“Is that it for tonight?” I asked, my voice weak and breathy.
“No.” He disappeared into the bedroom.
The closet door swung to close me inside.
Fabric rustled outside the door. “Take off those clothes.”
What? Now?
My stomach filled with lead. Was this what he meant byobvious?
My shaking, hesitant hands moved to the waist of my leggings, pushing them down my legs. I left them in a pile on the carpeted floor. Same with my shirt. I paused at my underwear.
The closet door swung open again to allow his hand entry. He threw some black fabric onto the ground. “Wear that.”
The door clicked shut.
I stared at the clothes he’d given me. Men’s clothes.Hisclothes, judging by that weird incense smell.
Not the clothes he’d been wearing. No, these were…sweats?
I seized the pants and pulled them on, then grabbed the shirt.
It was a hoodie.
A fucking hoodie!
Engulfed by the infuriating sense of being managed, I tamped down the impulse to rage-scream. When I opened the door again, his eyes scanned my outfit. “Nowthatis a beautiful sight. I can barely tell you’re human under all that.”
Was thatsarcasm?
“You seriously want me to wear this?”
“I want you to avoid attention. Hide yourself, Sophia. It’s the only way to survive.”
Was that what he was doing? Hiding? Surviving?
Either way, the grave glint in his eye twisted inside me. We both knew too well the horror that would become of me if I were captured. All at once, my head filled with the memory of Daniela’s screams.
Panic clawed up my throat. An iron band tightened around my chest.
No! I couldn’t have an attack here. Not now.
Breathe!
My ribs expanded, yet my body screamed at me for more oxygen. My chest hitched. I turned from him as my vision darkened. I tried to shove it away, but the memory stabbed at me with all the subtlety of a combat knife.
Her scream splits the air.
Alarmed, I try to stand, but my injured leg protests. Mahmoud darts to the window, using one finger to slide a curtain to the side. He swears under his breath.
“What is it?” I whisper, cursing the throb in my leg. We were raiding an abandoned neighborhood for supplies when the rotten stairs in this old home gave way beneath me. Daniela had been trying to get help. She was out there for me.
Because I am fucking clumsy.
“Hunters caught her a few houses down,” Mahmoud says.
“No, go help her!”
