Chapter 1
If someone had asked me where I thought I’d end up right after graduation, the last thing I would have thought to answer with was “Headed to prison.” Sure, I had grown up living in group homes for the supernatural, been left to fend for myself, and stood my ground against bullies on the streets, but I’d always kept my nose clean from the worst parts of our secret world.
Yet, there I was, barely eighteen years old, standing in an alleyway outside my favorite coffee shop and facing off with a fairy who wanted to lock me up.
“You’ve broken Witch Law, and you shall be remanded in Mandora Supernatural Prison until sentencing can commence,” she spat in my face as her silver gossamer wings flapped rapidly.
I didn’t know much about fairies and their abilities, but I knew they were temperamental beings. Though, considering she’d triggered my fight or flight emotions and she was maybe six inches tall, she didn’t frighten me as much as she probably should.
I was in shock at the thought I would be arrested, and that wasn’t helping my reactions as I gave her attitude. “Is that so? What law did I supposedly break?”
I’d just been in the local coffee shop grabbing my morning boost of caffeine. The day had been starting out great until this pixie cornered me in the alleyway. I’d been given free coffee after jokingly demanding it and had the door held open for me, which rarely happened.
I was most often overlooked. As a five-foot-nothing witch of little power, I didn’t usually have the attention of anyone except little kids who thought I might like to play with them. Annoying, but true. It had bothered me for years growing up, but as time moved on and nothing ever changed, I got used to being an outsider in the supernatural world.
“You know what you did, Cara Simmons. Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way. What’s your choice?”
Something about the fairy bothered me, and since I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, I had a feeling I was better off trying to get away instead of letting her take me willingly. Even if my magic wasn’t all that strong, seeing as though she had no back-up present, I was pretty certain I could squash her with my left toe, so I took a step to the side. She smirked at me. “I was really hoping you’d choose the hard way.”
She snapped her fingers, and a dagger appeared in each hand. She began to throw them at me, and I managed to dodge the first two, but when I realized she seemed to have a never-ending supply, I lost my concentration and was hit with several of them.
“Let’s see how much you can bleed before you pass out,” she sneered while continuing her assault.
My hand waved, sending out a pathetic amount of magic in a feeble attempt to block her daggers, but she moved in fast, and I was done for.
Even though the cuts were small, they were bleeding like a sieve and the world was growing darker by the second. When two other guys appeared in the alley, I completely gave up hope and collapsed to the ground but did my best to at least remain conscious.
One of them caught me before my head smacked into the concrete, then ordered the fairy to close up the cuts.
“Fine, but now you get to take her to the warden since you ruined my fun.” A pouch no bigger than a quarter appeared in her suddenly dagger-free hands. She reached in and grabbed a handful of dust before blowing it on my body with a gust of wind so powerful I wouldn’t have thought it could come from her tiny frame.
As a heaviness settled into my body, she grimaced then disappeared. I tried using every counterspell I could think of to prevent myself from passing out, but I seemed to only be prolonging the inevitable.
A sexy-as-hell dude with mischievous blue eyes kneeled over me on the dirty concrete ground. “Just give in, Siren.”
My head shook, and a throaty laugh escaped him as someone from further back grunted. “Quit playing with the assignment, Gunner. If the warden wants her, she’s off limits. We have enough to deal with right now.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” I tried to say, but any words I’d been able to force through my lips were indiscernible.
The guy who’d been called Gunner roughly swept his palm over my face, forcing my eyes closed, and there was no more fighting the darkness after that. The last thing I remembered were coarse hands yanking me up and my feet leaving the ground as I wondered what the hell I’d gotten myself into.
When consciousness returned to me, I was tied to a chair with my hands covered in bags made from some sort of metal mesh that secured around my wrists. Following the contraption, I realized it was clasped to the wooden arms of the seat as well. My legs were free, but still heavy from whatever magic the fairy had flung in my face.
As my eyes focused on the room, I found myself in a spacious office with a killer view of the snow-covered mountains and clear blue skies. The walls were filled with photos of people I didn’t recognize and awards that meant nothing to me.
Before I could lean closer to the papers on the desk in front of me, the door creaked open and a voice bellowed from behind me.
“Cara Simmons, inmate number 46764. Charged with misuse of witch magic in a public setting on not one, but four occasions. Tsk, tsk, young witchling. That’s just unacceptable. What do you have to say for yourself?”
An older gentleman came into view with a tablet in front of him. He took a seat behind the desk and straightened his suit coat before smiling at me. His slick brown hair was streaking through with grey, along with the hideous goatee he was sporting. The wrinkles around his green eyes told me he was far older than he appeared.
Supernaturals didn’t even get worry lines until they hit triple digits in age, and this dude had more than a few to go around. Not only was he likely super old, but probably ridiculously powerful if he was who I thought.
Even though I was secretly ridiculously afraid of this man, I had been through hell in my short life. The one thing I’d learned that stuck with me the most was that I needed to act like I was in complete control and not the weakest one in the room. Otherwise, I’d probably been in deeper shit than I already was.
“Warden, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say it really doesn’t matter what I say, but I guess I’ll entertain you, nonetheless. I have no recollection of unlawfully using magic. I don’t even belong to a coven at the moment, so I have very little magic to draw from. As your fancy stalking tablet probably tells you, I was orphaned when my parents died about ten years ago, I graduated from primary school, and none of the witches would call me their own. So, how about you tell me when these four occasions occurred?”
He smirked. “You have fire, Cara. I’m not sure I’m fond of it, but regardless, having a backbone will serve you well in Mandora if you hope to survive amongst the other criminals.”
It took every ounce of strength within me not to roll my eyes. Another typical male who assumed I was helpless just because I was short, lacked a plethora of magic, and had no family.
Okay, none of those things screamed “Beware of the witch!”, but I wasn’t entirely useless. I had incredible luck as well, at least since I graduated the god-awful high school I’d been forced to attend in order to leave the group home when I turned eighteen and received my inheritance.
I’d been so sure I’d finally had luck on my side, and I wasn’t going to give up hope just because I was in a bit of trouble. While landing myself in prison didn’t seem like good fortune, I wasn’t going to let it get me down. Or, so I kept telling myself even though I was freaking the hell out on the inside.