Page 22 of Marked By the Dark Lord
“What the fuck?”
“What are you staring at?” the thing growled somewhat angrily, getting up from the bed and taking a step in my direction.
The bars rattled as I slammed back against them, forced to look upward as usual, though only by a few inches. At least she wasn’t a giant … whatever she was.
“Relax,” the soft honeyed accent said, my eyes picking up a hint of a mouth moving as she spoke. “I ain’t gonna hurt you.”
“Hardly reassuring from a ghost,” I said, shocked I managed to get it out without stammering.
“Ghost? I ain’t a ghost. Sheesh.”
“What are you then? ‘Cause you’re basically invisible. That makes you a ghost.”
The eyes peered down at me, somehow able to do so condescendingly, even though I couldn’t see the rest of their features.
“Ghosts are mindless things, and they most definitely arenotinvisible. Trust me, that ain’t me.”
“Oh. Sorry? What are you, then?”
“Me? A wraith. Come now. We’re notthatrare. How can you not know?”
I shook my head. A wraith? “Lady, wraith person, whoever, I don’t knowanything. I’ve never heard of any of this. I don’t even know what ‘this’ is, dammit!”
The wraith stood still as I slumped to the floor, hope seeping out of my body and sinking into the stone below my backside as the weight of it all began to take hold.
“Oh, get up. You’re just in jail. It’s not like you’re on the Tartarus Line or something.”
I looked up. The confusion must have been fully evident because the wraith-thing sighed and sat on the edge of the bed near me.
“That would be where the people sentenced to death go. Tell me, whatdoyou know, human?”
“Mila.”
“What’s that?”
“My name is Mila. I know that,” I said. “That’s about it, honestly.”
“Hoo, dear. Tell me everything.”
“There’s not much to tell,” I said. “There was a weird old book. I opened it, read some words, red light appeared, and then those minotaur things, the Gray Knights. They appeared from a huge purple egg in the middle of the air and came after me. Then I was brought here.”
I purposefully left out Lord Rokk, though I wasn’t sure why.
“I see. Did they tell you anything?”
“That I was under arrest for unauthorized use of magic as an unlicensed user,” I quoted. “Whateverthatmeans. It’s not like magic is real.”
The wraith was quiet. “Do I look ‘not real’ to you, hun? What about this place? Is it not real, too? All this fake, just to prank you, hmm? Naw, I dun’ think so.”
“I …”
“You’d better get used to it quick. You’re gonna be going before the Court with that list of charges. You need your wits about you. A pretty thing like you … that’s a bad time.”
“Why? What is this place? Where am I? Under Niagara Falls?”
The wraith started to lie back down. “You really are new. The whole thing is called ‘The Place Behind’, but most of us just call it The Crack.”
“Huh?”
