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I didn’t doubt it. Her face was paler than usual. “Let me see if I can get you a glass of water.”
She nodded with her hand pressed to her mouth.
On the left side of the room, a rectangle hole had been cut out. No door, only a tall opening that led to a dark and dirty bathroom. In the corner was a shower with no curtain. The metal fixtures were rusted and the tile floor looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years. Next to it was a single toilet with a closed lid. I didn’t even want to look inside to see what horrors lay beneath. And on the wall was a white ceramic sink with a murky mirror above it.
There was also a cabinet, and when I peered inside, I found a handful of raggedy towels, washcloths, half-empty bottles of soap, a couple of toothbrushes, and a few other simple hygienic items. Miraculously, there was also a small cup, just large enough to rinse your mouth after brushing, but it would have to do.
I turned the faucet on, and the water came out crystal clear. I almost moaned in relief. The stream was slow, so I waited with the cup held under the faucet, watching Emilie in the mirror.
She was laying down, curled in a ball. It was hard to assess her pain levels. How much was she letting me see, and how much was she trying to hide? She wiped a shaky hand over her brow and sighed.
I didn’t want to watch anymore. I was still furious that she’d been invited to travel with us. She had no one to blame but herself for the predicament she was in.
No, I didn’t believe that.
It’s true she would’ve been safe right now if she hadn’t come with us, but the blame should lie solely with Reyna. Heinous bitch.
I pinched the bridge of my nose as I shut the faucet off.
What were we going to do?
The one thing that gave me hope was knowing Cyrus had made it out. I hoped he’d made it home safely and had gotten messages to the other outposts. He could round up our troops and storm Murvort. Even if he thought Emilie and I were dead, he would surely retaliate. Right?
I wasn’t entirely sure where Reyna had taken us, but I assumed we were beneath her castle in the mountains. The black walls appeared to be made of the natural stone of the Murvort mountain ranges.
Emilie straightened as I knelt down beside the bed. I pressed the cup into her trembling hands. “Here.”
She drank with caution, barely making a dent in the glass I’d poured for her. “Thank you. Are you…are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said without giving it any consideration. I didn’t have any other options but to be fine. Someone needed to keep it together and make sure we made it out of here alive.
Emilie sighed and placed the cup next to the bed. She settled in, crossing her arms over her stomach again.
“How much pain are you in?”
“I’ll be okay.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Her eyes fluttered closed. “Maybe an eight out of ten? I don’t know. I feel like my insides are disintegrating, but it comes in waves.”
Eight out of ten? She sure was handling it well. “Try to get some sleep.”
She opened her eyes and stared at me. “What are you going to do?”
I shook my head. What was there to do? We were locked in a tiny cube with the bare necessities. I could shower, but I didn’t have any clean clothes, so the thought of putting dirty clothes back on prevented me from doing so.
I sat, my knees drawn in and my back pressed against the damp wall. Everything felt damp and dismal here. “I’ll be sitting here.”
She seemed to hesitate for a moment. Then she slid till her back was pressed against the wall. “There’s enough room for both of us.”
I looked at the tiny mattress. She was already taking up half of it and she was much smaller than I was. There was no way we would both fit without touching.
“I’ll pass.”
Emilie rolled her eyes and then rolled over so her back faced me. “Suit yourself,” she mumbled.
I leaned my head back and closed my eyes, but I doubted I’d be getting any sleep. Water continued to drip into the metal bucket. Already, my muscles felt stiff from the day’s travel, from the battle at Fort Malek, and then from Reyna’s nightmarish hedge maze.
