by River Starr
I retreated until the backs of my knees hit my bunk’s thin mattress. “I don’t want to fight you, Frost. We’re a unit.”
She sneered at me. “I think we stopped being a unit when you spent three days in luxury instead of solitary confinement. Titus said the guards barely touched you when you two were apprehended. Meanwhile, he’s over there with a broken jaw, nose, and ribs.”
I glanced over to Titus, who still chose to sit this one out. Dax’s worried gaze turned fierce with anger. “We all need to chill a second.”
Frost aimed low this time. I caught her attack, but not the ice she flung at me from her other hand. The ice shards slid across my skin, opening my blood to the air.
“Maybe if I release enough of that blood, Dax will superpower his way through the cell bars in bloodlust and finish you off for me.” Frost chuckled dryly. “You seemed to love the feel of his mouth on your neck before.”
I’d thought she and Titus had been asleep when Dax had fed on me. Gods, did everyone know?
“We’re supposed to be a team,” Dax called. “Vampires have to eat. Get over it, Frost. Next time, I’ll feed on you and we’ll make it even.”
“I’m tired of being everyone’s sloppy seconds.” Frost unleashed a barrage of punches then, most of which I deflected or dodged. “My parents. My siblings. The winter court. I’m good. At. My. Job.”
I cried out as her last punch hit me right in the jaw. I fell backward onto my bunk. “Apparently not, since you were caught.”
Frost crouched down then, looking at me like I was a terrified puppy she was trying to lure out from a storm pipe. “These days, I don’t even think you did what they accused you of. Look at you now. You certainly don’t look like a cold-blooded killer.”
Shit. I’d spent so much time trying not to appear weak around my fellow inmates that I’d completely forgotten to do that with Frost too. I’d never thought it would come back to bite me.
I’d thought wrong.
I inhaled sharply and pulled on all the water in the air and the room. If she wanted to fight with magic, I would try. As she continued on her tirade, I called on the available water, pulling it from the air and the damp ground, and commanding it to form a thin rope around her ankles. Then I pulled.
Frost went flying backward. I leaped off the bunk at the same time, kicking her with both feet right in her chest. A cracking sound drifted through the air as she hit the ground hard. I ripped off the blanket—a sheet, really—from my cot and spun it fast to make it thinner, then commanded the water to wrap around her throat and freeze her to the floor, head first.
Frost’s eyes went wide. She tried pulling away from the floor, even breaking the freezing ice. But the difference between her control of ice and mine was that Frost couldn’t control water. Not in its truly liquid state. Not while it wasn’t frozen into snow or ice. So as soon as she dislodged herself, I reattached her to the floor.
I worked quickly, knotting the blanket and holding down her flailing legs long enough to get her sort of tied up and under control.
Dax gave a slow whistle.
“You bitch!” Frost shouted. “Let me go!”
I knelt down beside her. “No. You need to admit that you were wrong so that we can get back to working together on escape.”
Her cheeks flushed red with anger. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”
“Why not? I’m a much better thief than I am a murderer. Immobilizing people is what I do while I steal their prized possessions.”
Her anger diffused into a persuasive grin. “You know, if I weren’t so mad at you right now, I’d find this kinda hot.”
I scoffed and set about anchoring her tied-up feet with another bit of water frozen to ice.
“Can you please cut the shit now?” Dax implored. “We’re supposed to be working together on escape. It’s still possible.”
Titus chuckled dryly. “Sure.”
Frost rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. Can you blame a girl for getting heated? This prison is awful and boring. Especially with a cellmate who doesn’t bat for the home team.”
I held her stare. I fully didn’t intend to let her out of this hold until dinner came around. And even then, I wasn’t sure I could rest easy inside our cell anymore.
“Oh, come on, girlie,” Frost said. “You have to admit that was fun.”
“I don’t trust you,” I said.
She shrugged as best she could while restrained. “I don’t trust you, either. Now let me out of this.”
“No.”
“Nyx,” she warned.
“I’m not convinced you’re not going to turn around and attack me.”
“We’re in prison,” she said slowly. “Anyone could attack you. If I’m going to, you’ll see it coming first. I promise you that.”
I wanted something Frost cared about in return to prove it. “I want the top bunk. Then you can be free. You’re already wearing the blanket for the bottom bunk anyway.”
Frost chewed on her lip. “I don’t believe this. Fine, whatever. Just untie me now.” She nearly growled the last word.
I untied the blanket and let go of the ice. As Frost righted herself, I hopped up onto the top bunk. From up here, I’d see all her attacks coming. “It’s got a nice view. Easy to plan our escape together.”
“We’ll see about that.” Frost didn’t sound convinced. But she did leave me alone until dinner.
It was all I could hope to ask for.
22
Eos
Freedom always came at night, bathed in shadows and the fatigue of Nyx’s day. I almost wasn’t able to surface tonight at all and hadn’t in many evenings. Her exhaustion sometimes kept me muted even while she slept.
It was hardly fair. But I survived.
I sat up and glanced around. The cell block was pitch black, but I could sense Dax’s presence on the other side of the corridor all the same. As much as I’d love his company right now, it wasn’t him I wanted to talk to tonight.
I exhaled slowly and inhaled with intention, calling out to the primordial beast lurking beneath the remains of Atlantis. At one point in this world’s ancient history, this creature might have been considered a god. Now, its role had been reduced to that of a protector. The last of its kind, and it would respond to me, the last of mine.
Slowly, blackened shadows filled the dark cell and curled up the posts of the bunkbeds, slipping across the blanket to my hands. The shadows swirled in my palms, warm and ticklish. I smiled.
Are the faithful close by?
The Deep One’s response came in the form of warm shadows sliding down my wrist. Around me, the shadows clicked as they dropped bone fragments of the Deep One’s past victims to the floor. I was certain Dax had heard it, but the gods only knew what he thought might be happening over here.
Good. I look forward to my escape from here and ascension back to the throne.
“What’s going on? This is so weird.”
I raised an eyebrow at the sudden intrusion of Nyx’s innocent voice. Nyx. So happy you could join us.
“What did you do, Eos?”
I chuckled lightly. Nothing. You’re simply being allowed to share our mind with me at the same time, thanks to the Deep One and our proximity to Atlantis.
A frustrated determination flooded through me, but the emotion wasn’t mine. “Give me my body back. I’m not kidding around.”
If I had a way to do that by now, I would have. I assure you. You must be ready. My faithful will arrive soon, and you will help them.
“Why don’t we start with you giving me control back?”
In due time. I hopped down off the bunk silently thanks to Nyx’s soft, quick feet and began walking around. Quietly, I whistled a tune. Her inmate, Frost, slept soundly on her bunk.
“Eos?” Dax asked from his cell.
I continued my whistling. He knew it was me.
Nyx, dear. If you help me, you will have everything you will ever need in life.
“All
I need is my sister cured.”
And we can do that! But first, we’re accomplishing my goals.
“I won’t be party to more killing.”
You aren’t going to have a choice. If the Deep One will be so kind as to intervene on my behalf, it’ll allow me to have full control of this body. You simply won’t be able to argue.
“What? No!” Nyx shouted in our shared mind space. “Listen, Deep One. The Deep One. Whatever. I’ll make you a deal.”
I rolled my eyes and climbed back up onto the bunk. The Deep One doesn’t make deals with non-heirs. You’d need your Zavian, your prison guard mate, to do it for you. Or the other higher positioned sea court nobles. Technically, they have Atlantean blood in their veins. But none runs as strong as mine. My mother ruled the night Atlantis sank.
“Seriously,” Nyx continued as if she had ignored me. What an insolent little bitch. “If all you want is Eos because she’s the heir, you can have her as soon as my sister is safe and no longer death-cursed. Once Cyra is cured, you can move Eos’s soul into a new body however you have to. I won’t fight you. Just do whatever you need to, okay? I don’t want this hell forever. I want my body back.”
I hissed. You have no idea what you’re asking, Nyx. Take it back.
The shadows breathed and shuddered, retreating from my body. Warmth drained out of me, leaving me as ice cold as the water at the deepest parts of the ocean.
Nyx! Take it back!
“No. That’s my deal. My plea. I don’t want anything to do with it or you or Atlantis. Or Alexandria, for that matter. I’m done. All I want is my sister safe and alive and free from her curse.”
With a final, nearly audible breath, the inky darkness and its tendrils receded until all that was left were tiny pinpricks of light scattered across the walls.
The Deep One was watching. And one day, it’d take what Nyx had promised without careful wording. Her life—and her very soul.
You’ve just made a grave mistake, Nyx.
At least what I had offered her would have let her live.
23
Nyx
A shrill, staccato alarm broke through my sleep. I bolted upright, my chest heaving and my eyes wide. Instead of the normal morning routine, with sudden lights and a short but blaring alarm, this alarm kept going rhythmically along with flashing lights.
I blinked past them as the bunk beneath me shook. “What’s happening?”
“I don’t know.” Frost rolled out of bed and raced to the cell bars, her footsteps making a sloshing sound that made my veins run cold. “Oh, that’s not good.”
I looked down and saw an inch of water coating the bottom of our cell. Shit. That wasn’t normal. I hopped down from the bunk, landing with a splash. “Think it’s a test?”
Frost tried to peer as best she could down the hall without touching the cell’s iron bars. But without a decent angle, it was impossible. I’d know. I had tried so many times, but all we could really see from our cell was the one holding Dax and Titus. Both scowled at the water in theirs too, water that also filled the corridor of the cellblock.
“I can’t see farther down,” Frost said, then she yelled, “Does anyone else have water in their cells?”
“Shut up, bitch!”
“We’re taking on water!”
“Us too!”
Before anyone else could respond, an explosion rocketed through the space. The prison walls shook from the force. We covered our ears. I teetered sideways, knocked off-balance, into Frost. She caught me and righted us both.
“It’s the rebels!” someone farther down the cell block called.
Gods. No. Could it be? Eos kept saying that the “faithful” were coming, and that I was to aid and escape with them.
“Not good!” Frost called as the water began rising.
“There’s magic protecting the prison,” I said. “We’ll hold pressure.”
“We’re still taking on water.”
Titus climbed on to the top bunk of their cell and away from the freezing cold water. He’d get dragon fever for real in a flash.
I slipped on the flats they’d given us as shoes. “Yes, but—”
An alarm blared again, followed by another explosion.
Frost had a white-knuckled grip on the cell bars even as the iron burned her. “The rebels are going to sink the prison and us with it.” She hissed and pulled her hands away, shaking them out.
“They won’t let us drown,” I said.
“Wouldn’t count on that,” Dax said as the water level rose even higher. “We’ve got minutes at this rate.”
I swallowed hard. When we’d been promised a reduced sentence for good behavior, I doubted this was what Zavian had had in mind. But if the waters continued rising as they were, a much shorter life sentence it would be.
Dax moved up to his cell bars and pulled on them. His muscles strained, his eyes bulging as he pulled. The bars bent maybe a very little amount. “Titus, get over here.”
Titus growled, his perpetual scowl twisting his face. “No.”
Dax leveled him with a look. “At this rate, you’ll die by drowning before dragon fever. Help me.”
Titus scowled and jumped down to help Dax, landing with a splash. But even with Titus’s help and Dax’s supernatural vampiric strength, the bars wouldn’t budge. Whatever they’d been made out of wasn’t normal. Probably magic-infused, knowing the fae.
“Fantastic,” Frost said sarcastically, watching as the guys failed to make progress. She turned to me. “What about you? Can your magic pull the bars apart?”
I glanced toward the bars. “Maybe at full strength. I’m not sure about right now.”
Frost glared. “Maybe want to try at least? What if I freeze them a little?” She got as close as she dared to the iron bars and ran her hand vertically over a few. Snowflakes and ice trailed behind her palm, coating the metal.
“I can try, but don’t get your hopes up.” I stood in front of the bars and pulled the water from the floor. Not a lot, just enough to create thin ropes that wrapped around a few bars at once. I pulled. The bars bent a little, about as much as they had under Dax’s and Titus’s strength. But even that little amount of magic, thanks to the magic-muting tattoo on my neck, left me winded.
Frost paced away, her angry footsteps splashing me. The water was now around our ankles.
I bit my lip and looked across the way to Dax. “Any ideas?”
Dax shook his head, a dark expression crawling over his face. Dax might survive since he didn’t have to breathe. But even then, he wouldn’t be long for this world without blood to feast on. Trapped in there with just Titus, Dax could maybe survive a week or two longer than the rest of us at best.
There had to be another way out of here.
I glanced again at Dax’s cell, this time drawn to the lock on the outside. I’d never seen the guards use a key, but it sure as hell looked like it could take one. Which meant there were two ways to open that lock: magic and by hand.
An idea began to form in my mind. I searched our cell for anything that might work. Locks and I were old friends who intimately knew each other’s every tick and movement. I just needed the right tools.
“What are you doing?” Frost asked.
I didn’t stop searching to look at her. “I need something to pick the lock with. Anything thin enough. Even a hairpin.”
“In prison?” Frost asked, as if it were the stupidest thing I’d ever said.
I waved her off. There had to be something. There always was. And this was exactly the type of scenario I was best at. Not using magic or swimming forever. I was only half-fae by birth, but all of me was a thief.
“Would this work?” Dax called. He held a knife in his hands. One of the iron-infused ones from the mess hall. “I figured it might come in handy one day.” I doubted he had intended to use it like this.
I sighed heavily and considered the lock once more. I didn’t enjoy the feel of iron, but the bars and lock were most certainly made
of the metal. I’d be getting iron-poisoning either way.
I nodded. “Can you break it in half at all? Make it thinner?”
Dax held the knife lengthwise between his fingers. It took him several moments of concentrated power, but the knife snapped in half. He also thinned out the top a little. His fingers bled with the effort, but he lapped up the blood.
“Perfect, thank you. Toss it over.” I moved to the bars again and readied myself to catch it.
Dax tossed it across the way, but his aim was off. The makeshift pick hit one of the bars and clattered into the building water now moving left past my cell farther down the cell block.
“No!” I cried as it started floating away in the slow-moving current.
“There’s still this half.” Dax snapped another piece off the top and threw it toward me again. It hit the cell bars once more and slid down into the water.
“Your aim sucks,” Frost said as she watched from her bunk. “We’re going to die here. I knew we would.”
Titus roared. “This is unacceptable! I will not die a drowned, caged animal!”
I closed my eyes and sensed the water around me. Water and I were old friends too, even if we didn’t always get along. Even if my power wasn’t as strong as a full-blooded sea fae’s. But retrieving something from the water shouldn’t take everything from me as pulling on the bars had.
Under my command, the water pooled around the two halves of the knife Dax split and floated backward toward me. I knelt in the freezing cold water, shivering as it coated my legs, and reached carefully between the iron bars to pluck them out of the light current. Even from an inch away, my skin burned from the iron and my throat began to close.
I stood and backed away as soon as the two halves of the knife were in my hand. “Gotcha.”
Frost appeared beside me. “Can you really pick the lock?”
“I’m going to try. I’ve not yet met a lock I can’t pick.” I leaned forward toward the lock on our cell.
Frost grabbed my arm with her burned hands. She’d only held the bars for a few seconds. “Those bars are iron.”