Siren Awakened - C.R. Jane Page 0,19

just gaped at him. It took me a minute to understand what he was talking about.

“But you said a week,” I told him softly. “I did everything you wanted.”

He slowly closed the gold book and nodded in agreement. “You did do everything that I wanted. But you can’t honestly believe that I could allow a prisoner with your kind of power to run amok among my prison, now could you?”

“This was all about Julian not keeping his word. You’re doing that very same thing right now,” I told him, trying to keep back the frustrated tears.

“I am, aren’t I?” he said unrepentantly as he began to walk towards me.

I stood there shocked for a moment before my brain and my power woke up. It lashed out at him, and this time, I was helping it. Snap after snap sounded out in the room as my power struck at him.

But the warden just laughed as he swatted the bursts of power away like they were nothing but flies and continued to walk towards me.

I finally gave up, my chest heaving, once he was standing directly in front of me.

“You might have felt powerful up against someone like Julian, but he’s nothing compared to me, little girl,” the warden said in a soft voice that was more menacing than if he were screaming at me. “You’re nothing when you walk these halls. I own you. I own every single prisoner in every single cell. And the fact that you haven’t gotten that through your fucking head…well, you’re more naïve than I thought. The idea that you would ever have a chance against me, you’re out of your fucking mind.”

He suddenly grasped both sides of my head, pulling on my hair until I grunted in pain and a tear slid down my face. He eyed the tear with interest before he began muttering something.

And then I felt it—my power being stripped away. It was like pieces of my soul were being hacked off with a jagged knife, and I screamed at the pain and the sensation of losing myself. Whatever the warden was doing, it was way more painful than it had been before.

When it was done, seemingly hours later, I collapsed to the ground, spent and weak, feeling like my entire world had imploded around me.

“Remember this lesson, little siren. I own you. That won’t change until you’re outside the walls of this place. And we both know that might never happen.”

I lay there on the ground, staring at the wall as his footsteps faded away. It felt like all the hope had been sucked out of me, along with my energy…along with my power.

The door to the room opened and closed, and I was alone. I knew the guard would be in here soon, the warden wouldn’t allow me time alone for long. So the second the heavy door slammed behind him, I let myself cry.

Life was indescribably hard sometimes.

With my power, something inside of me had filled up, become whole. I didn’t need anyone else, or at least that’s what it felt like for a couple of hours today.

But without my power, I was not only incomplete inside, I was also devastatingly reminded how alone I was.

The tears came hard and fast.

Just as I predicted, a guard arrived not two minutes later.

“Get up,” he barked. It was the same guard as this morning. His voice wasn’t as gruff as it had been though. Maybe he felt sorry for me.

I stumbled to my knees, feeling drunk and disoriented. My power made me so focused, so strong. I felt like I was just learning to walk as I struggled to stand, and eventually, the guard had to grab me in order for me to make it out of the room.

The walk to my cell seemed to be much longer than normal. My body was in physical pain. I was like an addict who needed her fix.

Keon appeared seemingly out of nowhere as we walked. He gave the guard a loaded look, and the guard practically threw me towards him as he all but ran away.

“Come here, baby,” Keon whispered as he scooped me up in his arms.

Distraught, I couldn’t be held accountable for my actions as I laid my head against his chest and wept.

“Whatever it is, I’ll make it okay,” he told me softly.

I shook against him, my sobs turning into manic laughs. I sounded crazy. And maybe I was. Maybe this had been the thing to push me over the