I can scarcely believe my ears. Me? A snitch?
"I don't care what term you think of it as. Snitch. Informant. Spy. Whatever helps you to sleep at night, or maybe you should stay up later and talk to the guards more? See if you can't learn a bit about what they're up to. I need to know that my guards can be trusted to do their duties and if they're capable of covering a floor alone."
“Because of the threat,” I say, trying to turn the conversation away from a task I desperately don’t want to do.
But I have no choice. If I don't snitch, the warden will turn against me. He could fire me, but I won't allow that to happen to Sequoia or Sophie. I don't have a choice.
But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
“Yes.”
“Can you tell me more about it?” I ask, trying not to sound overly eager.
“Any and all details you can acquire for me about job performance—”
“About the rumors of the attack. Do you have an idea of who wants to attack the prison? Why? When?”
"I do not think those details are necessary for you, considering you aren't a part of the task force assigned to defend the prison at all costs."
“Can I join—”
“No. I need you to be my eyes and ears, remember?”
“Yes, sir, Rall.”
“Seriously, I want you to not worry about the possible attack. It hasn’t happened yet, and it might not, but we are treating the rumors seriously. Do not worry.”
I say nothing.
“Promise me you won’t worry.”
“I’m afraid that’s a promise I can’t make.”
“No, I suppose not. That would be asking too much of anyone. Do try to believe me when I say that we have the threat under control.”
“I will try.”
“Good. If that’s the best I can get, I will take it, but you will be my ears and eyes, won’t you?”
I nod even though I don’t want to. This is terrible. The only guard I want to “tattle” on would be Castiel, and I’ve already done that. I’m sure Rall will want dirt on at least one other guard. Who, though?
Maybe they’re all perfect guards, and I can reassure Rall of that. He’ll be pleased to hear that, won’t he?
Probably not. He wants me to be a snitch because he thinks something is wrong. I'm certain of it. Great. Just wonderful. This is going to ruin Sequoia's life. I'm going to be stuck here, in this prison that I'm supposed to work in, but it’s becoming my own jail too, and now, I have to turn against my coworkers. By the breeze, this is terrible!
“You can come up at any time when you have something to share with me that you think is significant.”
“Oh, but I don’t want to be a bother,” I protest.
“Nonsense. This is important. I wish I thought of this when I first started. Maybe we would have double the number of guards we have now. Wouldn’t that be nice? If we can carve out the bad apples, we’ll be left with abundant fruit that can thrive.” He grins.
Does he think I’m going to enjoy his metaphor because he’s talking about fruit and nature?
Sorry, bud, it doesn’t work that way.
“I honestly hope I don’t have anything to report,” I finally murmur.
Rall appraises me. “One tiny incident won’t mean a guard will be fired. Reprimanded, maybe. Corrected from their error. Taught again what to do, how to handle things. I don’t like hearing about grim reapers needing surgery, for instance. That’s a terrible use of our doctor. She’s a capable sprite, Dr. Pervinca. Have you met her?”
“Not personally, no.”
“She prefers to just be called Pervinca. I think that’s foolish. She has the credentials. She deserves to have that recognition. But then, I don’t prefer to be called sir, so I do suppose I understand to some degree.” He shakes his head and glares at me. “You’re making me talk far too much. Go. Be my ears and eyes, and yes, I want to hear about others besides Castiel.”
“I assumed that,” I mumble.
“A safe assumption.” He laughs before growing more serious. “I will have to talk to Castiel. Do not worry. He will not know of our little arrangement from me, and I trust this will be between us?”
I nod.
“Good. Go on then. Maybe we will talk more tonight.”
Hoping that’s not the case, I duck out of there and slowly descend, walking down the stairs instead of flying. It’s only as I reach the second floor that I realize a tear has trickled down my cheek. I’m shaking. Talking to Rall had been so intense that I’m trembling. My glamor is still working, but I really don’t know how much longer it can last.
My time here has got to come to an end sooner rather than later.
“There you are!” Azorra cries, coming over to me. “I thought something happened.”
“It did,” I mutter.
Her eyes widen. She doesn’t have eyelids, which always strikes me as weird, but maybe their eyelids touching all the time would cause gargoyles to lose pebbles of themselves each time they blinked. It’s fascinating to think about how different each magical creature is.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Azorra asks.
“No.”
“Okay,” she says quietly, her shoulders slumping slightly. A bit of rock dust falls from her shoulders.
I wince. She’s hurt.
“It’s just not something I can talk about,” I say.
“Oh? Oh! Okay. You promised someone to keep a secret. Who? Druiz?”
I blink. “Why do you think—”
“Nora said something once that made me think you two…”
“Oh. I don’t know. Maybe in the past. I don’t know if there’s anything now.”
"So, he's not the boyfriend you were talking about earlier?"
I flinch. If she talks to Druiz, that will ruin things for Sequoia, but I also can’t lie.
I almost want Zas to lie for me.
“It’s complicated,” is what I finally say.
“Isn’t love, though?”
“Love?” I ask, my voice higher pitched than normal.
“Don’t you love your boyfriend?” she asks, staring at me curiously.
“Oh, well, it’s early on, and, um, well, I can grow to love him, I think. I just… We should get to work.” I dash down the wing to the right.
Azorra laughs behind me. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot!”
I turn around and hurry back over. “It’s not you, and we’re friends, and I love that. I just don’t like to talk about relationships. I’m too… It’s confusing, and I don’t understand it myself. It makes talking about it hurt. That’s all. Does that make sense?”
I'm rambling. Ugh. I hate it when I ramble.
“I understand,” she says. “Don’t worry. I won’t pry, and I won’t talk to Druiz either, in case you’re worried about that. I don’t think I’ve said two words to him.”
“He’s nice when you get to know him.”
“Nice,” she repeats. “Not exactly what I would want in a guy.”
“Oh, yeah?” I grin at her, trying to relax. It feels so fun to talk to someone without a hidden agenda. It’s almost like I’m talking to my sister.
Sophie.
Just like that, my grin dies.
“Uh, what do you want in a guy?” I ask lamely, no longer enjoying the conversation.
“Someone who will be willing to stick by my side no matter what. Someone who I can laugh and joke around with. Someone who I can be vulnerable with and lower my guard around. Tell them things I’ve never told anyone else. Someone I can depend on.”
“Loyalty,” I murmur.
“Yes. Good looks don’t hurt, of course, but I just want someone who will be honest.”
“That’s a good thing when dating a fairy. They can’t lie.”
“But they can manipulate the truth, or so they say.”
“Maybe sometimes, there might be a reason for it,” I say slowly.
Azorra wrinkles her nose and then sneezes from the speck of rock dust knocked loose. “A reason for it. That’s such a fairy thing to say.”
“All I know is that fairies aren’t always out to trick people, and if they do, sometimes it’s because they’re trying to protect someone. Themselves or others. Their heart maybe. I don’t know.”
Azorra is quiet a long moment. I’m ready to suggest we get back to work when she blurts out, “Do you think I’ll make a good guard?”
“Why wouldn’t you?” I ask.
“That’s a fairy thing to do, isn’t it? To answer a question with a question. You’re trying to think of a way to spin words so you don’t have to come right out and tell me a truth I don’t want to hear.”
I narrow my eyes. “Maybe that’s true sometimes, but not now. I want to know why you think you won’t make a good guard.”
“Well, one of the prisoners—”
I snort. “There. Right there is your problem. Why are you listening to them? Who was it? Mercy? Ranth?”
“Ciro. He said that you are the best guard he’s ever had, that you listen and believe in him, and that if you are moved to another floor permanently, he’s going to act up and try to hurt someone until you’re brought back.”
“You cannot be serious,” I growl. “That’s—”
“Me. He threatened to hurt me,” Azorra says sadly.
I gape at her before starting to fly, but she catches my arm, her grip seriously strong. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, being that she has a rocky grip, but she’s even more powerful than I would’ve expected.
“Don’t,” she says.
“Let me go. I’m going to straighten him out.”
“No, if he knows I ratted him out, he won’t trust you.”
“But he can’t be allowed to talk to you or anyone—”
“It’s not about him respecting me,” Azorra says slowly. “He respects you. Whatever you’re doing with him is working. It’s not going to happen overnight, his changing to be one of the decent vampires. You need to keep working with it. I should handle this wing, and you handle his.”
Ciro is on the same side as Zas, which suits me just fine. Azorra’s been thrown into the fire enough. She doesn’t need to deal with a demon and threats and all of that.
“I’m sorry I took so long to come back. I’m sorry you had to be alone on the floor before you were ready, and I’m sorry you don’t have a better mentor.”
Azorra stares at me as if I'm crazy. "Are you serious? It seems to me that you're the only one to see the inmates as people. The others take their duties as guards too seriously. They just want to keep them in line. No wonder they lash out!"
I shake my head. “I’m no saint.”
“I never said you were.”
“And I’m not the best guard here. Not by a long shot.”
Azorra glances away.
“What is it?” I ask.
“Nothing,” she says too quickly.
“Please don’t shut me out.”
A vampire behind us laughs. “You two are so comical. You’re the best of friends, aren’t you? One of these days, I’m going to get out of here, and you want to know what I’m going to do?”
I glance at Azorra before focusing on the vampire. “If you say you’re going to attack one of us or—”
“No, no. Nothing like that. I have friends too. I think I’ll give Viola a present.”
“Oh, yeah? And what kind of present are you thinking?” I ask suspiciously.
“A heart,” he says triumphantly.
“Whose heart?”
He just grins wickedly.
Azorra sighs. “It’s vampires like you who give vampires a bad rep.”
“I can’t help who I am.”
“That’s just it,” I say. “You can if you want to. You are more than your desires, your cravings. If you want to, you can be anything you want, not just a blood-sucking monster.”
The vampire just laughs and laughs, sounding like he’s mad.
I grimace. Right now, I’m a victim of what I want. I need to have my sister out of here.
But I also think that maybe, just maybe my place is right here. The only question that remains is if I deserve to be walking the halls as a guard or to be behind bars as a fellow prisoner.