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Ruth holds the soap close to her bare stomach as we gawk at the black water, only a brief flicker of moonlight drifting over the ripples.
“If we go in quick, we’ll hardly feel the shock,” Ruth says.
And we go in, wading through the ice water, squishing the mushy bottom with our toes. We hiss as the chilled spring covers our stomachs and then our breasts. It’s like being in Absinthe’s ice bath, except—not horrible. I’m choosing to be here. I’m glad to be out in the open, kissed by the cool night’s breeze.
“They hurt you?” she asks, lathering soap and water in her small hands.
I throw her a quick glance with my swollen eyes and bruised cheeks.
“What about you?”
She shrugs. “No, actually. I wasn’t the one they wanted.”
At that I’m surprised. I try to hide the shock from my face but fail. I wasn’t the one they wanted either. They wanted Dessin. They tortured me to get to him, yes, but why wouldn’t they do that to Ruth? I’m relieved, of course. But their tactics just don’t make any sense.
Ruth touches my head with fingers ready to clean, but I wince, unable to protect her from seeing my reaction. She lowers her gaze and takes a deep breath. “May I?” she asks.
I nod. It seems to be when I’m caught off guard that the contact shocks me. She begins making big shiny bubbles in my hair, gently cleansing my scalp. I massage the soap down my chest and arms.
“I was mad at you, y’know,” she says.
“Me? Why?”
“You left me. You didn’t say a word. You didn’t try and get a message to me. You just left the asylum in shambles. It was bizarre. I figured… I must have not really been your friend if that was the case.”
I sigh, hanging my head. “Ruth, you have to know I’d never—”
“I know now.” She sighs, leaning my head back to rinse my hair. “I didn’t realize what was really going on. That you two were fugitives, running for your lives. The asylum concocted all sorts of lies about you. That you ran off with your patient because you two were madly in love. That you were just as sick as he was.”
Oh, goodness. They really didn’t like me there.
“I mean, unless the in-love part is also true, then this would make a little bit more sense.” A subtle smile creeps into her voice.
I groan. “No, it all happened so fast. I wanted to save his life. He was going to be executed.” Demechnef came for him. There was no warning when they swarmed his room. “We had to act fast.”
“So, there’s nothing romantic going on at all?”
I wince as a pathetic, dopey smile tugs at my throbbing cheeks.
Ruth’s doe eyes widen, matching my sloppy expression of tickled-pink giddiness.
“Oh my god, is there?”
“No. Yes. I don’t know. It’s strange. Things have happened, but Kane told me he didn’t feel that way about me.” Ugh, the kiss. I hate thinking about what came after it.
“He’s definitely lying.” Her face twists with suspicion.
What? “How do you know?!”
She looks behind her to make sure no one is listening, then proceeds to scrub me down gently, cleaning the grime and blood from my pruning body.
“Skylenna, that man doesn’t look at you like a friend…” She leans in closer, cupping her hands around my ear. “To me, it looks like you’re the world, and he’s the moon that revolves around you. When we were all laughing at Niles, Kane was smiling because you looked happy. It’s like that’s his only goal.”
I nudge her. “I think you’ve been spending too much time with Niles.” But a swarm of fluttering birds takes flight in my soul.
She chuckles. “That may be true, but a woman knows that look. Trust me.”
If she’s right, then why would he lie to me? My feelings for him have grown stronger every day since I met him. It’s like our bodies can’t hide the chemistry. But he is trying to with his words.
