Chapter 2

Serena

”Are you freaking kidding? You can”t pass your orc failure on to me!”

The words snapped out of me before I could stop them.

”Cospire said to. He”s been out of the program for months now. I can”t connect with him at all and neither could Heather before me. He keeps getting into fights and no one knows why. It”s your turn.”

”Heather is our orc expert. If she couldn”t do it then how am I meant to?”

David shrugged at me and dropped the file on my desk. I whisked it up and opened to the first page. A photograph. Looked like an orc. A big one, but still an orc. I threw the file down again.

”David, I haven”t got time for orcs fighting. I”m trying to find my mate so I can leave this dour, miserable place.”

The seer had insisted I come here. I wanted to find my mate, but it was taking a long time.

”How do you know your mate isn”t an orc?”

I shot him a glare.

”Look at me, David.”

I stood and twirled girlishly in my bright red dress.

”Do I look like a girl who would be mated to an orc? All they do is fight. I like poetry, romance, dancing and cute animals. Not orcs who…”

I picked up the file again and flipped through to the orc”s list of crimes. My mouth fell open.

”ARE GUILTY OF WAR CRIMES?! DAVID!”

”Yeah, sorry.”

David turned and fled. Before I could shout after him, a snort rang out from the corner of the room. I turned and took a deep breath and stuck my tongue out at Cerys.

”You can handle it,” she said, looking the picture of calm, despite the fact that she had just laughed at me.

”Well, let”s hope so. Otherwise I”ll be committing war crimes at David and Cospire.”

My hands were flailing around like they always did when I got annoyed. I pulled them into my side and tried to take a deep breath. Getting ”feisty,” as my parents called it, wouldn”t help.

”Can you commit war crimes AT someone?”

”Oh, I don”t know grammar, Cerys. I”m here to help people explore their feelings, not the dictionary. Or whatever grammar comes in.”

Another snort. I”d be mad if she wasn”t the best friend I had here. She kept to herself, but was slowly beginning to open up. Just a bit.

”Maybe you should talk to Heather before your first session with him.”

”No. What”s the point? Orcs like to fight. Their whole tribal system is set up around fighting. He won”t talk. They never open up to anyone who isn”t an orc. What would he say anyway? I killed lots of people and I liked it? I war-crimed, and it was great?”

I slumped into a chair, tempted to give in before I even began. But I”d never been a quitter. No, I was going to dive in and get this over with. I”d schedule a session straight away. Putting it off wouldn”t help.

”Never make assumptions about any client.”

Cerys threw back the comment I had made to her recently in a sing-song voice. I harrumphed loudly as she left for her next session. She was right. I flopped across the chair, kicking my legs over the side and letting my head settle on the other armrest.

This was going to be a nightmare.

For a few moments, the break room was mine. It was quiet. Something that rarely happens in a prison. There was always a guard shouting, a metal door slamming or some sort of argument. The prison was very remote and difficult to get to, so I lived on the grounds, like most of us. My mind wandered to a day when I didn”t live in a tiny room that was gray and miserable. A day when I would have a garden that I could fill with flowers. A cascade of riotous colors.

*creak*

My heart jumped into my throat and my eyes flew open. Instinctively, my arms stretched out before I even consciously noticed the rickety seat under me was wobbling. A face peered around the door. Wide blue eyes stared at me for a moment. It was the new guard. Yes, I was hired to be a therapist at the prison, but not HIS therapist. Something about him gave me the creeps. I berated myself.

Be nice, Serena.

He kept coming to me, struggling with the job. His parents had sent him here in the hopes it would be good for him. Whatever that meant. This was a harsh place, and it was more likely to wear down any of his good qualities than benefit him.

”Sorry, Serena, do you have a moment?”

”Of course I do, Billy. Come in.”

I brushed down my red dress and sat up straight. Cerys called it my listening position. I folded my hands into my lap calmly and nodded at the young blond guard now sitting in the larger but still old and scruffy wooden chair. My eyes caught on it for a moment.

Maybe a nice bright throw would make it look better.

”Sorry to be a pain, Serena. You”ve just been so nice and helpful to me, and this is a really weird place.”

I nodded and smiled. He wasn”t wrong. The prison was weird. Set up like a miserable, gray labyrinth, it seemed designed to confuse anyone who set foot in it. My suggestions for redecorating or even cleaning occasionally were always roundly ignored. There were colors that had been proven to be calming. Grubby gray wasn”t one of them.

”I”ve been permanently assigned to south wing now.”

This was the exact opposite of what he wanted.

”You are still wary of that orc?”

He nodded. He didn”t want to say the words out loud, but it was clear the orc intimidated him. Unsurprising. I”d seen him being hauled into the infirmary and solitary multiple times. He was big and aggressive even for an orc. Never mind all the recent fights. A problem prisoner. My heart sank even more at the prospect of trying to connect with him.

”If it helps, I”m taking over as his therapist today, so we are in the same boat.”

Billy”s mouth fell open.

”They can”t do that! He”s a brute. You won”t be safe!”

”I”ll be fine, and so will you. Whatever happens, he”s wearing a shock collar. We went through all your strategies for dealing with him last time. I believe in you, and a few months from now, I think you will too. Are you still sure you want to stay?”

”Yes, I want to save some money. After that I will leave and look into something else.”

”The money here is good. But don”t let this place, or anyone else, grind you down.”

He nodded and smiled a little smile. Something about it made me uneasy. I wondered how much of this was actually his worry about the orc and how much of it was that he had a little crush on me. It would never happen. The Sacred Seer had made it clear to me when I turned sixteen. I was fated to be the mate of a monster. Whoever it was didn”t seem in any hurry to find me so I could get out of this god awful prison, though. I stood up to let Billy know I needed to get on with my day, and he reluctantly stood too, his blond hair flopping around his face.