Prison Princess

he’d called me, but I’d always been powerless. I didn’t even know what that meant. Comforting words coalesced over my skin and echoed in my mind. Time seemed to slow as I listened to the melodic tone.
Call Unto Me, Sister Druid. You are long overdue to embrace your destiny.
I blinked. That was...that was the moon talking to me. I was sure of it. The truth burned through my bones and stepped into my essence. I’d have time to be shocked later, I hoped, but for that second, I acted on an instinct buried deep in my soul. Knowledge I shouldn’t possess coursed through me. Perhaps it had lived dormant in my very blood.
Extending my arms, I let the moon fill me with a power that became mine to embrace, mine to own. I was not without ability here.
I could save him.
Like I used a spoon to eat my soup, I dug deep into the well of power inside of me and brought it out, surging it away from me as a child would with their food. Not something I’d ever been allowed to do but something I was certainly good at, it would seem. Bright light burst from my skin and bloomed wherever I directed it. A tether of understanding connected me to my savior, and my powers wrapped around him, severing the rope tied to his neck.
“Fuck,” Cypress cursed before dropping to his feet as more moonlight forced itself out of me. It surged forward, attacking the toothless man with relentless fury. I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t control it. Vines burst from the hard ground as if called upon by my fear. They wrapped around our attacker’s body, squeezing, squeezing, squeezing.
“Princess, you have to stop,” Cypress shouted, his voice a mixture of awe and determination.
Stop? I didn’t want to stop. How could I ever possibly stop? The moon felt too good. The sight of that man convulsing against the bright light and my vines sent a thrill through me. Power pulsed through my veins as he screamed. There was no stopping this. I simply couldn’t.
I’d never felt something so intoxicatingly potent. There was a buzz, unlike anything I’d ever experienced, that shot through me as I took down the man attacking us. It was a dark sort of pleasure. I finally understood what that meant. The women in the prison—the witches, the sirens—they’d discussed this, but I’d never gotten it. They were right in how they said it was. Somehow it both scared and invigorated me. It was like swallowing smoke—something I had done once by accident in the showers when a demon had been in there too. That time, I’d hated it. This time, I loved it.
“Princess, draw back!” Cypress choked, this time much louder. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught my savior sprinting toward me, but I ignored him. I wanted to kill our attacker. I wanted to end his life more than anything. It was like I wasn’t myself anymore. More and more power fled my fingertips, and the moon felt close enough to touch, its power intoxicating. It was too sweet to handle. Deep, ancient energy buried deep inside of me. There was an intensity about it that had me shaking.
Cypress appeared behind me and wrapped his hands around my neck, squeezing until my air supply was completely shut off. My eyes popped open in pain, and my moonlight receded back into my body, the fizzling power nothing but smoke now. I struggled against him, but he wouldn’t let go. “This is for your own good, Princess,” he rasped as the edges of my vision turned black.
I kicked and squirmed. I begged the moonlight to help me again. Why was he hurting me? What had I done wrong? How could he repay me this way for saving him?
I fought hard, but it wasn’t enough. Cypress’s strong fingers dug into my neck. There was a surprising gentleness in the way that he strangled me as if he was scared to hurt me too badly. None of it made sense. There was magic to this.
And then the field, the moonlight, and Cypress moved in front of me. Then his distressed face completely faded from view. I welcomed the sleep like an old friend and passed out in his arms.

Chapter Three
I woke to a crackling fire. I’d heard it once from a fireplace in the warden’s suites. It was such a pleasant sound that stuck out in my mind. I’d never forgotten how I loved that crackling with small pop, pop pops. It was a soothing sort of melody, promoting warmth and safety. After listening for a good while, I groaned, fully opening my eyes. It hurt to lift my lids. My head pounded and...and what?
I drew a blank. An unforgiving emptiness cleared my memory of the last few...well, however long it was. I really didn’t know. I didn’t like the uncertain sensation one bit. It reminded me of the time I was attacked at Nightmare. Four days escaped me. I still didn’t know what happened during that time, nor did I want to. Sometimes ignorance was bliss. Other times, like now, it was a weakness.
This felt different, though. My body was sore, and I couldn’t process my surroundings, but I didn’t feel unsafe. In fact, I felt the opposite.
“I bet you have a headache,” Cypress whispered. I flinched at the volume of his voice. He might as well have been shouting in my ear. I took a moment to stare at my captor as my thoughts echoed against my skull. He was shirtless, and his hair was wet, as if he’d just bathed in a nearby stream. Smoke from the fire billowed around him and made him look mysterious.
I nodded. “I do. But...why? Why did you knock me out? What’s happening?” I tried to lift my head and then gave up on that, putting it back down on the ground. It was like I’d overexerted myself just by demanding answers. Maybe I’d