Siren Awakened - C.R. Jane Page 0,2

living creature, and I hadn’t ever seen anything to the contrary.

Alaric headed into the black void of the tunnel, and I followed him without hesitation. I pulled out the flashlight in my pocket and turned it on, almost dropping it when Alaric hissed at me. “Turn that fucking thing off, do you want to wake them up?”

He didn’t bother telling me what he didn’t want to wake up, and I didn’t ask. The flashlight went back into my pocket, and I concentrated on listening to Alaric’s footsteps as he ran, trying to follow him while not running into him.

Despite the fact that we were running through a tunnel basically blind, in half the time it would have taken to get to the fae’s cell on the other route, Alaric stopped and fumbled with what must have been a wall in front of him.

Dim lighting appeared, and Alaric and I strode through into the decrepit hallway where the fae and the other prisoners the warden desired to torture were kept.

Before the wall could close behind me, I looked back and saw what looked like several pairs of red, glowing eyes staring out after us.

I probably wouldn’t be using that tunnel as a regular passageway in the future.

“Fae,” Alaric spat as we approached his cell, one of Selena’s arms dangling beneath her like a limp doll.

The fae was lying on his bed per usual, beat to a bloody pulp. He rolled over with a groan, only half-heartedly sparing us a glance.

His whole body flinched when he realized that it was Selena in Alaric’s arms.

I’d been jealous of Selena’s feelings for the fae from the very beginning. The looks she gave him were softer, the feelings she had for him had always seemed truer than the ones she held for me. I’d even contemplated killing him a few times when I’d followed her and watched them together.

I was so glad that I held off the compulsion right now, as Seth hurriedly dragged himself off the cot and stumbled his way towards the cell doors, his gaze locked on Selena.

I unlocked the door and ripped it open. Alaric was through the cell door before Seth had taken more than a few steps. He gently laid her down on the blood and sweat-stained cot. For a moment, I was caught off guard by the tender look he was giving her.

He loved her.

It was written across his face. He didn’t just love her. She was everything to him.

My inner beast roared at the thought.

Mine, mine, mine, it screamed, even though its obsession had led to her downfall.

I could have left her alone after that night in the bar, never stalked her down the hallways of the prison or watched her every night as she slept.

“What happened?” Seth choked out. There was no color in his face as he gazed down at her with dread.

“She’s dead. You need to bring her back,” Alaric ordered, taking over since I seemed to have lost the ability to speak. “And don’t say you can’t,” he said, cutting off whatever Seth was about to say.

The beast growled inside of me again at the thought that Seth would refuse to help. He’d be dead if those words left his mouth.

“I’d never,” Seth whispered as he gave Selena a longing look. “But I need…” His voice trailed off as he began to pat down Selena’s prison jumpsuit anxiously.

“What are you doing?” Alaric snarled.

“The crystal. I can’t do anything without it. I had her keep it for me since they’re always searching my cell.” Seth let out a sigh of relief as he pulled a crystal I vaguely remembered seeing in the warden’s office out of her lower pocket.

“Can you do it? Can you bring her back?” I was finally able to spit out.

But Seth didn’t answer me. He was already muttering something over Selena’s body as he glided the crystal across her chest.

Alaric came to stand next to me. “What kind of power does he have that could bring someone back to life?” I asked him. There weren’t a lot of fae that ever found themselves in this place. The fae ruled themselves, so the fact that they’d sent one of their own to Nightmare Penitentiary, their crown prince, said a lot for the crime they’d thought he committed.

“It’s something only fae royalty are said to be able to do. Through that crystal, they’re able to connect to the afterlife, where the fae royals’ ancestors supposedly reside. They drag the souls through the