Gods & Monsters

PROLOGUE EVA MCRAYNE january 18th I am set to be released tomorrow. Thank all the gods that I am able to walk out of this horrible jail in less than twenty-four hours, though I know the screams of my counterparts will haunt me for years to come. Yes, screams. My cellmate, Ellie, calls them the screams of the damned. I suppose that's what we all are. Damned. Damned by the Curaie. Damned by the Networkers and the guards who hold us here. I'm not supposed to be writing. I stole a pencil from the woman who searched me after dinner. She won't miss it. Not like she missed the napkins I had stolen to get my thoughts on paper. I am going to be free. The thought alone is enough to make me burst into tears. I haven't had contact with anyone from outside these walls in six months. I've barely had contact with anyone inside of these walls. I step in often and am thrown in a tiny hole called Solitary. It's meant to deter me from interfering, but how can someone stand by and watch as people are being abused? Sexually assaulted? I couldn't live with myself if I did that. I'd never know another moment of peace. So I step in. I learned pretty quick that the guards had been told not to lash out against me. I knew it was because of my Olympian connections. I used that to my advantage, though it didn't stop them from throwing me into the one place no one here wanted to go. The one place where they forgot about you until they needed the space for someone else. I relished in the silence Solitary provided. I used that time to talk out loud to Jonah instead of whispering my words as I had to do when others were around. I know he can't hear me. I know, too, that he may have moved on with his life. He'd never leave the estate, but six months is a long time. Perhaps, he still has his arrangements. Perhaps, he has found someone else. No, I don't believe that. Jonah and I were too close. We are too close. I don't know how I am going to see him again. Once I am released tomorrow, I will have to leave the United States. Hera isn't strong enough to follow outside the country. I am still deciding whether or not I should go to France or Australia. My heart is leaning towards France. I am still beholden to Hera, and I know she will come to me. I should have taken her poison the night Jonah came into my room. I couldn't do it. Not after I saw the sadness in his eyes and heard the sorrow in his words. So, I tossed the wine away. I won't have the luxury to do that again. I promised my life to Hera in exchange for Jonah's freedom. She will give me a few days before she sends someone after me. The only reason I haven't been killed yet is because not even she could get past the barriers that held me here. Tomorrow. I will think about it tomorrow, when I am no longer held in these horrid walls. Tomorrow, I can go anywhere in the world. Anywhere but home. … Anywhere but where she could find me.