Page 3 of Siren’s Secret

“I—” Wave started to say but thought better of it and closed her mouth. The officer ignored her and kept going.

“The Council Force cannot allow unidentified power users to roam free and cause chaos. We have rules and regulations around these things for a reason. Normally, we would spend way more resources and time to figure out every detail, but with the attack and the fallout, we simply don’t have the time or manpower.”

“So what does that mean for me?” Wave finally asked, forcing herself to sit up straight.

“It means that your case will be tried as unauthorized use of heir apparent power. Unless there’s some information you’d like to share voluntarily?” He lifted a brow and looked at her expectantly.

So that’s how it was. Spill the beans or face imprisonment for life. She wasn’t powerful or important enough to worry them, so they weren’t going to spend energy on unearthing her secrets, but they also weren’t willing to let her go free. Rules and regulations didn’t bend for nobodies like her.

Wave pursed her lips and shrank back into her chair. There wasn’t much else she could do. She wasn’t going to tell them anything and trying to lie her way out of this would very likely land her in hotter water.

“I see. Well, if you change your mind at any time before the trial is held, reach out to me.” He pulled out a card and held it out to Wave. She reluctantly took it. There was no way in hell she was going to use it, but it would look weird if she flat out refused. That might spark his interest to keep digging.

“Thank you for your time, Ms. Spinwell. And for your service,” he said and, with that, walked out the door. Another guard stepped in and took her back to her cell. Maybe she could decorate it somehow since it probably would be her home for the rest of her days.

Chapter 2 – Wave

After that, her routine changed again. Once a day, a guard would take her to a little gym and she spent an hour working out, running and trying to get her body to cooperate with the powers shimmering in her gut.

It took Wave a couple of days to realize the guards actually let her use their gym.

“Felt a bit bad for you,” one of them said when she asked about it. “These cells were not meant for long-term holding. There’s no secure outdoor exercise area, or anything else really.”

“But won’t you get in trouble?”

“Nah, you’ve been behaving, and you were helping during the attack.”

“Oh! Well, thank you.”

She had a hard time processing that and didn’t want to question it too closely when it was probably the main thing keeping her sane. The small cell felt more and more claustrophobic every day. Fresh air was something she dreamed about constantly.

Her wrists were always raw because she clawed at them in her sleep and rubbed them every time her mind began to wander. She missed the bracelet from Jarred. If she had kept the treasure, she could focus on it and not the chains her memories kept conjuring up day and night.

A week later, when Wave was coming back from her daily exercise, she saw Elena being pushed into a cell a few doors down from hers. Wave tensed, but since a wall of flames didn’t head her way, she dared to hope that Elena hadn’t seen her.

Fuck.

Wave slipped into her own cell to shower and prayed that the Council Force would just set her trial. There was no way she could escape these cells without using her siren heritage to its fullest, and well… after that, the Council Force would certainly put every available resource to tracking her down. She had better chances of survival if she just played along for now.

‘Rash actions will always get you into trouble. You need to think more, Wave.’ She could practically hear her mother lecturing her, while her father nodded along. So she was trying to think. And coming up empty, but she was trying.

From the rumors she had gathered from the guards, the Council would probably sentence her to life in prison, but no one was very zealously driving the case. Her parentage was listed as unknown and she had used elemental powers. There were enough variations and mixed breeds that it didn’t cause too much interest.

In the Council’s eyes, she was just a storm spirit heir apparent. A bastard—and those were a dime a dozen. The general opinion among guards was that she had gotten unlucky with the title transferring to her randomly while the Hell Moon was boosting her powers to unnatural levels. Since she hadn’t gone on a murderous spree with her power manifestation, she was no one to worry about.

That was all well and good on paper, but Wave was slowly losing her mind in the cell, no matter how fairly the guards were treating her. She needed this limbo to end one way or another. She wanted to see her friends and beg for forgiveness. And gods, she missed those infuriating males. She didn’t want to, but there was nothing but time to think in the cell.

So she was going mad in more ways than one. Wave groaned and once again tried to figure out a way out of this mess, but came up with nothing. Fan-fucking-tastic. She was going to rot in a cell for the rest of her life.

Finally, after another week dragged by, she got the news. The date for the trial was set. The same Council Force officer came to deliver the news in person. He gave her one last chance to add to her statement or provide more information about her circumstances. Wave had nothing to add.

The man shook his head slightly but didn’t bother pressuring her more.

“Well then, Ms. Spinwell. You’ll be in front of a judge three days from now.”

Wave stretched her legs as she walked behind a guard. She had been a model prisoner, unlike Elena, who had caused enough trouble that the guards kept muttering about her. They wanted to transfer her to higher security cells, but there wasn’t any space. Maybe the reason for Wave’s relatively speedy trial was because the Council’s holding cells were overflowing.

Her case was clear cut. Unauthorized use of heir apparent power. The only question that seemed to be floating in the cells and on the guards’ mouths was the question of who her parents really were.