Lorelei POV
My heart truly ached for her.
Knowing she had gone through all of that only to end up stuck here without even knowing whether her brother was still alive was heartbreaking.
"I’m sorry," I whispered.
She sniffled and shook her head.
"It’s fine. I’ve learned to live with it," she said softly. "What about you? What was your cri?"
"Cri?" I repeated, confused.
"Yeah. Why are you here?" she asked.
Oh.
So that was what she ant.
"Well, I..." I started, wanting to tell her the truth. That I had been kidnapped by rogues and sold here against my will.
But then I rembered what the handler had told .
I didn’t know her well enough yet.
I couldn’t be sure she wouldn’t report if I said the wrong thing.
"I’m an orphan from a small village," I said instead, repeating the story I had been given.
Her brows pulled together.
"That’s it?" she asked.
I hesitated.
Yeah, what else was I supposed to say?
For a mont, she looked like she wanted to ask more questions, but instead, she simply shrugged and held out her hand.
"I’m Skye, by the way."
I glanced down at her small, calloused hand before slowly reaching out and wrapping my bruised fingers around hers.
"Ella," I murmured.
The na felt strange coming out of my mouth.
But I supposed I had better start getting used to it.
*****
That night, I slept in my ruined clothes.
Or at least, I tried to.
After everything that had happened, I could barely call it sleep.
My body was exhausted, but my mind refused to stop replaying the crash, the rogues, Cole’s desperate howl, and even Raven’s kiss.
Every ti I closed my eyes, I saw yellow fangs.
Every ti I started drifting off, I heard Jaxen’s voice.
The mories chased through the night until I was suddenly jolted awake by Skye gently shaking my shoulder.
"Hey," she whispered, her face hovering above mine in the dim light. "It’s 4:40. We need to get ready for the morning shift."
I groaned as every muscle in my body scread in protest.
I felt like I had only closed my eyes five minutes ago.
Unfortunately, I didn’t exactly have a choice.
Reluctantly, I let Skye drag out of our shared room and down the corridor toward the bathroom at the end of the hall.
The bathroom consisted of a long row of shower stalls separated by thin plastic curtains, along with several sinks lined beneath cracked mirrors that looked like they had been there for decades.
Inside, there were three other won with towels wrapped around them.
"Hello," I greeted with a small wave.
But they only stared at for a mont with cold, unreadable expressions before turning back to what they were doing, leaving my hand to awkwardly fall back to my side.
"Don’t bother," Skye whispered as she nudged toward an empty sink. "Nobody makes friends here."
"Huh."
That was... new.
Back at ho, the maids were actually friendly with one another. It was only they excluded, which I understood was because of the curse.
I had honestly thought I might be lucky enough to have so kind of social life here now that I was Ella.
Apparently not.
With a quiet sigh, I stepped into one of the empty stalls and washed myself clean.
A few minutes later, I was dressed just like everyone else in a plain gray uniform that hung loosely on my fra.
By around 5:20 a.m., Skye and I, along with a dozen other girls, were making our way down the stairs toward the lower hall where breakfast was served.
The second I stepped inside, I picked up on the hushed whispers around .
"Her scent is weak."
That was one of the comnts that reached my ears, making my hands twitch slightly at my sides.
Great.
Now I was self-conscious.
Because of the suppression, my wolf was buried so deeply inside that I barely registered as a werewolf anymore.
To most packs, a scent that faint usually ant soone was sickly, broken, or practically human.
I kept my chin lowered and pretended the judgntal stares weren’t getting to .
We joined the others in line, and while we waited, I caught one of the girls whispering sothing that imdiately grabbed my attention.
"Isabelle escaped."
My ears practically perked up.
"Wait, really?" another girl gasped, her voice dropping into a frantic whisper. "How is that even possible?"
"She slipped past the periter guards during the midnight rotation," the first girl whispered back, glancing nervously toward the kitchen doors. "They’re searching for her right now, but honestly, I doubt they’ll find her."
Hope stirred inside my chest so suddenly it almost hurt.
Soone had escaped.
Which ant it was possible.
"Ah, she’s lucky," the other girl replied.
The conversation shifted almost imdiately after that.
But I wasn’t listening anymore.
The only thing echoing inside my head was the fact that soone had actually escaped this place.
Soone had done it.
Just like Raven had helped escape my family’s pack.
Until now, I hadn’t thought it was possible to break out of a fortress like this. The walls were high, the guards were everywhere, and everyone acted like this place was impossible to leave.
But if Isabelle had managed it, didn’t that an there was still hope for too?
For the first ti in weeks, sothing inside my chest stirred.
When it was finally our turn, we were handed a small bowl of watery oatal and a hard piece of stale bread.
I stared down at it and sighed.
I had never been particularly spoiled when it ca to food, but even I knew this looked miserable.
The second Skye and I settled into a corner away from the others, I imdiately leaned closer and told her what I had overheard.
Then I waited for her reaction.
Instead, she simply pressed her lips together.
"Don’t tell you’re thinking about escaping," she said.
I bit my lip.
Even though I had only been here a short ti, I already knew I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life as a maid in this place.
Just that one week with Raven had changed sothing inside .
For the first ti in my life, I had been treated with kindness.
For the first ti, freedom had actually felt within reach.
And now that I knew escape was possible, even if the odds were tiny, how was I supposed to stop thinking about it?
"Well..." I began carefully.
"Don’t," Skye cut in softly as she reached for her spoon.
The seriousness in her voice made blink.
"You’ve been stuck here for two years," I whispered, leaning farther across the table so nobody else could overhear us. "Your brother could still be alive out there. Don’t you want to find him?"
The second the words left my mouth, I knew I had said the wrong thing.
Her grip tightened around the spoon until her knuckles turned white.
A flash of pain crossed her face so quickly I almost missed it.
Then ca the anger.
She opened her mouth, clearly ready to say sothing, but before a single word could leave her lips, soone suddenly snatched her plate right off the table.
"Don’t tell you were planning on eating that."
A cruel, mocking female voice cut through the air above us.
"Or are you forgetting our deal?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers