Trapped Between Kings © 2021, Caine Casann The author asserts the moral rights to be identified as the sole author of this Work and the control over modifications to and destruction of this work. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Any opinion expressed regarding any matter whatsoever are those of the characters and should not be confused or interpreted as the author's.   -------------------

              “Good morning, Ms. Dheros!” Mrs. Williams greeted, sarcasm lacing her voice as soon as Emma closed the door. All eyes were on Emma, and her rose-colored cheeks immediately betrayed her. For the third time that week, she was the center of attention on her first morning class.   “Late again, are we?” said the professor. “Do see me after class.”   “Yes, Ma’am,” Emma replied then went to her seat, which was at the back of the class, ignoring the looks that her classmates gave her. The professor continued her lecture of standards and other boring topics that had her almost snoozing.   When class was over, Emma waited for everyone to leave before walking over to the professor’s desk, who was erasing the writings on the board, all of which already on Emma’s memory.   “Have a seat, Ms. Dheros,” she said firmly. She turned an

    “Tough day?” her supervisor asked as he leaned on one side of the office table.   With her forehead resting on the smooth metal surface of the table, she tilted her head from side to side. Emma took a deep breath as she straightened her back.   “I can do this,” she said as she opened her eyes to stare at the same problem on the computer screen that she had been trying to figure out for the last two hours.   “Still don’t tally?”   Tilting her head up at him, she watched him drink his usual instant coffee from an unusually large mug that was a little chipped at the handle, it could nick the skin. After working under him for about a week, she just assumed that he already knew how to hold it without getting a cut.   The man had large dark circles under his eyes, thick framed glasses, and although he was wearing the proper dress code from head to foot, a

    Aidan watched her leave the school building, exhaustion visible on her face. She looked like she hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep and wasn’t eating right. Her backpack seemed heavy, and as she waited with other students for the passing cars to clear the road before they could cross, she brought the back of her hand to her mouth to partially cover a yawn.   She was twenty years of age, and yet she looked like she was already thirty. Slightly taller than most of the girls around her, and noticeably bigger, Emma stood out from the crowd. Aidan stared at her, scanning every bit of her for as much as he could behind the safety of the car’s tinted window. There was nothing special about her – not in the way she looked nor in the way she carried herself, which was severely lacking in energy. And the more he watched her, his confusion grew as to why Henry was invested in her to intend to mate with her.   Henry seriously wa

    Niquel sat on his leather office chair, overlooking the nightscape of the city, its lights like a carpet of stars reflecting the cloudy night sky. Its residents still wide awake, the never-ending stream of people that looked like a colony of ants from his vantage point, and perhaps they were – laboring all day and night to feed themselves until they reached the end of their short-lived lives. Sometimes he wondered if he would be doing the same had he not been granted more than a thousand times their lifespan – what he would do with his time, knowing full well that tomorrow or any second of today might be the last of him or those he cared about.   He crossed his legs as he watched them all below, through a glass wall that reflected his lonely self, and the dim lights above him. It wasn’t always like this – just him and the city by the end of the day. He used to have a place he could return to, and she’d be there waiting for him and g