Siren Awakened - C.R. Jane Page 0,1

maybe if that existed, then she could come back.

Even if it didn’t exist though, I’d break through the gates of Heaven to get her soul back to Earth.

The beast inside of me snarled at the thought.

After what felt like hours, but must have been minutes, I made it to Alaric’s hell.

He was pacing, anxiety engrained into his features.

“Selena,” he cried out as he ran towards the bars and shook them like he had the power to rip them apart.

The warden had made sure he didn’t.

“What the fuck did you do to her, you fucking bastard?” Alaric seethed, the whites of his eyes disappearing as he began to lose control.

“She’s dead,” I said flatly, even though the words threatened to shred the very inside of my soul as I uttered them.

“What?” Alaric’s voice came out choked as he tried to comprehend what I’d just said. Even now, Selena’s blood was dripping to the floor beneath her, the wound too ragged and large to be stopped.

“I…I ripped her throat out when I transformed.”

I knew that Alaric knew what I was talking about. Part of his power was to know everyone’s secrets. So I had no doubt that he knew mine.

“I need you to fix her. Bring her back. Now!” I ordered, shaking Selena a bit in my arms as I struggled for control.

Setting her down as gently as I could, I pulled out the key, unlocked the door, and threw open the cell.

Alaric just stared at Selena as if he was in a daze.

I pushed him back onto the cell bars, and his head snapped back against the metal, sending a loud clang echoing through the hallways.

“Help her,” I roared.

He tore his eyes away from Selena and stared at me, his gaze crazy and desperate.

“I can’t bring her back from the dead,” he whispered to me.

Now it was my turn to stare at him blankly. I didn’t understand what he was saying. Of course he could bring her back. There was no other option. There wasn’t another creature more powerful in these walls besides the warden himself. There was no one else I could turn to.

I released Alaric and shakily stepped away. Alaric sank to the ground and gathered Selena’s body in his arms, his entire body trembling as he murmured words to her I was too messed up to hear.

My claws extended, digging into my face as I roared. I could just let go, there wasn’t a reason to hold on anymore. This was all my fault.

“The fae,” Alaric suddenly cried, springing to his feet with Selena still in his arms. He took off down the hallway before I could fully comprehend what he’d just said.

The haze that was threatening to take completely over rapidly dissipated once again, and I took off after him, our thunderous footsteps filling the hallway.

I felt the gaze of prisoners as they warily watched us fly by. Alaric was going so fast that it was hard for even me to catch up to him.

My thoughts raced as we ran towards where they were keeping the fallen fae prince.

The fae were powerful, that couldn’t be denied. And their power was ancient, so ancient that nothing was really known about what they could do.

But as I’d said before, if someone was going to know about another supernatural’s secrets, it would be Alaric.

A small tendril of hope began to swirl inside of me, despite how hard I was trying to tamp it down.

How long had she been dead now? Thirty minutes? An hour? I couldn’t be sure how much time passed when the beast had taken over. I strained my brain, trying to think about if supernaturals suffered from brain damage like humans or if Selena’s healing powers would make that a non-issue.

And now my thoughts were just going down a rabbit hole, because I couldn’t think about the actual reality in front of me—that every second that passed was a second closer to her never opening her eyes again.

Alaric bypassed where the guards would usually turn to get towards the fae’s cell and instead ran down one more corridor before stopping abruptly. He muttered to himself as he held Selena with one arm and pressed on a few of the rocks in the wall. I wasn’t surprised when an opening silently appeared in front of us, even though this route wasn’t familiar to me.

This fucking place seemed to grow secret passageways overnight. The warden had said as much during guard orientation. He’d said that Nightmare Penitentiary was a