Burned by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #1)(10)

“Oh Naya,” Comenius whispered miserably, taking my filthy hand in his. “This is so very, very bad.”

He was right, of course. I had just used my magic to kill a shifter. While responding to a distress call. In front of a whole lot of witnesses. I was royally f*cked no matter which way you looked at it, and the silver murders didn’t have a chance in hell of being solved if I was executed. But as they all stood over me, arguing about whether I should be jailed, sent to the hospital, or crowned Queen for a Day – Noria’s idea – the last bit of energy that might have allowed me to care left my body, and without it to anchor me there I sank into a blissful sea of darkness.





Chapter Four




The next time I woke up, I found myself lying on a cot that must’ve been made of concrete, it was so damn uncomfortable. And that wasn’t even counting the aches and pains running through my face and body from being smashed into a wall by a four-ton rhinoceros.

Was I in the hospital? Where was my damned nurse?

Opening my eyes, I twisted my head around and catalogued the iron bars surrounding my little room on three sides and the concrete wall behind me. Fear sprang to life in my gut as I confirmed that I was, in fact, in a jail cell and not a super-shitty hospital room like I’d hoped. Fuck. How was I going to get out of this mess?

“Naya? Are you awake?”

Noria’s voice startled me from my state of semi-awareness, and I jolted upright and looked around for the source. My heart sank as I found it – she was sitting on the cot in the cell next to mine, her pale face pinched and her coffee-colored eyes round with concern.

“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 * 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.