to the bathroom, they took me up the stairs instead of delivering me back to my cage.
“Where are we going?” The question was on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it down.
They had been adding that pink glitter to my food for over a week now. I’d noticed that Yenric had stopped biting, instead he was standing quietly in his enclosure as Amira cleaned it the last time. He hadn’t even so much as snapped his teeth at her.
Since no one had caught on to my scheme of feeding him my porridge, I assumed Madame decided I’d reached the level of obedience she required for me to finally be “useful.” Therefore, I decided to say nothing, silently following the two up a concrete set of stairs.
“If you do what you’re told when you’re told to do it, you may get a chance.”
Radax’s warning came to mind. I was sure he meant I’d have a chance at survival. What I saw here, though, was the opportunity to find a way to get out of here. If I was allowed to move around freely, I should be able to figure out how to escape.
I decided to play along and pretend. Schooling my features into a neutral expression, void of thought or emotion, I followed my two guides into a large room upstairs.
The animal enclosures here were intricately constructed and decorated, definitely meant for public view during the day.
This room also had windows, though barred with grates. I hadn’t so much as glimpsed a sliver of sky for weeks now. Acting as if the view outside didn’t affect me proved nearly impossible. Using a moment when my guards’ backs were turned to me, I threw a furtive glance at the windows.
It was a dark night broken by multi-colored street lights, some of which came from carnival rides. We still were at a fair of sorts, one that appeared to be permanent with attractions housed in buildings rather than tents or trailers.
Staying in my role of someone drugged into mindless compliance, I quickly moved my gaze away from the windows, doing my best to pretend I had no interest in what was out there.
Trez handed me a mop and a bucket with cleaning supplies then pointed at one of the animal enclosures, ordering me to clean it.
I stepped over the glass barrier carefully then set my bucket down and started sweeping the floor. The space inside the enclosure was littered with large rocks. A pair of yellow eyes watched me from behind a pile of them, making my skin crawl with unease. But I kept working, imitating Amira’s purposeful way of doing things.
“We may as well change the sand in this one, now.” Trez took another bucket out of the broom cabinet in the corner. “We need to keep an eye on her, anyway.”
Ulg got a small shovel and a broom. The two of them started removing sand from another enclosure, dumping it into the bucket.
“What dull work that is,” Ulg complained. “I’d rather be hunting or trapping in Nerifir.”
“Nothing beats hunting,” Trez agreed. “I’d even do another hunt in this shitty world. The one in Paris was fun.”
Ulg suddenly broke into a hefty laugh. “Trapping men turned out to be not much different than trapping animals, didn’t it?”
“Exactly!” Trez snorted. “You just have to figure out what bait would work the best. A hired chick in a wig was all it took that time!”
“Paris.”
“Trapping men.”
Doing my best to pretend I didn’t care about their conversation, I fervently tried to figure out what they were talking about. Paris automatically connected with Zeph in my mind. I didn’t remember the faces of those who tried to surround Zeph and me in the courtyard that night. Could Trez or Ulg have been among them? Was Zeph the one being hunted, baited, and trapped? Had they been “hunting” more men out there?
My brain rapidly filling with questions, I was sweeping the dirt and dry excrement onto a dustpan. Distracted, I didn’t pay enough attention to the creature hiding behind those rocks, just a few feet away from me.
Suddenly, something colorful darted from that direction, bee-lining straight toward me. I screamed, startled, tripped over a rock and fell on my ass. The dust pan flew out of my hands, spewing the dirt and the creature’s poop all over the place.
The animal hissed at my foot. The colorful spikes on its flat, round body rose menacingly, the plume of purple feathers on its head swaying in the