My Reluctant Warden by Kallysten

suggestion. You will sleep in his bed, or something very bad will happen. Something like your heart beating faster and faster until it just gives up. Or your lungs suddenly failing to process air. Or your body being completely paralyzed until you do as you are told. It varies, but it’s never pleasant. So please, do be careful. We don’t want anything bad happening to you, do we?”
    I gripped the edge of the desk with both hands. My heart was beating faster, and I wasn’t sure if that was an effect of the compulsion or simply my anger.
    “Why would you care? You told him to kill me!”
    Someone off screen said something I couldn’t make out, and her gaze briefly drifted to the side. She nodded once before looking back at me. Behind her, through a bay window, I could see lights. And not just any lights: the lights that line up the Eiffel Tower and make its shape as distinctive at night as it is during the day.
    “No,” she said, drawing my attention back to her. “I did not tell him to kill you. I merely mentioned a few things he might do. It’s been a while since my brother killed anyone. I seriously doubt he’ll break his vow for you. Now be a good girl and remember what I said. You’ll be sleeping with him tonight.”
    I recognized her tone of voice and the intensity of her gaze. She was compelling me again.
    “No.”
    Voicing that one word took every ounce of strength of will I had.
    I didn’t know how I even managed to say that word. Was it because she was behind a computer screen rather than right in front of me? Did it diminish the power she had on me? Or maybe, having been under her compulsion already, I was building up a tolerance to it? Maybe I was even learning to fight it back, and with time I’d get beyond her order not to leave the Ward mansion. I liked that last option a lot.
    What I liked a lot less, however, was how my breath suddenly hitched in my throat.
    It wasn’t the same as the previous night when I had realized I had broken her order to be nice to her brother. That time, I simply couldn’t breathe, not any more than if I’d been under water. This time, there was air around me, and I could get to it, but I had to work hard for it. In seconds, I was breathing heavily, and sweat was already beading on my forehead.
    “Don’t you get it?” Miss Delilah said with a small sigh. “You don’t have a choice. Come on, Lina. Don’t make this harder on yourself than it needs to be.”
    If I could have replied, I’d have told her that, no, I wouldn’t go to anyone’s bed just because my boss was ordering me to. I’d have told her I quit. I’d have said… I don’t know. I’d have said no, again, that much was certain. But I couldn’t spare enough breath for words. I remembered all too well what it had felt like to slip into darkness from the lack of oxygen the previous night. I was terrified it would happen again. And this time, no one was there to save me. But I still refused to obey.
    If Mr. Ward had been nicer to me when I’d gone to thank him, maybe…
    No, not even then.
    It’s not that I wanted to die, of course not. But what was my life worth if I didn’t have control over anything, from where I lived to whom I slept with? Call me stubborn. Call me crazy. I held on to the desk, struggled to breathe or even remain upright, but I didn’t yield.
    Moments passed. An entire lifetime. My ears were buzzing a little, but I could hear Miss Delilah’s voice again. She wasn’t talking to me. I blinked a few times until I could focus on the screen again. She wasn’t in front of her computer anymore. Instead, she stood in front of the window in the back of the room, looking out at the night in Paris. She was talking into a phone.
    “Hello, Morgan. Why do I have this feeling—”
    She sighed into the phone.
    “No, I can’t tell you that, and you should know better than to ask. Why can’t you just be thankful for my gift?”
    After a brief pause, she laughed.
    “You don’t give