The Queen Who Fights Back (by Lily Hastings) novel Chapter 1

"Man, what's up with all the global chaos lately? These lunatics are blowing stuff up left and right. At this rate, our prison's gonna explode from overcrowding."

"You seriously haven't heard about that huge shakeup in the underground scene? The top mercenary legend just vanished six months ago."

"You mean Bloodforge, the Queen of Mercenaries? Well, that explains why those thugs are getting all cocky. No one's left to keep them scared straight."

At Devil's Isle, the so-called Death Prison, two guards were hanging out in the corridor, chatting.

Their gaze slid into the shadows, and suddenly, they locked eyes with a girl—maybe nineteen, rocking a high ponytail and straight hair. She had an innocent kind of beauty, but there was a dangerous charm in her appearance.

Just who was this girl, anyway?

Her vibe was downright bloodthirsty and wickedly playful—like a predator messing with its prey before the kill.

A cold smirk played at her lips the whole time.

Even with cuffs chained around her hands and ankles, she looked like she belonged in control, totally unfazed by her restraints.

Just one look from her, and the guards broke out in a cold sweat.

Before they could even process what happened, a loud bang rang out. The girl swept past them and kicked the prison corridor door wide open.

Then she was gone—vanished without a trace.

"She's such a weirdo," one guard said, shaking his head at the scene.

"Anybody who gets sent to Devil's Isle has got to be some kind of monster," the other replied.

After all, this place was Devil's Isle—the infamous Death Prison.

Devil's Isle was where the world dumped its most terrifying and downright vicious criminals. This place was a far cry from any ordinary prison.

The only people who ever get locked up here were either high-profile criminals from the global underworld or the elite assassins and mercenaries who top every wanted list.

So for a teenage girl to have earned her place among them, she must be the youngest inmate the infamous Devil's Isle had ever had.

However, no matter how badass someone was, once they stepped inside Devil's Isle, they would never walk out of its gates.

Ever since Devil's Isle opened its gates, it had locked up countless legends from around the world.

There had been 1009 escape attempts over the decades, but not a single person had ever made it out. At least, not before now.

"Sorry to interrupt you guys," came a voice so angelic it could make anyone stop and listen.

"Hey, mind doing me a tiny favor?" she asked, her tone playful.

Suddenly, the air was pierced by a voice that was pure music—impossibly soft, yet impossible to ignore.

The two guards, totally unprepared for anyone behind them, nearly jumped out of their skin at the sound.

They spun around, only to find the girl who'd vanished just moments earlier was now standing there.

She leaned against the wall, eyeing them with a lazy, teasing look.

The guards froze, spooked for no reason by the way she stared them down.

Everyone on Devil's Isle knew how things worked.

There was no law, no rights. It didn't matter if you were a prisoner or a guard. Your fists decided who would survive.

People might drop dead at any moment, any place.

But here the girl was, totally unfazed—like this whole death-trap of a place was just another day at the park for her.

"W-What kind of favor?" the two guards blurted out together, their voices shaky with tension.

Silence fell, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife.

The girl shot them a wicked, almost playful smile.

"Would you two do me a little favor and just go to hell?" she asked, sounding like it was the easiest thing in the world.

Her tone wasn't a request—it was a command wrapped in casual indifference, as if she expected them to obey without question.

Coming from her lips, the word "go to hell" sounded as ordinary as eating breakfast or catching some sleep.

The instant those words left her lips, both guards blanched in terror.

They scrambled to draw their guns, but the girl was already moving.

She was already ahead of them, her moves crisp and ruthless, like a predator toying with helpless prey.

In just one breath, she unlocked the cuffs she'd rigged beforehand.

Without missing a beat, she snatched them both by the neck—one in each hand—and smashed their skulls into the iron bars with bone-crushing force.

After two deafening bangs, both guards were dead before they even hit the ground.

The girl's smirk vanished, replaced by a chilling calm.

She snatched two Colt M1917 pistols from both the guards's corpses.

With a flick of her wrist, she spun the guns around her fingers as if born to it. In three seconds, she'd loaded them, and the slides snapped shut.

She turned on her heel and strode forward.

She was a professional mercenary, code name Bloodforge. Six months ago, Interpol tracked her down and shipped her off to Devil's Isle.

She'd never had a real family. She'd spent most of her life drifting solo, calling anywhere she landed home. Places didn't matter to her; she belonged to herself.

Come to think of it, staying on Devil's Isle might just suit her fine.

But then, everything changed.

Two days ago, she got a secret message smuggled in from the outside, and it turned her whole world upside down.

It all went down in a split second—the chaos erupted and ended faster than lightning.

The gunfight was finished before the first trigger could even be pulled.

Ray was completely floored—he never saw that coming.

He just couldn't believe it. 2366—a girl—was actually that terrifyingly strong.

Out of more than a thousand breakout attempts, only ten had ever managed to get this far.

Not a single soul had truly escaped this hellhole, not once. And that would never change—not a single soul would ever make it out here.

Ray was flat-out raging; fists clenched, he stormed toward Nova, eyes blazing, dead-set on taking her down himself.

He was hell-bent on personally dragging her back to her cell—no one else was getting in his way.

But before Ray could even take three steps forward, a sharp metallic click sliced through the air.

It was the unmistakable sound of a grenade pin being ripped free.

Ray's eyes went wide as something black came flying straight toward his face.

Instinct took over, and he ducked hard to the side.

It wasn't until after Ray dodged that the lightbulb went on—Nova had been playing him all along. He cursed, "Damn it."

But by then, it was way too late.

The grenade wasn't coming for him—it was rocketing straight at the gate.

Nova never wanted Ray dead. She was gunning for the exit—the only thing she cared about was blasting open Devil's Isle and busting out for good.

The blast rocked the prison—a jagged hole tore through the main gate of Devil's Isle, leading straight to the outside.

Ray, the biggest badass on Devil's Isle, knew every inch of this place, especially the main gate that sat high atop a sheer cliff. Beyond that door was nothing but endless ocean, stretching to infinity.

Once someone made it past that gate, there was absolutely no way left to chase them.

And sure enough, Ray watched as Nova stood just a short distance away, right before the main gate that now had a jagged tunnel blasted open by her grenade.

She'd already slipped into a survival suit, though Ray had no idea when she'd managed the change.

With endless darkness swirling behind her, Nova flashed Ray a victorious grin.

Without looking back, she dove headlong into the darkness.

In the blink of an eye, she was gone—her body swallowed by the endless waves.

As Nova made her escape, the last thing ringing in her ears was Ray's furious bellow echoing behind her.

He swore to himself, "2366, you're the first to ever break out of Devil's Isle. I swear, as long as you're alive, no matter where you hide, even to the ends of the earth, I'll hunt you down and drag you back."