We’ll escape, I silently promised Elio as he gave Wren a nervous smile. Because if he continued glitching, I would be useless to him trapped in here. I hadn’t committed years of crimes to get locked up now.
“Hey, Wren?” I interrupted her explanation of Earthan slang and didn’t feel the least bit sorry about it. “We’ll get a trial, right? They can’t keep us here without a trial.”
She started playing with my stolen zipper. “I doubt that’s on anybody’s mind right now. The prison is pretty packed at the moment. That’s why we’re sharing cells. I’ve been in here for weeks and no one’s come to talk to me.” She stuffed the zipper under a threadbare blanket. “By the way, what are you being charged with? You never said.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Murder.”
“Unlikely. I’m pretty sure you have a conscience. You keep looking at your little droid like you’re more worried about him than you are about yourself. So maybe you killed someone, but if you did then it was an accident, because I personally don’t think you have it in you.” She crossed her arms and winked. “That’s right, alien-Cora. I’m more than just a loud mouth and a dazzling personality.”
I jerked my chin up in an attempt to look threatening. How had she figured all that out without the ability to read auras? “What are you in for, then?”
“Well, since you asked, I guess I’ll share. It’s a harrowing tale.” She rubbed her palms together. “I may or may not have blown up a space station.”
Elio beeped. “May or may not?”
“Okay, I did. But it was an accident.”
“Did you make the explosives?” I asked, an idea forming. She’d hidden my zipper under her blanket; maybe she had more odds and ends I could use to build a device. If I could collect enough, I could blow the cell door clear across the prison.
“I—” Wren started, but the hydraulic hiss of the door had her timidly backing up to block her stash of trinkets.
The door opened fully to reveal a woman in a crisp white guard uniform, her bulky silhouette weighed down beneath blasters on her hips and armor across her shoulders. The only exposed skin on her neck and face was bright red, covered in scales that formed a trail up into her hairline. I’d seen holograms of Andillian people when I was in school. I remembered my teacher anxiously referring to them as “flesh-eating lizards.”
I sat up as the guard’s tongue darted out, ignoring Elio cowering behind me. “We’re innocent,” I said adamantly.
Her lips curled back over yellow teeth.
“I demand to talk to whoever brought us here. I swear, when my mother hears about what happened—”
“You tell her, Cora,” Elio muttered.
“—she’ll rip the front door of this place off, and stars help us all, she’ll—”
The guard flung two red jumpsuits and slip-on sneakers over my head, where they landed in the back of the cell. “B’shkrah,” she mumbled in a guttural, accented voice. I didn’t know much Andillian, but I knew that word. Brat.
The insult echoed through the cell as the door hissed closed behind her. The sound of two locks clicking filled the air, followed by her retreating footsteps.
“Wait! Come back!” I pounded my fist against the door, but all I got was a sharp pain in my hand. “What happened to innocent until proven guilty?”
“Cora?” Elio whispered.
“Or our one comm? Don’t we get that?”
“Um, Cora? Please stop yelling at the door.”
“Why?”
Elio’s hand shook as he pointed across the cell to where the jumpsuits had landed. They weren’t on the ground any longer. Instead they were balled up in the lap of something very bulky and very … alive.
Elio beeped.
The shape stood, slinking out of the shadows like a ghost.
I jumped back. This was the thing that had laughed at me, I was sure of it. But then why hadn’t I noticed them? Why hadn’t I seen the spike of an aura around them? I may have been losing my touch as a criminal, but I wasn’t losing my touch at reading people.
The dim light fell upon our other cellmate. Another citizen from Andilly, bigger and more menacing than the guard. He looked around my age, face hidden underneath a hooked nose and elegant lines of dark tattoos swirling across his forehead. With his red skin and red prison uniform, I couldn’t help thinking that he resembled a giant drop of blood.
“Oh. Him.” Wren barely looked up from the metal shavings she was sorting into piles on her blanket. “Don’t mind him. He’s been here longer than I have. I’ve found that the more you look at him the more nightmares you have, so I try to ignore him.”
My stance wavered as he neared me. Several scales along his neck had peeled back, revealing burnt skin and a long rope of scar tissue, like someone had carved into him with a knife.
I tried bringing my arms up as he got closer but froze under his hateful stare. His dark eyes had an odd, liquid shine to them. Almost like an insect.
“Does … does he have a name?” Elio squeaked.
Wren shrugged. “No one from Andilly has names. They have numbers. I’ve just been calling him Anders.”
“Anders?” I tried tentatively. He brushed a matted piece of black hair behind his ear, but otherwise he didn’t answer me.
“How did you get here? What can you tell me about the guards? I think I can get us out if you—hey, where are you going?”
He had dropped the bundle of jumpsuits and shoes at my feet and was lumbering back into the shadows.
“Hey, Big Red! I’m talking to you! How did you do that neat little disappearing trick?”
That got his attention. He glared over his shoulder, hands curling into fists.
“I can read auras. I can’t feel yours. It was like you weren’t even in the room. Is everyone from Andilly like that or just you?”
Nothing. I might as well have been talking to the wall. He sat back down again, not even a hint of emotion flickering off him.
“See?” Wren said. “Just ignore him, because he’ll only ignore you. I’m not sure if he can talk at all, to be honest.” She held up a square piece of metal, examining it. “But whatever you do, don’t call him Andy. He tried to strangle me the last time I tried.”
“Charming.” Elio snatched the metal out of Wren’s hand, digging a long scratch in the wall behind her head.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Counting the days we’re here. That way if Big Red rips out my wires in the middle of the night, the universe will know that this is the place I last stood.” He shivered. “It already feels like we’ve been in here for an eternity.”
“You’ve been here for an hour,” Wren said. She made a grab for the metal, but Elio danced out of reach.
I removed my soiled jacket and pulled on one of the red jumpsuits the guard had left for us. The arms and legs were too baggy, but at least it was warm. I settled against the nearest wall while Wren continued sorting her treasures, singing a jingle about each one and its metallic components. Anders let loose a low chuckle, the sound ringing out of the darkness like a bell. A drop of water fell from the ceiling and landed with a splat on the tip of my nose.