“Black hair, black eyes, magnet for danger, and a real pain in my ass.”
“Mine too!” Ash piped from the cell over.
“Brexley?” Killian sounded like he sat up.
Both Scorpion and Ash burst out laughing.
“That obvious, huh? Didn’t even have to think about it.” Scorpion snickered.
“All of you are dickheads.” I rubbed my neck.
“Why are you asking me about her? Is she all right?” Killian moved to the bars right where Scorpion’s cell and his almost met.
“You all right, PIMA?” Scorpion asked me with a grin.
“PIMA?”
“Pain in my ass.”
“Oh, yeah.” I scowled. “I’m fantastic. Besides being imprisoned, brutalized, starved, beaten, forced to kill my uncle, thrown into the hole for five days, and knowing Warwick is being brutally tortured every single moment and he’s blocking me out. Sure, I’m fucking fabulous.”
“She says she’s horny.”
I couldn’t fight the snorted laugh breaking from my lips.
“What do you mean she says…？” I knew if I could see Killian, his eyebrows would be furrowing in confusion.
“Yeah… well…” Scorpion licked his lip. “She’s here with me now. Not physically, though to me there’s not much difference. I’m not gonna get into it; she can tell you the whole story later. Just let’s jump to the part where you accept the fact she’s here, and we can move on.”
There was a beat of silence.
“I believe you.”
Scorpion tipped his head back in shock. “Really?”
“A lot about Ms. Kovacs seems to go against the norm. Defying convention.” There was a slight smile in Killian’s words. “I can’t explain, but I sense her.” He cleared his throat. “She’s really there with you? You see her?”
“Can I see her?” Scorpion reached out, knocking my shoulder. “Oh yeah. I can feel and touch her too,” he said salaciously, making me flick my eyes to the side.
“Can we get to it?” I threw out my hands. Linking with Scorpion took more energy than it did with Warwick, and I could feel myself getting sleepy back in my cell several rows below.
“I am your puppet.” Scorpion leaned back against the wall again.
As I explained things to Scorpion, he relayed everything I told the group at dinner and in the bathroom earlier that morning to Killian and Ash. My plan to learn everything we could and quickly. Find a weakness and flip this place on its head.
“We need to know anything he knows about the spells on this place. I mean the smallest detail that could help us escape.” I spoke to Scorpion, and he passed it on to Killian.
Killian exhaled with frustration. “Of course, this had to come bite me in the ass,” he muttered. “I honestly can’t think of one weakness. I made sure of it. I even had Tad double spell all doors and exits in the prison, so it was impossible to break out. Built it deeper in the mountain. I designed it to be impregnable.”
Scouring at my head, I paced the tiny cell. There had to be a way. We would not die here.
“What about the gate up at the factory?” Ash hissed over to us. “They guard it the most.”
“Tad spelled the gate,” Killian responded. “But only once, since I never planned to use that floor for inmates. It was merely meant for trucks and supplies. It would be the weakest point here, though it is smart enough to know the difference between prisoners and everyone else.”
That’s what I had thought.
“Weakest point?” Scorpion restated.
“Yes, but it doesn’t make it easy to break. Druid spells can’t be broken by anything other than a Druid.”
“Have any of those lying around?” Ash said dryly.
“We did in Halálház,” I muttered to myself. Thinking about Tad, a memory of what he said to me came back. “Your family line at one time were Druids.”
What if it was possible? What if the spell recognized my family’s Druid blood in me? Could I counter it?
“What about me?” I sputtered out.
Scorpion pushed off the wall. “What do you mean, what about you?”
“My mother is a witch, but at one time, she was from a powerful Druid line. I also have the magic of a queen… I mean, my magic works down here when yours doesn’t. What if I have the power to undo Tad’s spells?”
“Shit, I didn’t even connect that your magic worked here.” Scorpion shook his head, the notion finally hitting him. “You’re similar to them.” Meaning those human-fae mutants.
“No, they’re trying to be me,” I smirked at Scorpion, folding my arms.
“What is she saying?” Ash barked, all of us still trying to be so quiet, though the sounds of the prison, the clanging metal and howls, kept our conversation muted to guards.
“Brex’s magic isn’t blocked. She’s wondering if she could break—”
“More like loosen,” I punched in.
“Sorry, loosen the Druid spell. Is it possible?” Scorpion finished.
Heavy silence came from both sides.
“I have no idea,” Killian finally replied. “My first instinct is no. Tad is no ordinary Druid, and she has no training nor is she a true Druid, however, Brexley doesn’t seem to follow the rules either.”
“We don’t play by the normal rules, Kovacs. You and I make our own.” Warwick’s sentiment from weeks ago vibrated in my chest, filling me with determination to at least try.
“Are these locks spelled by Tad? Can I try on these?” I reached out for the iron gate as Scorpion relayed my question.
“No!” Killian replied sharply. “The magic on these cells isn’t Druid cast, only the main entrances and exits. But these are spelled to trigger an alarm if messed with.”
Figures.
“There is warning on the main ones as well, but if we are escaping, it doesn’t really matter if they are going off,” Killian added.
“The Games are scheduled in three days’ time,” Ash muttered over to us. “If we do this, we should try to do it then. We’re all out and together. Be a good time to start a coup. Before any more can die in the pit.”
“Agreed.” Scorpion nodded fervently, having had a taste of what it was like in the arena.
Terror gripped my stomach. We had so much to do in such a short amount of time.
“So, I go in blind.” I had no idea if what I was planning was even possible, just a gut feeling, an intuition.
“It’s worth a shot.” Scorpion winked, shrugging down at me.
“A shot might be all we get.”
“Then make sure we go out with a bang.”
My plan spread through Věrhăza quickly. So quickly I started to worry the guards would catch on or overhear as we moved through the day. Bitzy and Opie had woken me up early with information they got from other inmates—positions of guards, their break times. Nothing groundbreaking, but it was a start.
“The cerulean creature says as long as she gets steak, sex, and a drink after she’s all in.” Opie folded his arms over his lederhosen, which appeared to be made out of an oat burlap bag and were so short they could have been bikini bottoms. His chest was left bare under the suspenders. He tied another burlap strip around his beard and wrapped his hair into a high bun, with carrot leaves springing from the top like a fountain. Bitzy had booty shorts and a bow tie in the same burlap.