to let go.
“Please. I really need a friend right now.”
The look on her face grows deeper, more emotional. And I swear, for almost a second, her eyes teared up.
Her lips part. She looks back and forth between me and the cameras. Then she sucks in a breath. “I’ll call Eli.”
Before I can ask her why, she’s already walked out and closed the door behind her.
I sigh. I wish I knew what it all meant. Why she’d ever want to work here.
How much money does he pay all those guards and all the staff to keep us locked here? How much money is worth the price of chaining someone’s soul?
Within minutes, the door opens again, but it’s not Mary who steps inside. It’s Eli.
“Mary told me you needed someone to talk to.” He clears his throat. “I’m listening.”
I clamp the bedpost and stare at him for a moment. “If you want me to be compliant, you have to give me something in return.”
A smile forms on his lips, and then he laughs. “Give me one good reason.”
“Because I’ll never stop,” I retort, looking him directly in the eyes. “I will never stop trying to escape this place, and I think you know that.”
His nostrils flare as his stance grows rigid. “What do you want?”
I swallow. “I want to see the other girls.”
His eyes close, and he scoffs. “There’s no way—”
“They’ll behave,” I interject. His face scrunches up in anger over my interruption, so I add, “I promise. We all will. I just want to talk with them.”
“To discuss plans,” he replies.
“No …” I take a step toward him, clutching my own fingers, desperate for a way into his heart. “Just to share our emotions. To talk about what we’ve experienced. To feel … something.” Tears well up in my eyes. “Please. I’m crumbling here. I don’t want to end up like Anna.”
He blinks slowly, his jaw tightening as he taps his foot.
“I only wish to get to know the others. Maybe I’ll learn something from them. Who knows, we might be able to help each other see … our sins?” I say.
His brow rises, and that same familiar smirk spreads on his face. “Well-played …”
“This isn’t a game,” I retort. “At least, not to me.”
“You’re right,” he says, taking in a deep breath as he paces. “It isn’t. And I won’t allow any of it to become one.”
I stay put as he continues to barge through the room, rubbing his forehead as though he’s thinking about it. I hope so.
Suddenly, he stops, his gaze falling onto me.
“Fifteen minutes. That’s it,” he says.
A breath of hope enters my lungs as I tread forward to get closer. “Thank you.”
“I wasn’t finished yet,” he barks, and I quickly take a step back again. “The room will be shut off completely. No exiting until I allow you to.”
I nod. I can agree to those terms.
“You know you will be locked inside with four other girls, right?” he says.
“I’m not afraid,” I say.
“You won’t be alone.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.” He takes a step in my direction. And another one. And the next, slowly but surely coming ever closer until he’s right in front of me. I swallow as he tips up my chin while towering over me. “Soren will watch over you. And if you do anything he doesn’t like …”
His finger slides up my chin, across my lip, and dips into my mouth, only to drag my own saliva across my chin again. His eyes bore into mine until my lips begin to quiver, and my skin feels cold to the touch.
“Well, I think you can imagine what he’ll do.”
Chapter 26
Amelia
When the doors to the common room open, I suck in a breath, my dress feeling uncomfortably tight even though I chose the least constrictive one. Four girls stand and sit scattered throughout the room—one on the lounge chair, one near the windows, one checking out the books on the shelf, and one pacing around the couch. But none of them is Anna.
I swallow hard as the doors behind me close. I glance over my shoulder, straight into the dirty dark eyes of Soren, his face still as unmoving as ever.
He glares at me without saying a word, and I return the favor.
Then I turn to face the ladies.
“Hey …” one of them, who wears her blond hair up in a bun, says.
I take in a deep breath and reply, “Hi.”
They all look at me like I’m supposed to know what’s going