up from the floor and hobbling to the door. Reaching up, she sucked in a breath at the stabbing pain the action caused. She forced herself to hold the stretch, despite the fact that spots dotted her vision. Her fingers explored the left edge of the doorframe, feeling for a small ledge hidden there. Holding her breath to combat the pain, Nova searched carefully for the key she knew was hidden there. The moment her fingers made contact, she couldn’t stop crying tears of relief. “Thank you, Jesus,” she whispered, kissing the twisted metal.
Neither Cruum nor Talis had known about the key. Although the twins locked her up when they were ordered, they’d left the key inside her closet just in case. It unlocked the two things keeping her inside her tiny prison—the chain locked to her collar and the door to the closet. The twins had explained that the last thing they’d wanted was for her to be trapped there if one of the fires within the brothel spread faster than they were able to extinguish it. It was a valid worry, considering the halls were lit with oil lamps that were more than a little dangerous. According to the twins, there were fires blazing all the time when someone got a little too rambunctious. Rowdy folks and oil lamps were apparently a risky combo, and it wasn’t as if this place was kept up to any sort of code, which meant the entire place was beyond flammable.
The key was there for use as a last resort—for all of their sakes.
Honestly, she’d never even contemplated using it before. The risk to the twins had been too great for her to ever turn her back on them by escaping without them. If it had been found out that they’d left her with a key, Cruum would have beaten all of them to death without a second thought.
Things are different, Nova realized. The twins were safely away from this hellhole, so she had nothing to lose. With them finally out of Cruum and Talis’s reach, it was now or never. If she stayed, there was no way she’d ever walk out of here. She knew that much for sure. Technically, she could barely walk now, but she wasn’t going to let that stop her.
Nova wasted no time in unlocking the chain connected to her collar before she moved to the door.
As the key turned, she took the moment to psyche herself up then turned the knob. If Talis had placed guards, game over, the jig would be up, and she’d be dead for sure. On the other hand, if there was nobody there then she was one door closer to freedom. Holding her breath, Nova pushed it open a crack, only enough to give herself the smallest view of the other side.
Peering through the sliver with her good eye—the one that hadn’t swollen shut—Nova let out a sigh of relief seeing the twins’ room empty, except for some discarded clothes and scarves scattered about the floor. The house slaves had shown up to scavenge the twins’ room soon after they’d left but had ended up splitting pretty quickly when Talis began beating her for no goddamn reason. It was only a guess as things were hazy, but slaves tended to scatter when Talis was flinging his whip around looking for a target. Everyone knew he was dangerous.
Limping across the room, she stopped for a moment to look at some of the pieces of clothing left behind. Most were see-through and would be more than a little tight on her curves, but they would call less attention than the bloodied tunic and trousers she wore. She knew she didn’t really have the time to try to finagle a disguise, but also recognized that leaving with what she had on right now would get her stopped within seconds.
With a quick executive decision made, Nova used a few minutes to work her way out of the stained tunic and trousers. She’d worn the same outfit since they’d taken her possessions, so she was more than happy to rid herself of the threadbare slave garb. The tunic was easy to rend in half due to the tears from Talis’s varied abuses, and she quickly wiggled the pants down.
Grabbing a handful of the scarves, she began wrapping them around her chest like she’d seen some of the prostitutes do. Instead of using one layer of the sheer material, however, she used as many as she could