The slide of the guard’s baton clinked against the bars. He stopped just outside of my cell. The Nolus fairy’s hair was nearly as bright as my jumpsuit, pink strands shaved close to his head.
Sparks emitted from his baton, painfulzapsthat would sting a prisoner into catatonic submission if used. I would know. I’d seen a guard using one firsthand on a prisoner several blocks down from me just a few hours ago.
“Up!” The guard rapped his baton on my cell. Azapzinged from it.
Groggily, I stood. Cobwebs filled my mind, but I stumbled dutifully to where he stood.
“Turn around, hands behind your back.”
“Is that truly necessary? I’m not going to hurt anybody.”
“Turn.Now.” He bared his sharp teeth at me.
Sighing, I complied, as I had so many times in my life.
Once positioned as he wanted, he slipped cuffs around my wrists, securing me completely, then shifted me until I faced him again.
“Mouth open, head back.”
I winced when the movement jarred my aching skull, but I parted my lips as instructed. There was no point fighting this. He’d likely call more guards to hold me down if I refused.
He tipped the potion’s contents into my mouth, and the syrup was just like yesterday. It was so thick I wanted to gag.
“Swallow. All of it.”
Somehow, I forced myself to ingest the sticky liquid. It slid down my throat in a rush, its effects instantaneous. Horrible magic washed through me, suppressing and stifling everything inside me. My lorafin powers, already subdued from the previous potion, disappeared even further, falling down, down, down until I could no longer feel them, access them,usethem. It was as if my magic had been snuffed out inside me like a blown-out flame.
“Open your mouth.”
My head spun, and the realm tilted, but I opened my mouth, and the guard inspected every corner to ensure I’d fully swallowed the magic-suppressing potion.
He grunted and removed the cuffs. “We’re done. You may return to your cot.”
I toppled toward the bed, barely making it before I fell onto it. Mouth now dry from the potion’s after-effects and head still pounding, I turned on my side just as magic reverberated through the walls.
Rock groaned. Stone shifted. Before my eyes, my cell moved as the ancient magic of this impenetrable fortress transported my cell to somewhere else within its bowels. When it finally stopped, the rock grew still.
I closed my eyes, not even wanting to contemplate any of this. For all I knew, I was now on the second floor or perhaps a subterranean floor. Only the guards knew.
Maniacal laughter suddenly burst from down the corridor.
I winced anew and rubbed my temples, but it did little to alleviate the pain.
“This is just great,” I grumbled. It seemed I had a new cellmate in this wing. Cackling sounds emitted from whoever else had been moved to this section.
I pulled the thin blanket up and over my head, trying to drown out the sounds. Drown out my new existence. And drown out the reality that I’d created.
But one tiny part of me felt relief. Jax was still free. So was Phillen. So was Alec. All of the Dark Raider’s band remained unimplicated of any crimes. Bastian was also back home, and all of the half-breeds would be healed and returned to where they lived after Norivun forced Saroly to remove their anklets. The king’s plan had been abolished. War would never come between the kingdoms because of that. All of that had been accomplished because I twisted fate.
A moment of lightness hit me as I clung to that. Because while my current state was severe, it hadn’t been for nothing. Because of my lorafin magic, all of those lives would continue as they’d been. And while I’d never relished nor wanted to go to prison, I grasped onto the fact that my magic hadn’t been used in vain.
So many lives had been saved because of me.
“Emerson! You have a visitor.”
My head lifted, my neck twinging from the abrupt movement. Crustiness filled my eyelids, and bleary-eyed, I wiped it away.
A guard stood at my door, waiting expectantly.
