Prologue
She looked over her shoulder to be sure the guards weren’t paying attention. They didn’t notice her; and she kept her head down and never gave them a hard time. A few others wore the same color wristband and were sitting close enough to watch her movements. She gnawed on her lip, not sure if she could trust them. If she was caught—well, she didn’t want to think of what would happen.
Kinsley looked at the band around her wrist. As far as she could tell it was used just for sorting purposes. In her case, it meant her eyes changed color. Little did they know she was a full-blood Alterealm resident. She glanced to the other women again, wondering how much Alterealm DNA they had. Some of the women that slept on the main floor wore bands as well, but theirs were ability blockers. That brought her back to the reason she was thinking about all of this in the first place. They couldn’t find out she had an ability. More importantly, they couldn’t discover that she was working undercover for the Alterealm royal family.
She watched as a woman wandered close to the barrier and stopped. That would get all of them in trouble. No one wanted to be on this island, but she was making her escape attempts too obvious. She turned to see if the guard was watching and blew out a breath of relief to see he wasn’t.
Her gaze landed on another woman, or more specifically, the bruising on her face. Kinsley’s heartbeat sped up, she felt like she was failing. There was only so much interference she could create to keep the men away from the women. She was just as much at risk, with the sheer number of men that came and went from this hunk of land in the middle of the water. Twice now, she’d had to fight to prevent unwanted advances. She almost felt physical pain in knowing that she couldn’t always protect the rest of the women. She’d barely slept since arriving: the cries that echoed through the building wouldn’t allow her to sleep. She didn’t know what the royal family had done on their end, but the security and visits from the higher-ups in this crazy place had increased tenfold.
Okay, she put her hand out and touched the tall weeds growing beside where she stood, now or never. You can’t get caught with the phone. With her other hand, she reached into her top and pulled out a small phone. Quickly she opened the message function and hit send. Hurry, hurry, she chanted in her mind. It vanished from the screen. Check your messages, Justice. Clutching the phone against her chest, she turned to be certain no one was looking her way. Taking a quick breath, she backed up a few steps to see a rotted-out knot in the tree. Taking a deep breath, she opened her hand and watched the phone move carefully toward the tree and didn’t take another breath until it was tucked inside the knot of the tree, out of sight.
“Hey.”
Startled, she turned to see one of the guards scowling at her. With a fake yawn, she stretched her arms over her head and gave him a sweet smile. He watched her for a moment more, then turned away.
Let the cavalry come soon was her only thought as she slowly wandered back to the others.
