“Will you sing it to me?”
He didn’t answer, just continued playing with her hair. His humming turned deeper, and Seraphina felt herself drift to sleep. She was halfway unconscious when she heard him sing softly, his low, baritone voice vibrating through her very being, soothing the cramps in her belly.
“As frantic days descend, mute nights draw nigh.
Souls turn to stone while statues awaken,
From here to beyond, ice paths forsaken.
And devils void of hell, Lords void of sky.”
He paused, then repeated a variation of the last line.
“Oh, demons void of hell, Gods void of sky…
Mmm, demons void of hell, Gods void of sky…”
Chapter Nine
Men didn’t have the energy to scream anymore.
Seraphina woke up in the late hours of the evening. Her muscles were stiff, and to move meant to hurt, but she was warm. It might’ve been from Rune’s proximity as he lay beside her, his body within an inch from hers, or from the menstrual cramps that were making her sweat. He’d stopped playing with her hair, his big hand gently resting on her shoulder. Through the thin fabric of her dress, she could feel his palm was hot, as if he were generating his own heat regardless of how frigid the air was.
“Are you hungry? The guards brought dinner.”
Knowing the ruckus they made every time they did their rounds, she was shocked she hadn’t woken up. Or maybe she had and couldn’t remember. The chaos of the prison had become so familiar to her, almost normal, that it didn’t affect her like it had during her first days here. It was a bitter thought... To realize that she was part of this place now, and the prison didn’t feel like a temporary setback in her life anymore, but more like an inescapable condition.
“If I eat, I’ll throw up,” she said.
“A sip of water, then?”
“All right.”
Her lips were dry, her throat like sandpaper. She waited for Rune to sit up and move away before she pushed herself to her knees and combed her fingers through her hair, pulling it over her face. She felt a gush between her thighs, which made her wince and feel thoroughly disgusted with herself.
Being a woman was, for the most part, unbearable. The regular pain and bleeding, and then the contempt society showed toward all of it, as if it was the woman’s fault her body functioned the way it did. Menstruation was considered dirty,but when she didn’t bleed, the woman was seen as desirable by men, especially if she was a maiden. Pregnancy made her undesirable again, a whale no one wanted to touch, and birth was something no man wanted to hear about or witness.
Rune pushed a cup of water into her hands, and she wrapped her fingers around it. He’d promised her not to look at her face so many times that she’d lost count. She trusted him but still made sure her face was turned away from him. The water was relatively clean and soothed her as it slid down her throat.
“I have to change,” she murmured. “Wash the...”
“Of course. I’ll just...” He crawled away from her, facing a corner of the cell and curling within himself. “Take your time.”
Her chest tightened. She felt so damn guilty that he had to make himself small for her comfort. She moved quickly, replacing the cloths that were soaked through with clean ones, and using a bit of water to wash most of the blood. Her only option was to lay the wet cloths on the edge of the cot and hope they would dry at some point. It was more likely they would freeze, though, and stay wet.
“I’m done,” she announced.
Rune didn’t move. She could hear him scratching on the wall again, probably writing poetry with his rusty nail.
“I think you should get out of here,” he said.
“What?”
“Hartmann won’t stop until you’re dead, and he’ll make sure that happens before your trial.”
She chuckled bitterly. “Not that I don’t agree with you, but... how?”
“I’m strong. I can break the lock, or the door, and clear the way for you.”
