Page 21 of I Regret Nothing
I was bummed about the pie, but the pudding was decent, and I loathed lime Jell-O. They served it a lot in my elementary school. How fucked up that I got better desserts in prison than my school served me. Still, without the pie or peanut butter for lunch, I couldn’t load up on mac and cheese, and it was those weirdly gray peas again.
“Grab your food in a hurry so we can get back to the table. Your friend Venus is causing problems with the witches. It’s time to put our cards on the cable. Our cards and yours.”
Oh, shit. Faust knew I wasn’t a fox shifter because of his nose. Dakarys and Rajack probably had a million questions about why I had latched onto them instead of the other shifters. Everyone seemed to stick to their own kind in here. Dakarys, Rajack, and I were the only ones of our kind in this entire prison, but I was the only one pretending to be something I wasn’t.
They needed a thief for something, but I really needed them more than they needed me. They could find another thief, but I couldn’t exactly run to anyone else to help watch my back with the witches and Faust. This was Hauser’s rule, and I’d never broken it before. He told me to keep my heritage secret for a reason. Faust was already on to me, and Venus was trying to get the witches after me. Unless I wanted to draw a lot of attention in Silverhold, I’dhaveto be honest with the two people who needed me for now. After I spilled the beans, I just hoped I didn’t have a gargoyle and a sphinx after me too. Because I seemed to be making a lot of enemies in Silverhold.
I joined Dakarys and Rajack at the table, but they spilled nothing about their plan or asked me anything right away.
“We don’t just need a thief. We need a witch. We have a working relationship with Astrid, and welikeher. Venus doesn’t just want to kill you. She’s planning to take Astrid out and take over the witch coven here. Not only will our plan not work with Venus in charge, but Venus also doesn’t plan to stop with you and Astrid. She wants to kill us too so she can take over the mailroom and our side business,” Rajack said.
“You probably should have just gone for her throat with those little fox teeth instead of her ankle. It would have saved the prison from having to deal with her shit,” Dakarys said.
Shit. I knew Venus was awful, but I didn’t realize she was this bad. She had no problem betraying Hauser, but I got why she wanted to take me out. I could even understand Astrid for standing in her way, even if I thought she was a bitch for it. But Dakarys and Rajack? Was she going to kill both of them just to take over the mailroom? Venus knew how to steal and move stolen items, but she wouldn’t know the first thing about doing what Dakarys and Rajack were doing as far as I knew. I was a thief too, and I don’t even think I could pull it off.
“So, why is Venus sitting over there getting friendly with the witches?”
Venus was getting cozy with a mean looking witch with bleached hair that looked like she could cut a bitch. She was little and scrappy looking, but so was I. Hauser always said the littler they were, the meaner they were. She was taller than I was, but she looked like she had me beat in the spitefulness department. Idid notwant to face off against that witch. She probably fought dirty.
“Oh, the one she’s whispering with is Astrid’s spy. Don’t fuck with Wren. She’s fiercely loyal to Astrid. She’s listening and taking names. Wren is finding out all the traitors, and then the witches will deal with them. But with Faust so interested in you and the witch drama, we have to step up our plans.”
“I’m listening.”
“Not here. There are too many ears in the mess hall. We’ll have this conversation in the one place we know we have privacy. After you finish eating, we’ll sneak to the mailroom before the last count and they lock us in our cells for the night. We won’t have a lot of time because they don’t want us out of our cells unless it’s yard time or we are working.”
I nodded. We’d have more time if we ate faster. Dakarys and Rajack had many questions for me, but I had a lot for them. What was so crucial in Silverhold that someone else couldn’t steal it?
And why were they risking drama with the witches and Faust to protect me?
Chapter 20
Dakarys
M
oment of truth. We had our plan. We had almost everything we needed except what needed to be stolen. We had our thief, and we could use Faust’s interest in her to get what we needed to escape. But the fox was hiding something and there had to be a reason she was with us instead of the shifters. It was just prison culture. You kept to your own. It was the same in Scorchwood, aside from a few odd groups.
I really hoped she told us the truth and it wasn’t horrible, because I liked her. I seriously saw her call fucking Faust an asshole right to his face.No onehere did that because we weren’t stupid. I got this feeling Rei didn’t care that he knew she thought that.
Venus was causing all kinds of drama. I saw her in the mess hall after she tried to attack Rei in the shower. Rei didn’t have a mark on her, but Venus’s mouth was all busted up. Score one for the fox because she told us Faust didn’t even try to step in and stop it.
We all gathered around the mailroom table and leaned in.
“Bottom line, Rei. We need a thief to help us do something that has never been done before. We can’t bring you in until we know we can trust you. We know you are keeping something major from us. Why are you avoiding the shifters?” Rajack asked.
Rei just sighed and squared her shoulders.
“Are there cameras in here?”
“Yeah, but there’s a blind spot in the corner. The cameras don’t have sound. Why?”
“I’ll just show you. Can I trustyou?Hauser told me to keep this secret no matter what. It’s pretty major I’m showing you this. Faust suspects. It’s why he’s so interested in me.”
Rajack let out a little growl. He wouldn’t trust her until she revealed this secret, but I knew he liked her too. We talked in the mailroom. We both desperately wanted her to be in on this. With all the people after her in Silverhold, we wanted her out of here before someone killed her. We liked her, and we didn’t want her dead.
“This Hauser must have had a good reason for telling you that, Rei. We’ll protect you.”
She must have trusted us just a little, or whatever reason she was hiding from the shifters must have been major because she floated off to the corner and turned to us. We saw this shimmery red cloud envelop her skin, and then she sprouted fox ears and a big bushy tail. But I was still looking at her human face. She didn’t even rip her jumpsuit like shifters always did.
