Page 9 of Okay, I Regret a Little
Chapter 7
Rajack
T
his was an interesting fucking development. Dakarys and I were sitting in the dining hall. He’d already grabbed a plate for Rei. She was usually one of the last ones in for breakfast, and she was generally in a foul mood until after you got food in her. Something told me our little Kitsune didn’t like mornings very much.
Wren wasn’t sitting with the witches. Dakarys and I had a million questions about that. We’d heard it was Astrid by now, but we only heard one witch died. Wren wouldn’t have allowed anyone to come at Astrid on her watch. We heard some rumors Brody beat the shit out of her and hauled her down to solitary.
That sounded like Brody, but not like Wren. If Wren had found out someone gutted Astrid in the laundry room, she wouldn’t have lost it. She wouldn’t have done anything to risk Brody’s wrath to end up in the hole. She’d be planning her revenge. She had to be in solitary because she wasn’t with the witches planning who she was going to kill first.
“Oh, holy shit. Wren’s not in solitary. She just walked in with Rei. What the fuck happened last night?”
My eyes flew to the doors. Wren was way grumpier than Rei ever was in the morning. She scowled at Rei, flipped her the middle finger, and stomped off to grab a plate. What were those two doing together? Wren didn’t like most people here, but she made it clear Rei wasn’t her favorite person. We didn’t need her killing our Kitsune, but honestly, whyhadn’tshe killed Rei? Wren totally would have blamed her for this.
Rei plopped down in her seat and started eating. She leaned in like she wanted to tell us something she didn’t want shifter ears to hear.
“Wren is on our side. She’s my new cellmate. Faust yanked her out of solitary. They came to an arrangement. Wren watches me when he can’t, and they take down Venus together.”
I nearly started choking on my sausage. I didn’t know the first thing about Faust other than he was a psychopath, but he didn’t strike me as the type who played well with others, even when it came to killing people—and pulling Wren out of solitary after a few hours when Brody stuck her in there?
I agreed. Wren didn’t deserve that beating or to end up in the hole. Faust had never stuck his neck out for any of us before. The other guards that weren’t shock baton happy were more than glad to look the other way on things for favors. Not Faust. Everyone had been too scared of him even to ask. He’d probably kill you if you asked for a favor.
Why had all that changed with Rei?
“Faust is losing psycho points.”
“He’s actually lovely when you get to know him.”
Now, I was the one laughing. My eyes cut over to Faust. He was at his usual perch scowling at the witches. Yeah, Faust was a total kitten. He looked ready to murder every single witch at the table, and I was pretty sure only half of that had to do with Rei.
“Faust is on my side. He recruited Wren to help protect me. Let’s just go with that for now. We need a witch to get out of here. Wren will help.”
Things were totally different now. Astrid would have made the potion we needed without asking questions. We would have slipped out after leaving her instructions on taking over our black-market operation. Astrid and Wren were close. We had our suspicions they were lovers, and we probably weren’t wrong about that.
Wren was totally different from Astrid. She wouldn’t brew us a fucking thing without knowing what it was for. And the environment here had changed. The witches here didn’t deserve our side business after betraying Astrid and everything she stood for. I’d even pass it on to the vampires over the witches after they murdered Astrid.
The other gangs would not take this lightly either. If you wanted to take over as the leader of a gang, there were protocols. You issued a challenge in front of the entire prison, and you dealt with it during yard time when the cuffs were off. You fought using your magical gifts like it was meant to be.
I knew Venus took that beating on purpose so she could be in medical when it went down. If the other gangs found out she had Astrid taken out the way she had, Venus would lose all respect in Silverhold. None of the gangs would work with her. More than that, they would view her as a usurper who didn’t earn her title the right way. Rei might have many witches that wanted her dead, but when this got out, Venus was going to have every supernatural in Silverhold after her head. And the Aether Circle, too, since she went after Astrid instead of Rei. Wren was probably the best assassin in Silverhold, and she wanted her dead. Faust was a serial killer, and he wanted Venus dead too.
As far as being totally fucked went, Venus was about to have it way worse than Rei did. I intended to help that along by whispering in some ears.
“Wren won’t do anything in here unless she knows why,” I pointed out.
“He’s right,” Dakarys said. “Astrid would have made the potion with no problem. Wren won’t make it unless we tell her what we need it for.”
“So, why don’t we just tell her?” Rei said. “She knows I’m not a fox. My powers fritzed a little when Faust was trying to wake me up. She’s not just working with Faust to get her revenge on the witches. She saw things in my cell that she’s probably never seen before. She’s still helping and keeping my secret. She hasn’t demanded to know what I am either. The foxes all know too.”
“We get yard time with the foxes, and it would be a shame to deny you yours to keep your secret. They are going to cancel it because of the murder. They always do. We may be able to get one in before we get out of here,” I said.
“I agree with Rei,” Dakarys said. “Wren is a friend. It was different leaving Astrid behind. She had support and a coven. Wren has no one anymore. If they could turn on Astrid, they’ll eventually do the same to Wren. Wren will take several down on the way out, but we can’t leave her to that.”
“I thought she hated me, but we spent a lot of time during lockdown just chatting. She’s kind of mean, but I like her, and I think that’s just how she communicates.”
Dakarys and I were both nodding.
“She’s only mean to you if she likes you. If she doesn’t, you just don’t exist to her. If she’s nice to you, it means you’re her next target,” Dakarys said.
“Totally. If Wren is nice, it means she is going to kill you.”
“So, it’s still on, but Wren is coming with us?” Rei asked.
“We’ll have to find a time to put it to her. Wren is over there working the witches. I’m dying to know how she’s explaining rooming with the foxes now,” I said.
“She can handle it. She knows them better than we do.”
The bell rang that breakfast was over, and we had to report to work. All I had to say about that was that I’d be breaking out of here very soon, but I’d stick around a little longer for revenge if those witches killed Wren too.
