27. Lea
27
LEA
I n the weeks since Jason left to live with Mema, I had focused all of my energy on potion writing.
Sally had been kind enough to provide me with paper and pencils, provided I kept them hidden from the guards.
My only qualm was that I couldn’t see how these potions work in real time.
“I can’t believe how many potions you’ve written already! If you would give any other potionist a run for his money if you weren’t… Well, in here.” Dineta brushed her hair behind her ear nervously.
“I suspect my potion writing abilities are why I’m in here,” I mumbled, returning to my writing. Still, I should have known better.
She leaned in closer, asking with only her eyes what I meant.
“I just recently discovered that the boy who put me here is now living in the Federation of Setas, writing and making potions with the best potionists in the land. I thought that alone was strange since his talent was never that impressive. Then I discovered from my grandmother that my potions book was missing. It stood to reason that he stole my potions and used them to get where he wanted to be in life.” I made sure to keep my voice low as I spoke to her.
I didn’t know who in this prison was a mole, but I was sure Diesel had plenty of them. I had to be careful who overheard me. I’d be dead by morning if they did.
“And this is the same person who’s your baby’s father?” Her face twisted with disgust. “How could someone do that?”
“I don’t—” I started to say before hearing heavy footsteps coming from the hall. I gathered the potion recipes and hid them behind my back just as the stout guard, Dewitt, appeared.
“Nadir,” he called, unlocking the cell.
Crap, did he hear what I said? No way. He was so far away. Perhaps the cell is bugged! No, they would have busted me a long time ago if it was.
Dineta discreetly grabbed the bundle of papers behind my back and hid them behind her so I could go with Dewitt.
“Come on! I ain’t got all day!” he shouted at me, and I rushed out of the cell, standing behind him as he closed it. “Walk.”
He ordered me in front of him, which was strange because he usually dragged me by my arm.
This is a strange encounter, indeed.
He took me down the hall; then, we went up a winding staircase. It was far beyond anywhere I’d been before in the prison.
I wanted to ask, but he would punch me again if I did. I wasn’t protected anymore since giving birth.
We stopped in front of a large black door with a brass handle.
I turned to look at him and he scowled at me.
“What are you waiting for? Open the door!” he yelled, holding up his baton, preparing to beat me with it.
I reached for the handle without looking and stumbled forward into an office.
The bookshelves stacked so high that I couldn’t see where the walls met the ceiling above me. The books appeared to ascend into nothingness.
“Thank you for making your way up here, Miss Nadir,” a familiar voice called out to me.
I looked ahead to see the woman who had sent Jason away.
Her striking purple eyes burned into me without an ounce of humanity between them.
Beside her stood two police officers and one BPR agent.
What would bring a police officer and a BPR agent together? And what did it have to do with me?
I had a glimmer of hope that they discovered I was framed and was about to be sent home.
A smile almost crossed my face.
“We have news from Dask.” The police officer stepped forward to speak first in a sullen tone.
Those words felt like stones in my heart.
Oh, Lunaria… What’s happened?
“There was a fire that occurred in your family’s home. The house is gone.” He tucked his hands behind his back as if he could bow.
My mind reeled with what might have happened.
After all that, we lost the house anyway…
“How are my grandmother and son?” I sighed with relief, assuming that they were fine.
The officers looked at the BPR agent, causing him to step forward and speak.
“We recovered the remnants of an illegal fire potion. That appeared to be the cause of the fire. No one was able to approach it until the fire went out. Anyone that would have been in the house—” He stopped, realizing he didn’t need to finish that sentence.
The horror on my face said it all.
“We didn’t recover anyone.” He spoke in a lower tone before stepping forward once more.
He continued, but I stopped listening.
Mema… Jason… The last of my family is gone. I have—no one.
The strength that kept me upright dissipated, and I collapsed to my knees.
Both of my hands fell to the floor beside me.
I don’t want to continue. This is a fate worse than death… To have outlived everyone.
“We suspect one of your illegal potions caused the fire.” The BPR agent’s words managed to penetrate my internal crisis.
“You think I killed my own family?” My eyes shot up, narrowing at him. “You can’t possibly be that stupid. Is this all not lining up for you?” I looked back at the police officers. “How much progress have you made on my parents’ murder case? Are you even still investigating it?”
“Does it not appear to any of you that they are snuffing us out?” Their stupidity would have made me laugh if I wasn’t so devastated.
“If you’re insinuating that we’re not doing our job well enough—” The other police officer stepped forward, growling angrily.
“I’m not insinuating. I’m saying outright that you’ve done nothing to help me and my family, and now there’s no one left to help.” My skin felt like it would burn up with the rage that smoldered in my bones.
They didn’t care about my family when they were alive, and they certainly don’t care about them now that they're dead… Now that they’re all gone.
“If this is your way of trying to prove your innocence and get out of here?—”
I had struck a nerve with the officer. “I already confessed because you people don’t care about the truth. What happened doesn’t matter.”
I brought myself to my feet and gave them my back. “Return me to my cell. I’ve heard all I need to.”
A powerful feminine voice came from behind me. “Guards, seize her.”
I didn’t have to look to know that it was the head of the prison guard… The mistress in purple leather. I wondered in what way she was going to punish me.
With the amount of power she had, she could simply snap her fingers and turn me into dust.
Two guards grabbed my arms on either side and held me in place.
“You will not be disrespectful in my office. Apologize at once.” Her heels alerted me that she was drawing closer.
“Nothing you can do to me would be more painful than the information I just received. Do whatever you feel you must.” Some broken side of me welcomed the pain. I hoped it would distract me from what I felt on the inside.
This is soul-crushing weight… Will it ever end?
She dug her nail into my back and a feeling like electricity zapped through my spine.
It was painful, but not nearly as bad as half the pain I had gone through since being here.
I merely winced which only angered her.
“You will obey me.” Her teeth gritted against each other as she spat the words in harsh whispers.
She walked away from me and I heard rustling.
It was a sound I was all too familiar with… The whip—their second favorite weapon of choice after the baton.
A hand grabbed the top of my garment and ripped it open, revealing my back.
Although I was facing away from her, I could hear the leather whip hit the ground. It slid across the wood slowly as she moved.
The next thing I heard was the wind followed by searing pain.
My fist tightened, and I clenched my jaw.
My heart was pounding in my chest.
It was so painful that my stomach churned.
Still, it didn’t match the pain I felt learning that my grandmother and son were gone from this plane.
That strike of searing pain was met with yet another.
“Stay strong,” Mema’s voice echoed in my head.
The face of my son cooing followed.
And then my parents.
I no longer knew what I was fighting for.
There was nothing to keep me going.
All the love I had held was destroyed.
Now the only thing that built up inside of me was rage.
The only thing I wanted now… was vengeance.