Page 85 of Queen of Vengeance

“I’m sorry, Miss Nadir. I really think it’s best for you to relax right now.” She stepped away and covered her mouth.

“Why won’t you just tell me?” Hot tears dribbled out of my eyes and down into my ears. I shifted my head uncomfortably.

“Miss Nadir,” another voice didn’t know called out to me.

I tried to turn my head, but it was like I was moving in slow motion.

A woman stood at the foot of my bed with their hands folded in front of her. She was dressed in the same gray uniform that Eniko was dressed in.

“Where’s Eniko? He promised to help Dineta escape too.” I scrunched my face desperately at the BPR agent.

“Lea, My name is Agent Rowan Lexie. I used to be Eniko’s partner.” She held her hand over her heart in a gentle sort of manner.

“What do you mean you used to be?” I was beginning to connect the pieces in my mind, as much as I didn’t want to.

Agent Lexie sighed and pulled up a chair next to my bed. “While we were working to get you guys out of there, there was an assassination attempt on your life. Eniko didn’t survive…” She paused, unwilling to continue.

Her eyes were riddled with apology.

I knew what she was going to say. Still, I had to hear it. “Dineta?”

Agent Lexie shook her head slowly. “I’m very sorry. She didn’t survive either.”

It’s strange… After all the people I had lost in my life, I should have been used to the pain by now, but it felt just like the first time. Does that make me pitiful?

I swallowed down the lump in my throat and wiped my face slowly even though my hands felt like they were filled with stones. “And what about the other prisoners? None of them deserve to be in there. We have to get them out of that horrible place.”

“And we will work on that. But we can’t do anything until we stop Diesel. His forbidden potion empire has grown exponentially in the last fifteen years. He has to be taken down, and we believe you are the only person that can do that,” she explained.

All I could feel was exhaustion and terror.

He was a monster when he was only controlling Dask. I don’t want to imagine what he’s done now that he has amassed so much power.

“What makes you think he’s not going to continue trying to kill me now that I’m free?” This plan failed a lot like I was a lamb being prepared for slaughter.

“He’s not going to try and kill you because he thinks you’re already dead. As far as anyone is concerned, you died in Ryklira Prison. The only people that know you’re alive are in this room right now. We don’t know that we can trust anyone else in the BPR,” she explained, as if that was supposed to give me hope. “We have a new identity that you’ll undertake. You’ll have to take a potion that will alter your scent and voice. You’ll also have to cover any defining features like marks or tattoos. Once the mission is complete, you’ll have a new life.”

A life outside of prison? It was once the thing I dreamed the most of…

“How do you propose I get close to Diesel then?”

“That's simple. You’re going to begin working at Jax’s company.” She handed me a flier with Jax’s face on it. It was just as tacky as he was.

Ransom’s Miracle Potions.

“Eniko spoke very highly of your raw talent with writing and mixing potions, but you’re going to need serious training if you want to get in close with Jax. I know someone that can help. He’s a close friend and one of the city's most well-known potion producers.”

“Alright then. What do I have to lose?”

32

AKIL WILEY

“One, two, three… Perfect.”

A lovely puff of lavender smoke plumed up out of a glass bottle and into the air around Akil.

He breathed it in deeply.

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