Chapter Nineteen
I led Sonia and Pria to the old cell block. When I had been told it was off-limits, I hadn’t given it a second thought. Now I knew I should have listened to Dad more. I should have been suspicious.
The guard at the door watched us approach, his confusion clear to see. “You’re... not supposed to be back here.”
Smiling, Sonia walked right up to him and punched him in the jaw. He staggered. Sonia’s second strike knocked him out.
“Soldier, my arse,” she spat. She brushed her hair away from her face as shouts came from down the hallway. “We’ll block the dooor after us."
Pria and I exchanged an impressed look as Sonia opened the door. We followed her inside, keeping as silent as possible.
Old-fashioned cells lined either side of the room. Each cell was overcrowded, faces I recognised mingled with complete strangers. They looked at us in confusion, too.
“Go,” Sonia whispered, pressing her back against the door to keep it closed. "Me and Pria will be right here."
My fingers trembled, and my heart raced as I turned away from them. Dace stood before a cell at the far end of the room, taunting the men within with a sickeningly smug look on his face. My feet moved as if by themselves. He didn’t look around as I approached. I recognised both men in the cell. Dad and Bruce, locked up and obviously beaten. Dace had hurt almost everyone I knew, and for no reason at all.
With a scream of rage, I raced up to Dace and jumped on his back, beating him around the head with closed fists. Reacting quickly, he slammed me against the bars of a cell, knocking me off him and pinning me by my neck.
More of his fake soldier friends finally burst into the room. Sonia and Pria got in the way, leaving me to face Dace alone. Dad called my name, almost as if he didn’t believe I was really there. I focused solely on Dace and how I was going to beat him to a bloody pulp.
Dace grinned at me, surprised, but not concerned by my presence. “Well, look who it is, back to rescue her pervert father.”
I threw a punch, but he blocked it, surprising me with his speed. I ached still from the fighting at the games, but I had faced far scarier monsters than the one before me. I wasn’t concerned. I was mad.
“He has the keys!” Bruce called out as Dad kicked at the cell door in frustration.
I glanced back at Sonia and Pria. They were outnumbered. If I could open a cell, we would have a chance at winning.
I pushed at Dace, wrestling him to the ground. He fought back, his face hard and determined as he struck at me, but I barely felt the blows. I wanted to hurt him, to scare him, to make him feel as terrified and helpless as we had. Even more, I wanted to pay him back for the tear he had left in my heart when he betrayed me. I had let myself trust someone, had desperately needed to trust somebody, and he had ruined it. A monster had stolen my first kiss, and I could never get that back.
The red mist covered everything, making it easy to forget what else was going on. I hit him again and again, relishing the blood on my fingers. Dace’s strikes weakened. I would show him all about being pretty and able to take a beating. I gripped his hair and banged his head against the floor for Beth, for Denise, for every girl who had died in the games. He would pay. Dad would want this. Dad would understand.
But it was Bruce’s voice I heard over the din.
“Don’t do it,” Jess,” he pleaded. “Let it go. For now, let it go.” I hesitated, and his voice grew louder. “You don’t have to do this. It isn’t the way you want to live, right, Jess?”
With a shudder, I blinked the red rage away, struggling to catch my breath. I looked at the blood on my hands, on Dace’s face, and I stared up at Bruce like a child. I didn’t know what to do with my heart beating so fast. I didn’t know what to do with my shaking hands, still desperate to maim. My fingers clenched, itching to hit Dace again, to finish what I started, but the red mist had already faded, and my anger left me in a weakened state. I looked at Dad, but he remained still, his expression unreadable.
“The keys,” Bruce said softly. “Let us out before Sonia gets hurt.”
And the rest of the world came back to me, complete with sounds of violence and pain. I glanced over my shoulder. Three guards pinned Sonia against the wall. The look on her face was venomous. Pria lay on the floor, curled up and covering her head as a guard kicked her. On my knees, I searched Dace’s pockets for the keys. I found them and got to my feet, throwing the keys into the cell right before a guard ploughed into me.
We both landed on the cold tiled floor with a heavy smack. I reached around, trying to elbow my way out of his grasp, but he held tight, whispering foul words as he struggled to contain me. I tried to fight back, but I was still too shaken from breaking through my rage to do much harm.
The cell door swung open. Bruce raced along the cells, opening the ones containing anyone able to fight. Dad launched himself at the guard pinning me, his fingers pressed against the man’s skull as if he were trying to crush it. His eyes were desperate as he finally ripped the guard from me. I kicked the guard’s ankles to help Dad unbalance him.
I scrambled to my feet, intending to help Pria, but people flooded into the room from outside while others ran out of the cells. All of them got in my way. Bruce had already joined the fray with some others, punching Dace’s friends away from Sonia and Pria. Sonia moved in front of Pria, elegant as a cat, and defended the girl while the others fought hard.
Frustration and anger helped overpower the fake soldiers. I noticed Mae’s father, fighting with us. I was pressed back, farther and farther away from the fight, but I wasn’t needed anymore. We were winning.
Sonia grabbed Pria and guided her through the crowd toward me. Dace crawled away, trying his best to get on his feet, but slipping in his own blood. Sonia reached him and pushed Pria away from her. Sonia gripped Dace, her gaze locked with my father’s. I watched as a silent conversation passed between them. Sonia’s lip curled as she twisted and snapped Dace’s neck, all the while holding my dad’s gaze. She dropped Dace and kicked him away. Pria was staring at her with a look of disgust mixed with awe, but my father gave Sonia a genuine smile, and it made me shudder.
She looked for me and nodded as if to say, “I did this so you wouldn’t have to.”
Dad reached for her hand, and then they were lost to me amongst the fight. Pria gripped my arm, her hands shaking. The people who had been caged were like animals, the way the vampires had urged us to be. Some of them had lost daughters to people like Dace. Others were probably taken because he had gotten greedy, or just to shut them up. I knew Dad and Bruce hadn’t sat back in silence while Sonia and I had disappeared. But it was still unsettling to see so many ordinary people acting like animals.
For all of my concerns, Dace was the only fatality in the cell block. The mob restrained themselves enough to throw the guards into the cells without any serious injuries. They moved from the cell block to find the rest of the guards, determined to clean house. Their enthusiasm scared me a little.
I collapsed to my knees with exhaustion as people cheered and yelled their celebrations after the very last fake soldier had been locked up.
We had won back the detention centre.
***
In the canteen, Dad pulled me into a tight hug. “I thought you were dead,” he whispered. “I thought awful, awful things.” He pulled away and looked at me. “But you came back. I lost you, and you came back. I’m so sorry, Jessica. I should never have stayed here. I should never have left—”
I shook my head, still trembling from the fight. “It was my fault. He charmed me, and I fell for it. I actually thought he liked me, and I just wanted to be normal for once. But he was really planning on selling me to the vampires. I went willingly outside, and I paid the price. I’m sorry I didn’t listen.”
“And Sonia was with you?” he asked, looking bewildered. “I don’t understand what happened.”
I took a deep breath amongst the din. People were finding each other, telling their stories in loud voices.
“They took me to some football pitch. They were trying to impress somebody, setting up games just like the bigger cities.”
Dad frowned. “Games?”
“Like, fights to the death. Something to do with the old days and bloodsport.”
Dad’s face paled. “They pitted you against each other?”
“We refused to fight each other,” I said quickly. “But we had to fight a vampire and those monsters. We won a couple of times, and then there was a big fight. We were supposed to go up against Sonia’s group, but we stuck together. We lost almost everyone, and then something happened.” I smiled, remembering. “Werewolves. They came from Ireland, and they tore the monsters apart.”
Dad sagged. “That’s almost as bad.”
“They helped, Dad. There are royal fae leading them. We’re not supposed to talk about the werewolves.”
“I’m not surprised,” he said. “Sonia!”
She reached us, her arm around Pria. “You would have been proud of her,” she said. “She did well without you. She went through the ultimate test, and she survived.”
“I have a lot to learn,” I said. “I know that, but I’m more capable than you give me credit for. And I came back to you.”
“You did,” he said, his eyes watering, a rare sign of emotion from him. “Thanks for sticking with her, Sonia.”
“She saved me really,” Sonia said. “Both of these girls did.”
“Dad, this is Pria. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her and Sonia.”
“Well, then, I’m grateful to you both.” He looked at me, biting his lip. “He told everyone that I had murdered you, Jess. That I was some kind of…” He shook his head in disgust. “He convinced them, and nobody said a word when I was put in the cell. I was worried sick, but when the people already in the cells began to talk, I realised it was all down to Dace. But he was the only one who came in there, so there was nobody to tell, nobody who cared, anyway.”
“It’s over,” Sonia said. “He took his punishment, and the others won’t be freed. Although those soldiers outside deserve to be punished, too. When everything goes back to normal, I’ll make sure they answer to the crime of turning a blind eye.”
“Normal?” Dad said.
“Help came,” she said. “We’re none of us alone, and help is out there. The wrongs will be righted. It’ll be slow, but it’ll happen. I’m going to wait here with the others until someone comes.”
“The fae,” Dad said slowly.
“Royalty won’t deal with this place,” she said. “They’ll want the glory of ending the games, not the logistics of handling the little people. No, I think things will go back to normal and that the soldiers left here will get in touch with someone who matters. Eventually, someone will come, and I’ll be here to make sure that punishments are handed out.” She looked fierce and vindictive, and I kind of envied her conviction. I wasn’t sure I could stand and fight for so long.
“We need to get everyone cleaned up and fed,” Bruce said, joining us. “Too much excitement right now. I don’t want anyone running outside thinking they can take on a pack of vampires.”
“Coven,” Dad said. “A coven of vampires. But I’m told help is out there. There might not be any covens running around soon enough.”
The rest of the day was madness. People reunited, shared what happened to them, got cleaned up and fed. There were tears as some families realised their daughters weren’t coming home. I found Ruby and Tia. They were thinner than before, but everyone seemed as healthy as they could be in the circumstances. A doctor cleaned up Sonia’s wounds which had begun to fester, and that night, everyone celebrated. The lights stayed on all night, and nobody came to stop our excitement.
I just wished it could last.