“Shit,” I muttered. My friend’s little sister was in jail with me and a throbbing tattoo beat against the inside of my skull. “Noria, what are you doing in here?”
Noria smirked a little. “That asshole Brin threw me in here, to teach me a lesson after I punched him in the nose. But don’t worry; I’ll be out on bail in a little bit. I’m just glad you woke up before my family gets here.”
Yeah, well I’m not, I thought grumpily, biting the words back as they would only hurt Noria’s feelings. But by Magorah, I was so not looking forward to having her mother shoot death glares at me through the bars of my cell when she came to pick up her daughter. The idea was almost scarier than the fact that I was in jail.
Almost. After all, there’s little else in this world more terrifying than an impending execution.
“So,” I sighed, slumping against the concrete wall and trying to ignore the panic skirting the edges of my mind. “What’d I miss?”
“Aside from me punching Brin in the face?” Noria said proudly. I sent her a death glare of my own, and she deflated a little. “Oh, alright, alright. Nothing much, really. Com and I tried to argue with those other Enforcers about letting you go on account of the fact that you were just doing your job and you didn’t hurt anyone aside from the rhino. The rabbit shifter lady defended you too. But unfortunately you Enforcers don’t seem to have any respect for each other within the ranks, so they tossed both of us in here.”
I winced at Noria’s cutting words. “Yeah, well unfortunately the Enforcer’s Guild is a highly competitive workplace. The less competition, the better your docket.”
Noria was silent for a long moment as she pondered this. She’d declared a long time ago that she wanted to follow in her sister’s footsteps and become an Enforcer, and I hoped my words would help dissuade her from that treacherous career path. Even though I loved what I did most days, I also didn’t have too many other career options given my skill set and secrets. Noria, with her smarts and techie skills, had the entire world as her oyster. I really, really didn’t want her to end up on the same path I was.
Especially since, at the moment, my path looked like it was coming to an end a lot sooner than I wanted it to.
“Would you do that?” Noria finally asked.
“Do what?” I blinked.
“Turn somebody else in who didn’t deserve it, just so you could eliminate the competition.” She bit her lip as she studied me.
“No. I wouldn’t,” I admitted with a sigh. For the most part I actually believed in justice, true justice. Not the half-assed, corrupted version practiced in society today.
As expected, Noria rewarded me with a huge grin. “That’s exactly what I thought,” she crowed. “You’re way too far above that crap.” The grin faded a little as a troubled look entered her eyes. “Naya?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you really think you’re about to be executed?”
I sat up straight at the sound of her voice, so small and scared and unlike the brash, confident girl I knew. She was clutching the bars, staring at me with wide eyes, and I reached out, wanting to touch her hands and reassure her. But before I could, the door at the end of the hall opened, and a guard marched down the hall with Noria’s mother in tow.
I sighed, slumping back against the mattress again. So much for companionship. I silently endured the expected death glare from Noria’s mother as she collected her daughter, then gingerly lay back on my rock-hard cot. It was wrong, but I missed having Noria in the cell next to me. It was comforting to have a comrade in here to distract me from my fear, especially since I knew that when I next emerged from this cell, I would be walking to my death.
Without Noria to distract me, my aches and pains made themselves known, increasing from a dull ache to sharp, throbbing pains in the bones of my face and my ribcage. Dread pooled in my stomach as I realized that my injuries were more severe than I’d thought. I was going to have to shift to heal them.
Normally, shifting was no problem for me. Because I was half-mage and had more natural magic at my disposal than a regular shifter, I could change forms faster and more frequently. But I’d just used a boatload of magic disintegrating that rhino shifter, and I’d already been short on sleep and food then. I was past the point of exhaustion now.
Is there even any point in healing myself? I thought despondently, my eyes tracing the cracks in the concrete ceiling. If I’m going to be executed tomorrow?
Of course there is, a voice in my head argued fiercely. You’re the only one who gives a fuck about solving the silver murders. You can’t just give up and die. Don’t allow your fear of what could be to put you into an early grave.
Tears sprang to my eyes at that last line – it was something Roanas told me often, especially when coaxing me into trying a new maneuver early on in my training. He’d taken me in when I was still a cub, after my mother died and my aunt had kicked me out of the clan, and of all the things he’d taught me that phrase stuck with me the most. It was his way of saying not to give in to my fear of the unknown – just because something could go wrong didn’t mean that it would, and if you didn’t try at all you’d never reap the rewards.
Magorah, what was I supposed to do now that he was gone?
The door at the end of the hall opened and footsteps rang across the concrete. I sat up, swiping the tears from my face in case I had a visitor. Sure enough, a hulking thug of a human with a bulbous nose and a shock of red hair dressed in leathers stopped in front of my cell. His wide mouth stretched in a grin, displaying the gold tooth that winked where one of his canines should have been.