the long day of exercise, massage, and skin treatments. The memory of a conversation she’d had with a therapist who worked at an elite spa in San Francisco flickered somewhere at the edge of her thoughts. You want to be careful with heat. Dehydration can set in very quickly, and it can be lethal.
A shadowy form materialized in the mist. It sent a fortifying jolt of panic through her. Lyra managed to push herself to her feet.
“Who’s there?” she called out, trying to sound firm and in control.
There was no answer. Lyra listened closely but she did not hear any footsteps. She collapsed back onto the bench. The steam chamber felt empty, she concluded. But more shadowy figures were appearing and disappearing in the fog. Ghosts?
She didn’t believe in ghosts.
The steam took on strange colors. The walls began to warp and bend.
Fear shivered through her. Dehydration can set in very quickly, and it can be lethal.
She had to get out. Now.
It took three tries to get up off the bench again and a surprising amount of effort to trudge back to the door. Every step drained her strength. The tiled walls spun faster. A heavy darkness tugged at her senses.
She could not afford to faint. She had heard stories of people dying in steam rooms.
She finally reached the door. She gripped the knob and twisted.
Nothing happened. The doorknob did not turn. She really was getting weak.
She tried again, using both hands this time. The door did not budge. It dawned on her that it was locked.
Fear spiked again, giving her a rush of panicky energy. She used a corner of the towel to wipe the steam off the window set into the upper portion of the door and peered into the dressing room. There was no one in sight. The attendant who had shown her into the steam chamber was gone. There were no other clients; no one to unlock the door.
Someone had made a terrible mistake. The attendant had closed the steam chamber for the day without bothering to make sure the last client was out.
Lyra raised a hand and pounded on the door.
“Help. I’m in here. Open the door.”
There was no response.
She turned slowly, trying to focus on her surroundings. There was no other door. The only way out of the chamber was through the dressing room.
She yanked off the terry cloth turban and pulled it on over one hand. She summoned everything she had and smashed her covered fist into the glass pane in the door.
The glass cracked. Several shards fell out. Cool air wafted through the opening. She took a couple of deep breaths and struck another blow. She was still feeling light-headed, but the panic eased. She had a way out.
She used her turban-covered fist to knock the remaining bits of jagged glass out of the frame. When it was empty she leaned through the opening and groped for the doorknob. The key was not in the lock.
There was no help for it; she was going to have to wriggle through the door’s now-empty window frame. It was large enough, but it was at least four feet from the floor. She needed to elevate herself so that she would have the leverage required to scramble through the frame.
She took another deep breath of the unsaturated air on the other side of the door and staggered back across the steam chamber. She grabbed the arm of one of the wooden benches and hauled it across the floor. The damn thing was heavier than she had expected. It didn’t help that she was still feeling the weight of the strange exhaustion that had settled into her bones.
When the bench was finally in position she unwrapped the large towel she was wearing and flung it over the bottom of the door frame.
Stark naked now, she stepped up onto the bench and half dove, half fell into the dressing room.
She landed awkwardly and lay quietly for a moment, waiting for her pulse to slow down. It didn’t.
Dehydration can be lethal.
She had to move. She had to get some water. There were several stall showers at the far end of the room.
Slowly she staggered past the rows of lockers to the front door. It was locked, too. There was no window in it. Well, of course there isn’t, she thought. It was the door to a dressing room, after all.
Great. Another problem. But at least she could breathe now. Most of the heavy air in the steam room was still