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“Where were ya?” she asked around a yawn.
“Washing my face…”
Her eyes narrowed, the glow of a tableside lamp making them appear cat-like. “And getting dicked down, by any chance?”
“Really? Do I look like that’s what was I doing?” I spread my arms out to the side.
“You’re right, with the ‘wreck my pussy’ vibes you’ve been giving off, you wouldn’t be walking straight.”
I covered my mouth to smother a laugh. “I seriously cannot with you sometimes. How do you even know Ciaran was with me?” I crept closer, stepping over Abby.
“Because I know you… and I can smell his cologne. Also, your lips are swollen.”
“I need to talk to you and Gracelyn about that.”
“…Okay?” She gave me a quizzical look.
“I’m not talking about getting dick,” I hissed. “He knows my last name.”
That got her full attention, causing her to sit up taller. “How?”
I climbed up onto the king-sized bed and sat beside her. “I don’t know. He said he knows what this means, too.” I fingered the chain of my necklace.
“Did he hurt you?” She was already shoving the comforter back.
I bit back another laugh and grabbed her wrist. “I’d have hurt him more, you know that. All he did was fuck with my head and make me wet.”
“Oh, he’s absolute trash then.”
“Who’s trash?” Grace grumbled, rolling over to look at the two of us.
“Cici knows her last name,” Mel divulged. “And he didn’t make her come.”
I ignored the last part of that. “What’d you call him?”
“Cici, why?”
“Nothing…” I shook my head. “He said he was the reason I’d survive. What do you think that means?”
“He could be from one of the founding families,” Gracelyn suggested, her voice still groggy. “We know we’re all stuck in here for a reason.”
“That wouldn’t be all that surprising,” Mel agreed, tucking a violet strand of hair behind her ear.
“I’d be more surprised if it wasn’t some rando sick fuck our parents pissed off behind all of this.”
“Yeah, that list is pretty endless,” I mused. I wondered why I hadn’t considered that, him being from a different family. It made a fuck-ton of sense. From the way he spoke to his personality to his overall demented, albeit sexy, demeanor. That didn’t tell me how he knew who I was, though. It only made me equally suspicious and even more curious about him.
“Did you ask what his name was?”
“More or less. He wouldn’t say.”
“Figures,” she sighed. “If he’s from one of the families then they all would be, which means we really can’t trust them. Since he knows your name, I’m sure they know ours.”
“Yeah, and that could go either way. Not all of the families get along,” Gracelyn pointed out.
“Even if we are all in here because someone wants to wipe us out, their families could hate ours as well. This will become a giant bloody mess if we have to start offing each other,” she pouted. “I wanted a vacation, not a round-trip ticket to the modern-day Battle Royale.”
What an understatement all that was—true, too. Some of the families were still waging bloodshed and carnage on one another as we sat trapped in this hellish city. I gnawed the inside of my lower lip, tracing over the sore spot with the tip of my tongue.
“There’s our link,” I mumbled more to myself than them.
A soft rasp on the door interrupted our conversation. Charon poked his head in, grinning at three of us. “Hello, sleeping beauties.”
“Did you need something?” Mel asked.
“There’s twenty minutes left on the clock. Get them up and come to the map.”
Once he disappeared, the three of us shared a look. “Twenty minutes,” Grace repeated softly.
“Are you guys ready for this?”
“Do we have a choice?” Mel replied.
I swung my legs over the side of the bed and moved to wake Selena.
Dressed in our regular clothes, we gathered around the interactive map.
The moment I’d stepped into the room, I found Ciaran almost immediately, as if our gazes were magnetic. He was standing with Maverick, Kyrous, Charon, and Leonard.
His eyes briefly went to my lips.
“Where do we go next?” Margo asked, sounding determined. “The quicker we get through this, the faster I can find Susan.”
That explained that.
“It’s numbered now. We have to follow the X’s from one to five,” Ciaran said, pointing to the marked path.
Each X marked a new location. First up was Beleth Pass. I looked at the timer, watching it get lower and lower.
“Should we wait closer to the door in case we have to run again?” Abby asked. “My feet have blisters.”
“I personally think we should stay right here in case someone’s waiting on the other side.”
“Then they could come right in here and get us,” she argued.
“Some of us are worse off than others,” Ciaran stated.
Leonard shook his head, brushing invisible lint off his blazer.
Abby’s face scrunched up. “You are the biggest asshole I’ve ever met.”
