Prison Princess (Paranormal Prison) - CoraLee June Page 0,23

This time, I knew it wasn’t something I had done. No, this was him. He had me in some spell and pulled me to him.

“W-why have you wanted me since I was born? I can’t have done anything.” It was hard to talk through the pounding in my head and the way my body seemed immobile, caught in the trap of his spell.

“It’s not you I want,” he said with a cruel chuckle. “You’re not particularly worth the effort. But your powers? Your powers are priceless, Princess.”

I shook my head in confusion. My head was pounding so hard that it was difficult to piece together what he was saying. “My powers?”

“My brother is the warden, you know. He’s kind of an idiot, but he runs a tight ship over at Nightmare Penitentiary. It was easy to convince him to hold you. That cage they kept you in wasn’t just bars and concrete. It was a vessel. I’ve been siphoning your power since you were born.”

I dropped my mouth open in surprise. “No,” I whispered. He’d been holding me captive for my powers—powers I didn’t even know I had until recently. “How?” I asked.

Bhaltair dropped me on the ground, and the hard dirt dug into my knees. My skull rocked, like sandpaper was being rubbed along the bone. “I guess since I’ve taken so much from you, the least I can give you is answers.”

He picked me up by the hair. “You’re powerful, Princess, and I found a way to draw that power from you. It was a tricky process. Keeping you ignorant was half the battle.”

“Why did you want to keep me ignorant? You kept me locked up. It’s not like I could have done anything.”

He dropped me again, and I cried out in pain. I got the sense that he wasn’t going to answer my questions anymore. “The Druid gifts have quite the perks. It is a power unlike anything else.”

“So what now?” I asked.

“Now you go back to Nightmare. Now you live in that cage until you are nothing but dust. I’m going to siphon your powers until there is nothing left. Since you left, my fucking reserves have gone dry. I can’t have that.”

I shook my head. No, he couldn’t do that. I’d been okay when I’d been in there, but now that I was out here, I didn’t think I could survive it. I couldn’t go back in. I’d never be able to breathe. I’d suffocate.

There was life out here. The moon. Trees. People. Adventure. Men who could make you nuts by holding fairies on their laps, and yet they somehow existed, and so it was an incredible gift to just know they lived in the world. I couldn’t go back in there. Never again. No.

My powers surged. This time, I could feel it from the way my mind stuttered, from the way my thoughts jumped from moment to moment. Vines shot from my hands, hitting him straight in his face. I jumped to my feet. He yelled out, the thorns striking his eyes, and I took that chance to run. My legs were weak, not at all as strong as I might wish they could be. I wanted to run faster, but this was the best I could do. Air came in and out of my lungs, but I refused to look behind me.

Bhaltair bellowed in pain. That much I could make out. But there were men upon men chasing after me, shooting power in my direction. Something scalding hit me right on the back. I struck the ground so hard I had no time to catch myself. Dirt shot into my mouth, and I choked on it. No. I had to get up. They were going to put me back in that cage.

Strong hands grabbed me from behind, pulling me to my feet. “He said we couldn’t kill you, but he didn’t say we couldn’t hurt you.”

The stranger flipped me around so that I faced him. He was a huge man, and I wondered if he had giant blood in him. His eyes were bloodshot. Was he on something? Drunk on power?

A surge of pain hit me, starting in my feet and traveling upwards. “Do you know the spells for pain? There are at least fifteen of them, maybe more. But I’m fluent in this one. I think of this one as the Wish for Death spell.”

It was an apt name. Soon I was shouting, crying, begging. I couldn’t control my responses. There was