it sounds crazy, so crazy that not a single authority in the sea court believed me, but it’s true.”

  His brows knitted together. “Another soul? How is that even possible?”

  “It’s rare.”

  “Clearly.”

  “I don’t know why twin-souls happen, only that it did to me.”

  Zavian crossed his arms again. His muscles bulged against his uniform. I wanted him to stop talking and pull me into those strong arms. To have him hold me as I melted from pleasure once more. “You’re telling me you don’t remember when you suddenly had another soul inside your body?”

  No, I remembered all right. Was giving him the full truth worth it? After knowing it, would Zavian be able to get me out of jail?

  Not likely. The sea court needed a scapegoat for their dead nobles. My life was forfeit either way.

  So maybe it didn’t matter if I told the whole story.

  “I’ll remember that day for the rest of my life,” I answered.

  He leaned forward, as if waiting for me to continue.

  “It’s a long story,” I started and tried not to think too hard about how his cerulean gaze was affecting me. How not that long ago, he’d watched me come at his own doing. A flash of his face between my legs spiraled through my mind, sending a straight shot of excitement to my core.

  “We have time.” Zavian’s honey-like voice did nothing to quell the throbbing that had begun between my legs. Even as we casually spoke, our magic reached across the room to each other and touched like lovers kissing.

  My cheeks flushed and I swallowed hard. “I’ll spare you the details. There was a situation with a sea hag in which a death curse was placed on my sister. She was given a few years to live. We killed the hag, but…” I tried running my hand through my hair but couldn’t reach high enough thanks to the heavy chains binding me to the floor. “Point is, I did everything I could think of to save her. One of those failed attempts included paying a necromancer to attempt summoning the death curse to place on someone else—an actual criminal. But that went wrong.” So very wrong.

  “You summoned another soul instead?” Zavia
n asked.

  I winced. “Kind of? I guess. I don’t know the specifics. This isn’t my area of expertise. I’m much more adept at picking locks and stealing—from the rich, mind you.”

  Zavian waved it off as he stepped closer to me. “Then what?”

  I clasped my hands together. “I’ve spent the last year being bound to another soul who can sometimes take over my body. She likes to party, have sex, and apparently really hates the sea court. I can’t say I blame her, no offense.”

  At this, Zavian’s eyes narrowed. “But you’re a sea fae yourself.”

  “Half,” I corrected, a finger in the air. “On my mother’s side. We live on the surface because living in the sea court is hard enough, forget doing it when you’re only half-fae.”

  Zavian’s expression read too many emotions. A mix of concern, acknowledgment, and worry. “Can you prove it?”

  “That I have another soul inside of me?” He nodded. “Not unless she decides to come out and play.” Or Dax wanted to submit witness testimony, but I pretty much figured he never would. Unless we escaped this prison, Dax would never get out of here. Not with his crimes and unwillingness to leave his empire behind. Dax would never be able to prove he was reformed enough for whatever lay ahead of us in the sea court.

  Silence filled the room as I waited for Zavian to say something else or let me go. Or even for him to close the distance between us and kiss me. I needed to feel his lips on mine again, his hands on my body. We weren’t meant to stand so close to each other and not touch. Not as mates.

  Zavian stepped closer still. Now we were only inches apart. I could reach out and touch him if I wanted to, even with my hands bound. “This is the story you told the authorities?”

  “More or less.”

  Zavian worried his lower lip. Silence fell between us like fog.

  Holy shit. “You believe me, don’t you?”

  “You’re troublesome, I’ll give you that,” he said, his tone even. “But you don’t strike me as a killer as much as I want you to.”

  I laughed dryly. “You hate me.”