As that offending finger came back to prod me again, I reached my hand out, quick as a cat, and caught it midair.
“Ow, leggo.”
I squeezed once before compiling.
“Then stop poking me,” I mumbled.
“Who are you? Where are we?” the voice asked, and I cracked one eye open.
Through the dim lighting on the walls, I could just make out the figure of a woman. She was tall and skinny, with wild black curls and light-brown skin. Her body was turned toward the wall that divided my cell from hers, completely unabashed in her nakedness.
My eyes unbiddenly traced her barely there curves, noting her small breasts and hips. Either she had small tits, or she was young.
“Who areyou?” I fired back at her.
“Faylinn,” she whispered, clearly not wanting to disturb the others. “I tried to wake the girl on the other side of my . . . cage, but I’m pretty sure she’s dead.”
The way she deadpanned the statement had me thinking this girl had seen and experienced more than she should have in her life.
I pushed my hands against the mattress to raise my torso slightly, just enough to see past Faylinn’s shoulder. I squinted in the dark, looking to see the rise and fall of the other girl’s chest, but saw nothing.
I lay back down, moving my back and head against the straw in an effort to get comfortable before folding my hands against my chest.
“Looks like it,” I replied.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her brows furrow in confusion.
“You’re not . . . concerned?” she asked, chewing on her lower lip while she fiddled with the straw of her own mattress.
I simply shrugged, the motion pulling at my half-healed incisions.
“Not really in a space to care,” I admitted.
She hummed, a silence that wasn’t altogether uncomfortable falling between us.
“What’s your name?” she asked again.
I paused for a moment, debating telling her, but ultimately deciding thatoneconnection in this place wouldn’t destroy me.
It might actually help. Both of us.
“Lex,” I said to the ceiling.
“Pleasure to meet you, Lex. How old are you? I just turned eighteen. My . . . parents,” she halted over the word, “brought me here on my birthday.”
I turned my head toward her at that confession.
“Your parentsbroughtyou here?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
Faylinn shrugged her shoulders.
“Don’t ask me. They didn’t reveal their reasoning before they unceremoniously dumped me at the doorstep of the Academy.”
“So, you have a Pleasure affinity?” I asked, suddenly curious.
