Prison Princess (Paranormal Prison) - CoraLee June Page 0,52

Layne at all. “If you aren’t with me…you have no place in my life.”

Fuck. I didn’t know what to do. “Layne, just let me help—”

“Get out.”

This wasn’t her at all. She wasn’t herself. It was all her powers, overwhelming her. The earth quaked at her declaration. The entire castle shook. I didn’t know what to do, so I reached out to kiss her, but she shoved me away.

“I thought you wanted to be with me. You just care about your fucking reward,” she yelled. Thunder and lightning crashed outside, even though the sun shone brightly.

“This isn’t you, Layne,” I cried out against the roaring wind that slapped at my cheeks. I pressed against the pressure of it to get to her. Shouts outside her door could be heard.

“You’re right,” she whispered. “This isn’t me at all. I’m something more.”

Something hard hit the side of my head. In all my years of training to be the baddest of the bad, nothing could have prepared me for her. Sweet, innocent Layne.

The world went black, and I slipped into disbelief. Maybe her father was right. Maybe Nightmare was the safest place for her after all.

When I woke up, I was lying face down in the dirt. My head rang. I lifted myself up. Where was I? How had I gotten here? I was a fucking assassin. I didn’t faint. I didn’t lose consciousness. But then, I’d never encountered power like Layne’s when she’d turned it on me. She’d knocked me out and thrown me out. Well, fuck.

I rolled over onto my back and stared up at the sky. The question was what now. My last coherent thought had been she was safer at Nightmare, but I wasn’t going to let that happen to her. But if her father wanted to fucking temper her powers while they taught her to be in control, I could see the smartness of that now.

If she agreed.

Layne was a princess who had never had a choice in her life. Go here, do this. Even I had dragged her around. It was time to let the woman have a little self-determination. If she wanted it. That was the trouble with choice. We could choose to do the right things, we could choose to become assassins, we could choose to starve to death if we wanted to do so. But Layne had never chosen anything. Until she picked me.

I sat up. This fucking sucked. I didn’t have any choice anymore. She’d been my job, and she continued to be, but now it was a joyful job. A job I wanted for the rest of my life. Keeping Layne safe, loving her, losing myself between her thighs in the sweetest heat I’d ever known. I had no more self-determination. My path was set. And that meant I had to convince her family to let me through their wards and back into her life.

The first part would be easier than it should have been. I’d discovered living in that castle that her father’s wards waned and stuttered. He lost control of them. That was how they’d gotten her to begin with. He could last for weeks with it too hard to breach, and then boom, an hour would pass with nothing blocking anyone from walking on in. I couldn’t just let this go. I had to save her—from her parents’ negligence and herself.

Chapter Seventeen

Something dark was inside of me.

I didn’t understand it. I was drowning in power.

My eyes opened. There was an eerie sense of recognition flooding my awareness. The room was made of concrete and smelled like fresh paint and roses. Vines were slowly growing up the walls.

“Hello?” I called out. I wore a white dress that weighed a lot. And when I stood up, my head crashed into the wall, which was right next to the bed.

“Hello, my daughter. I’m so sorry it has come to this.” I spun around and stared at my father. The dark circles under his eyes made my brow furrow.

“Where am I?”

“A warded cell in my dungeon. We haven’t had to use this thing in ages. Druids are a peaceful people.”

“Why am I here?” I asked. “Where is Cypress?” Anxiety coiled around my chest like a knot. There was something within me that already knew—that already could predict the sense of doom surrounding me. It was like I couldn’t breathe. The more I took in my surroundings, the more trapped I grew. It was almost comical how the taste of freedom made me repel the