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"I don't know," she says.
"He...he grabbed her and threw her on the floor," Iris adds. "He just started kicking her..."
"She's lucky she's alive," Ruby breathes.
"She's lucky you all intervened," I say. "As long as that motherfucker is around, we need to watch each other's backs.
I look back at Lark. "Do you think you can stand? If I can get you to my room, I have some first aid supplies stashed away."
Lark nods, biting her lip as she attempts to stand. Ruby and I each grab a hand and help her to her feet, and together we walk down the narrow halls that lead to our bunks.
This is where the glitz and glamor of Dreamland disappears--where the neon lights don't reach, where all we can see is the sprawling city through one window and the endless, polluted ocean through the other. The walls are crumbling here, the doors splintered where the bouncers used to kick their way through before we started standing up for ourselves. Glitter is ground into the floor, but it's lost its sheen after years of overuse and being stepped on.
Just like us.
When we get to my room, Lark sits on the edge of my bed, her body tense with pain. I'm rushing around the room, gathering supplies, and Ruby is pacing in front of my door, looking like she might erupt into tears at any second.
"You can't dance tonight," I say, my hand cutting the air between us. "You have to listen to me; you can't go out there again until you're healed. We'll tell Eddy something--that you were sick. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you need time to heal."
"I'm fine," Lark insists. "I'll just cover it with makeup..."
"You're not fine," I snap. "If you broke anything, dancing will just make it worse."
I look up at Ruby, who has to be thinking the same thing I am.
"We have to tell Eddy," Ruby whispers.
"Don't," Lark says.
"I'll take the heat," I murmur, standing up. "If we watch each other's backs, that asshole Diesel can't touch us."
"But what if..."
"No what if's," I say. "We have to stick together and take care of each other. It's the only way to survive Dreamland...all the girls who came before know that."
Lark reaches out to stop me, but she winces and falls back to the pillows. Ruby goes right to her, and I move past the other girl, finding Iris and Joy on the other side of the door.
"I'm talking to Eddy," I say. "You all stay here...and if you need it, there's a knife under the mattress."
Iris' eyes widen.
"We're getting rid of Diesel," I mutter.
I turn right and walk the rest of the way past the bunks, then I make my way into the stairwell. There's always a guard here, and I brace myself to make an excuse--
--but I find my greatest ally at the club.
Oberon, an Eclipse enforcer, is standing with his hands clasped in front of him. He's a huge man, a disciplined alpha covered in tattoos, an eclipsed sun inked on his neck to show his allegiance. I stop in my tracks and look up at him, meeting his green eyes, and he frowns as he looks down at me.
"Star...I thought you were supposed to be onstage," he says.
"I just finished my first number," I say, my jaw tense. "I need to talk to Eddy."
"Asking for a favor?" he asks.
"Taking out the trash," I mutter, pitching my voice low. "Oberon, I don't want you implicated too..."
He reaches out to grasp my shoulder. "Who was it?"
