Wings of the Walker - CoraLee June Page 0,172

smile.

I walked through the threshold as Dominique watched his retreating back. There was a sadness in the way her smile dipped once he was out of sight. She slammed the door shut and began pacing the room.

"Shall I set the table?" I asked nervously, still unsure what Cavil had planned for me.

"We won't be eating in the dining room today," she replied in a faraway voice while continuing to walk from one side of the kitchen to the other.

"Are you going out, then? Should I make preparations?"

"We're going to the ivory room." Dominique's voice was shaky with emotion as she leaned against the countertops.

"What’s the ivory room? Isn’t that for Companions?"

"You'll have to find out for yourself. Get ready. I put a dress for you in the bathroom. Wear the red lipstick, or your punishment will be worse."

"I'm not—" I began, but she cut me off.

"You're to be whatever Cavil wants you to be. If you want to live, if you want your friends to live, you'll do as I say. Don't let him see you cry."

I swallowed down bile as it burned my throat and walked towards the bathroom. I wanted to question Dominique further but knew when to accept my fate.

Inside, hanging on the washroom door, was a long, white dress. It was soft to the touch and felt smooth on my skin. It tied around my neck and dipped low, showing off my cleavage and some of my stomach.

Although the dress was far more revealing than I would normally wear, it wasn't what broke me. It was the red lipstick. The crimson enigma marking me as a Companion was a pill too hard to swallow. It represented the manipulations Mistress Stonewell used daily to remind me how lucky I was—how thankful I should be that I didn't have to sell my body like so many other Walkers. Despite the bright shade, it was dark. Dismal. It had all the bad things of this empire wrapped up into a tiny tube.

I refused to look at myself in the mirror as I applied it. My fingers trembled when I considered what Cavill had in store for me. Surely the guys wouldn't let him do anything. Surely we'd find a way. I looked at my fetter, reminding me just how powerless I was and shivered. Somehow, someway, I'd need to get out of here and get back to my freedom in Dormas and never take it for granted again.

When I emerged from the bathroom, Dominique wore a conflicted expression as she appraised me. "You look beautiful," she said with a frown.

She, too, wore a white dress similar to mine, except it cut off at the knee and had a slit going up so high you could see her hip bone when she walked.

"Am I wrong for enjoying seeing you like me?"

Her question caught me off guard. I barely knew this woman, and already she was spilling her secrets as if she couldn't contain the pain of them anymore.

"Why do you ask?"

Dominique paused while biting her lip. "Come along. We have games to play. ”

The ivory room was hard to find, and without Dominique's all-knowing guidance, I surely would have gotten lost.

"You mustn't react. Do not say anything. Keep your eyes on the floor. Whatever Cavil asks of you, do it. And if you leave here alive, you should count yourself lucky," she advised.

I sucked in a deep breath as we walked, the sounds of her bright red heels reverberating off the tile.

"There are worse things than death, Dominique," I said softly, and she halted in her steps. For a brief moment, she turned to look at me. Shiny tears filled her eyes before she blinked away the glassy emotion and slipped back into her rigid state of uncaring.

She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but shut it again. The sound of women's laughter filled the hallways, making us both jump from the break in tension. She continued to walk, and I followed her until we found ourselves inside the ivory room.

Each piece of furniture was white. The walls, the tile. Not one speck of color marred the large space. At first, I was so taken aback by the colorless, bright room that I almost didn't see them, but my chest hurt once my eyes connected with my men. On the overstuffed couches, they sat, each of them wearing white suits while eating off gold platters. Red lipstick-wearing Walker Companions sat all around them.

Dominique warned me not