By the timewe were actually inside the prison, a female guide had been assigned to us. I was glad to finally be done with theirsecurity checks since the last checkpoint into the prison had made my skin crawl. It’d involved stepping through solid rock that was temporarily liquefied, and if one didn’t move quickly enough through it, the rock would reform around you.
When our guide had told us that horrifying fact, I’d shuddered, but one thing had become incredibly clear to me. Between the warded dome, thick rock walls, multiple checkpoints, and magical doors that only revealed themselves if one had the required substance to activate their magic, it was abundantly clear that this prison was a fortress. It was no wonder that I’d never heard of anyone escaping it. And even more worrisome, Verin was considered dangerous enough to be locked within it.
Our guide marched us down a hall and stated, “Prisoner 9,982 is waiting in a conference room for your interrogation. And please ignore any strange sounds you may hear. The prisoners here can be quite deranged, and more than a few like to howl. And of course, don’t be alarmed when the walls shift and move. That’s part of our security process and is nothing to fear as long as you stay in the room I’ve assigned to you. Your particular conference room is immune to the shift, but if you were to leave right before a shift occurs, you may end up in a portion of the prison you’d rather not see.”
My heart thumped painfully. “The wallsmove?”
“They do,” Kole replied, and I could tell from his tone that he was trying to reassure me, something our guide did not seem inclined to do. “This prison was warded and crafted from ancient magic. Magic from the time of the gods. It moves to its own rhythm.”
“Indeed,” the guide confirmed. “Our spellcasters can strengthen the magic, but they cannot alter it.” She gave me a brittle smile. “But that’s also why you should feel so reassuredthat Prisoner 9,982 will never break out of here. Our prison has never been breached. Now, I shall leave you to it.”
She gestured to a door, and we entered a room. Seated at a table, already staring daggers at me, Verin waited.
Heart thumping, I pulled out the chair across from her, having to arrange my clothing to do so. The eggplant gown seemed rather garish in a prison, but it was too late to rethink my wardrobe choice now, and changing would have only delayed our visit here even more.
At my side, Kole sat too, and I stopped fiddling with my gown’s fabric and met Verin’s challenging stare. The servant, who I always thought was so meek and eager to please, glared at me as though she wished me dead.
“Hi there,Princess,” she sneered. “Nice dress. Aren’t you looking the part.”
Kole growled low in his throat. “Watch yourself.”
Her lip curled at him. “Or what? You’ll lock me up in prison?” A laugh bubbled out of her, sounding entirely deranged and chilling.
I shuddered and struggled to understand how the fairy sitting in front of me was the same one my aunt and I had entrusted to help care for my uncle.
“Do you know why we’re here, Verin?” I asked, doing my best to keep my tone cool, but it was hard. Everything about her and this place made my skin crawl.
“Perhaps looking for answers on how to save your dearest uncle?” Her lips downturned in a fake frown. “Although, I imagine it’ll soon be too late for that.”
My insides hardened at how easily she spoke of hurting Timith and not caring in the slightest about what she’d done to him. Just as fast, Kole inserted a key to the cuff on my wrist and released it.
The glowing bracelet fell away, and I automatically rubbed my wrist. I had no idea if he did it for show or if he truly believed the cuff worked on me, but whatever the case, Verin would know what releasing it meant.
Her eyes widened, and I let a stream of my magic out and made it obvious what I was doing. Naturally, my magic was undetectable, but with Verin, I infused tingles along it and let my magic probe her inner psyche.
She flinched.
I tilted my head, my voice turning syrupy sweet. “I’m here because I’m going to read your mind, Verin. I’m going to enter your brain and figure outexactlywho is behind this all. Then, I’ll use the Stone to save my uncle.”
Her nostrils flared, but I got to work since time was ticking.
Despite my bravado,pulling the information from Verin’s mind proved harder than I thought it would be. Since she was aware of what I was doing, she tried to fight me and struggled against my magic, but with magic-suppressing cuffs upon her wrists, she was utterly defenseless.
Not that it would have mattered if she’d had a Shield in place. I would have just shred through it.
But I soon dropped the tingles along my magic and turned my ability entirely unfeeling. I concentrated on what I was doing, but sweat began to bead upon my upper lip, and I struggled to access anything useful from Verin’s mind.
Normally, my magic slid easily into a fairy’s brain, and if I wanted to, I could rifle through their memories, listen to what they were thinking, and learn what they were planning.It was incredibly intrusive, violating, and one hundred percent unethical.
But with Verin, it was different. Each time I tried to access anything from the former servant that wasn’t entirely trivial—such as what she had for breakfast or what potion the guards had forced her to ingest that morning—I encountered a block. It felt as if a steel wall was in front of my magic, and no amount of probing did any good. The block wouldn’t move.
But I was able to confirm one thing despite the block. My parents were right. The same fairy who’d put the block in Verin’s mind was the same fairy who’d hired assassins to kill me when I’d been a child. Whoever it was, they were back.
Frustratingly, though, I couldn’t identify them, but Iknewit was the same fairy. For some reason, the block allowed that vital piece of information through.
“It’s like their taunting us,” I said quietly to Kole. “I can’t uncoverwhoit is, just that they’re one and the same.”
Before us, Verin was entirely lost to my magic. I’d removed her perception of hearing. It wasn’t like Ironcrest magic, though. Her ears worked just fine, but I’d flicked a switch in her brain that processed those sounds, so even though our words entered her body, she didn’t hear them. It was just one more terrifying aspect of my forbidden magic.
