Chapter 7

Lyla

I t had taken me a long time to fall asleep. Thoughts of Falkon consumed me. I was exhausted. But that didn't stop me from dashing straight to find Ella as soon as I had the chance the next day. No one knew where she was. It was lunchtime, but I knew she'd been spending time in her room having naps when she had a break. I'd been worried about her, but now I wondered if there was a different reason for it. I arrived at her door and stopped. Should I knock? Would I be interrupting something? Before I could decide, I heard a moan. A very sexual moan.

Well, that answers that question.

I turned and ran the opposite way, trying not to make any noise, giggles bursting out of me. Naughty little Ella. Not that I was one to talk after my private yoga session yesterday.

I raced across to the guard station and waved to Delaney, who was fiddling with the alarm system.

"What?"

He'd been so aggressive lately. He'd always been a pain, but he was extra intense right now.

"You ok?"

"Yeah. What do you want?"

"Oh, I need to get across to east wing for my callisthenics class. Can you unlock the main door for me, please?"

He stopped what he was doing and rummaged for his keys. Not many people moved between wings. The warden believed it was safest to keep them isolated in case of trouble. But I'd rolled out my classes across half the prison now. I'd like to have done more, but there was only one of me and many hundreds of prisoners. I glanced at the wires Delany had been tugging on.

"Alarm problems again?"

I tried to sound cheery, but Delaney glared at me.

"Yes. No engineers available for days. Thought I'd try to sort it myself. Got a problem with that?"

I wanted to recoil from his verbal attack, but I held myself still and put on my calmest voice.

"Why would I have a problem with it?"

"Well, why are you asking, then?"

I was tired and not in the mood for whatever his bullshit was right now.

"It's called making conversation, Delaney. You know, one of the primary ways in which people interact and connect?"

My tone was dripping with acid.

He grunted and walked over to the main metal gate between the wings. I glanced at the computer screens as I waltzed past him. He let me through the gate and locked it behind me without a word.

"Thank you."

He didn't say a word and turned back to what he'd been doing. Annoyance pricked at me, and I couldn't resist a last retort.

"By the way, you've managed to disconnect the camera systems while trying to ‘fix' things. You should sort that out. Quickly."

His head shot round and the look he gave me was pure venom.

"Mind your own fucking business."

He flicked a switch, and the screens flickered back on. I gave him my best glare with a lip curl. Mind my own business? Red hot annoyance flared in my belly and clutched at my throat. Fat chance. I stormed off to my class, but I'd be speaking to Cospire about this and asking her to escalate it straight away. He shouldn't be fiddling with things like this. It was asking for trouble. I didn't care if she and Delaney were friends. I wasn't going to let her make excuses for his inappropriate behaviour. Turning off alarms was completely unacceptable and swearing at a colleague? I wanted to slap him.

When I went to find Cospire, she was hiding in her office as usual. I knocked on the door and took a deep breath.

"Come in."

I walked in and stood opposite her. Before she could begin her usual boring pleasantries, I launched straight into my tirade.

"Delaney has been fiddling with the alarm systems. He managed to switch off the cameras in the process. You know how dangerous that is. Also, his attitude right now is horrendous. The way he talks down to us is unacceptable. The way he treats the prisoners is degrading. I'm sorry, Mrs Cospire, but if you don't escalate this to the warden, then I'm going to do it myself. I've had enough."

Conspire stared at me, shocked for a moment.

"Sometimes, perhaps your attitude leaves something to be desired, Lyla," she said haughtily.

"This is the attitude of someone who has been pushed too far for too long. He uses the collars on the prisoners for no reason. He's cruel, and I have genuine concerns about how far he will go."

"I'm sorry, Lyla, but sometimes you think too highly of these prisoners."

My mouth fell open. She continued before I could respond.

"Do you really think about the things they have done to end up here? They aren't in a high security prison for jaywalking. We have murderers galore walking these halls. We've got an orc who committed war crimes, a shadow demon who killed his own father and a dragon that set an entire ship full of people on fire in the southern sea. These aren't good people, Lyla."

My heart thudded in my chest. I'd avoided looking up what crimes Falkon had committed to end up here. I tried to leave the past where it belonged and treat everyone as they were now. Nausea swirled its way into my throat. He was the only dragon I knew of in the prison, so she had to mean him. I pushed my feelings to one side.

"I thought our whole ethos as therapists is that everyone can grow past who they used to be and become better. That we can help them change. That second chances matter. I'm sorry if you've lost sight of that, but I haven't. I'll continue to fight for the prisoners that want to be better, even if you won't."

"You'd fight for these monsters that could easily kill you as soon as look at you?"

My temper escaped me completely, and I started shouting.

"I won't live in fear of maybes. The only thing I'm certain of now is that you don't deserve to hold this position anymore, and I'm going to talk to the warden."

I stormed out of the office and came face to face with Ella. Tears streaming down her face. My fury completely evaporated.

"Oh honey, what's wrong?"

"I… I think I messed up really badly."

I put an arm around her. The warden would have to wait. But it couldn't be for long.