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We passed cell after cell, and whereas I’d thought before they might be empty, I was shocked to find the majority full.
“We take shades from the main buildings of Larkwood but also from elsewhere. While we house the most dangerous at Larkwood, other academies occasionally end up with shades they can’t handle, or ones that might further our research, so they send them here,” the Warden explained.“We have the expertise and facilities to take in and deal with the most difficult cases.”
Inside one cell, I spotted a vampire, his eyes a bright red, a sure sign of bloodlust. He sat on a chair and rocked back and forth, his eyes locked on a spot on the wall. He didn’t seem even close to sane.
As I passed the cells, I found more of the same. Person after person filled them, all with a crazed, frantic silence about them. They didn’t pace like trapped animals attempting to escape. They had a violence about them, a tension that screamed dangerous, but they also seemed content with where they were.
Which made no sense. Could Larkwood have drugged them? Somehow broken their spirits?
I didn’t know, but each step I took made me more and more uneasy.
“This floor houses the members of our Corrander Project. Consider these shades your new partners. You’ll grow quite close over time as you work together.”
Corrander? So it seemed they’d sent me to that project. As long as it was in the North Tower, that was all I really cared about.
“I know this might seem upsetting right now.” The Warden paused at the far end of the hallway, at a closed door that had no window like the cells did. She turned to face me. “It may not be much of a consolation, but I can promise you won’t be upset soon.”
With those ominous words, the Warden ran her wrist past the sensor to open the door, then waited. Her meaning was clear enough. She wanted me to enter, and whatever had happened to those shades, whatever she wanted from me, rested in that room.
A desire to pull back overcame me, the same sort of fear a person would experience when they peered into a deep, dark cave, but I refused to give in. I had a plan to stick to, and whatever sat inside that room couldn’t have been worse that what I’d already faced.
I forced myself forward, one slow step after another, into the dark room. The door shut behind me, leaving the Warden outside. I squinted, trying to peer into the dark room.
“A new toy,” said a voice that struck me as soft yet hard. It threw me as I couldn’t place it. It was a girl, but the high tone told me she was still rather young. Still, it lacked the uncertainty I would have expected from agirl of that age. It sounded grizzled, as if the girl had lived through hell and come out on top of it.
Light bathed the room, so bright I squinted against it as my eyes adjusted. When they did, when I could take in the room, I saw the one who spoke.
The girl appeared to be a teenager at most. She had long black hair that reached the middle of her back, and she wore a simple white sundress. She sat cross-legged on a stool in the center of the room, the menace surrounding her keeping my attention on her rather than anywhere else. The rest of the room, the furniture, the bed, the desks, none of it could pull my gaze from her.
Especially because of her eyes.
Pure black eyes stared at me.
* * * *
Deacon
I couldn’t stop pacing, couldn’t stop thinking. I’d worked out until my muscles hadn’t wanted to move at all, until a fear I’d pass out drove me back to my room, but it hadn’t helped. Nothing helped.
I’d showered, tried to distract myself with books, with trash tv, even tried a few beers to take the edge off.
Nothing worked.
Each time I stopped for a moment, my brain went right back to Hera, to the strike of her powers against me, to the accusations she’d thrown.
Had I really gotten it all wrong?
I’d thought we were…
Something.
I didn’t know what it was, exactly, but it wasn’t whatever she’d said. Had I been confused? Had she been using me all along? Was I just as stupid as I’d been before?
Had I really learned nothing over the past years?
The anger and frustration grew inside me until I couldn’t handle it, when I twisted to throw the damned beer bottle against the wall. I chucked it, wanting to hear it shatter into a million pieces.
It didn’t, though.
