Every muscle in my body strained, but Rani’s command of time was too powerful, too perfect. I watched in quiet horror as Royce brought his hand closer to my face, as the rough pads of his fingers brushed against my forehead, his magic meant to knock me out cold. Royce laughed as the world faded to darkness and nothing around me, his spell smothering my consciousness.
“You have the right to remain silent.”
14
Fingers snapped in the darkness, and then came the light.
I shielded my eyes with one hand, relieved, first of all, to find that my arms weren’t bound. But the relief faded as my vision gradually returned. I took in the small table in front of me, internalizing the sensation of being seated in what felt like a metal folding chair. A single light lit the room I was in, the rest of it pitch black. Correction, the room we were in: me, Royce, and Maharani Naidu.
“Hello, Mr. Albrecht,” said Maharani, ever polite, ever professional.
Royce jabbed a finger towards my face. “You’re in deep shit, kid.”
I scowled. “Am I under arrest?”
“No,” Rani said. “Not as such.”
“Then you can’t detain me. I’m free to walk.”
Royce’s laughter rang around the room, the echoes reaching so far that I finally realized we weren’t just in some tiny box. I looked around, unsure of just how far the walls stretched. Nothing here, just three people and what could have been a lightbulb.
“I don’t think you understand your situation very well, Albrecht.” Royce leaned in across the table, menacing, his thick fingers quivering and digging into the surface, like they were itching to wrap themselves around my throat instead. “Do we look like the police to you? The FBI? No. This is the arcane underground. This is the Lorica, and we do things our way. You think you’re looking at ten years, twenty years with your rap sheet? That’s not how things work in the Prism.”
Just the mention of the place sent a cold shiver up my spine. “You’re exaggerating. Nothing I did tonight justifies a trip to the Prism.”
The corner of Royce’s mouth hitched into a sneer. “The problem with the word ‘trip’ is the implication that someone is coming back. Very few people ever come back from the Prism.”
Without meaning to I still swallowed the lump in my throat. For someone who’s just hearing about it for the first time, it can be easy to think that you’d heard the word “prison” instead of Prism. In truth, they weren’t all that different, except in purpose and structure. The Lorica’s Prism was a pocket dimension in the shape of an enormous crystal, meant for containing extremely dangerous arcane criminals. Each level corresponded to one color of the visible spectrum, representing the threat of its inhabitants, with red being the very worst. But even the violet criminals were barely ever heard from again. The Prism wasn’t just about containment, after all, but punishment. Think elaborate illusions, custom-built to show murderers the faces of their victims, expose them to an eternal orchestra of their screams. I couldn’t begin to imagine.
“The problem here is how you constantly bend to your base impulses,” Royce said. “I don’t know if that comes from you being a nephilim, if being a fallen angel’s offspring somehow makes you more fucked up. Delinquent.”
I stiffened the muscles in my thighs, forcing myself to stay seated, because I knew I was seconds away from launching myself directly at Royce’s face.
“That’s far too harsh, Royce,” Maharani said. Good cop, bad cop, like always.
“No. No, it isn’t. It’s like every interaction we have with this kid comes up because of something stupid he’s done. We’re always having to step in to clean up his messes.”
That was it. I couldn’t take that sitting down.
“Cleaning up my messes? What about all the good shit I’ve done for you, for this city? Who was it who stopped Loki from deploying his crazy dream-harvesting Cubes all over the state? Who was it who held the sword that obliterated Belphegor? Who was it who made sure that Roland went back to his eternal rest and took his zombie invasion with him? I do your job for you, Royce.”
He leaned across the table. “What did you just fucking say to me?”
“You heard me, asshole.”
That set him off. I didn’t care to listen as Royce went off on a rant. I clenched my jaw and lifted my nose in defiance, Royce’s fist and jagged knuckles too close to my head. I didn’t flinch, no matter how much he threatened me. But then he grabbed my collar, pulling me to my feet. The chair scraped against the floor. Blood and anger surged to my temples.
My instincts kicked in, and a gauntlet formed around my fist before I could even stop myself.
Maharani snapped her fingers, and time came to a complete stop.
I struggled against her magical restraints, my muscles working their hardest, but how do you fight time? Not even the strongest person on earth can break its chains. Rani’s voice came like an echo from a distant place. I moved my eyes to see where she was standing, but even shifting my gaze a single degree to the right felt like it was taking minutes. Hours? Or did it even matter anymore?
“Mr. Albrecht? Listen closely. I am going to lower the time field, but only for you. Royce is frozen as well. I do not condone violence in times of interrogation. That goes for the detainee as well. You will dismiss the gauntlet you have conjured around your fist. Do not put yourself in more trouble than you are already.”
The air rushed into my lungs as reality righted itself, as my body rejoined the flow of time. Rani was shaking her head at me, and at the frozen statue of Royce, who was still clutching a handful of my shirt. I pulled myself away, working my collar out of his grasp.
Rani clucked her tongue. “I hate when he gets like this, but it
