They shove me inside, still naked beneath the burning shroud. The door seals, and I can no longer hear anyone.
“Confess,” the cage demands in a shockingly loud, emotionless female voice.
“I struck Rae in the canteen,” I say.
“Repent,” it says.
“No.”
A shock rips through me that sends me sprawling to the transparent floor.
“Repent.”
“No.” My voice cracks.
The shocks intensify until I can barely breathe. My whole body writhes, pinned by the cruel currents. I even lose control of my bowels and vomit, but I don’t care. I can see Rae, her throat still banded by the collar, staring at me wide-eyed. Her punishment is easy and already done. And I hate her even more.
I will never repent.
The cage answers my defiant thought with a final surge that makes me wonder if I died. My vision sparks white, and for a split second, I think I’ve gone blind. I lie sprawled in the transparent prison with my body twitching with painful aftershocks.
Suddenly the cage rises back into the ceiling with a hiss, leaving me collapsed on the floor before the Sovereigns. The shroud is strippedaway. Cohort soldiers seize my arms and haul me upright. My head lolls, but I force myself to lift my chin.
“She refused repentance,” one guard reports.
“Then she is unrepentant,” Rafe says. “But her penance is complete. Return her to her place.”
A ripple of murmurs passes through the hall. Staff know what that means; I endured the full force of the cage and still refused to break.
I feel proud.
The Cohort awkwardly puts my clothing on my soiled body and drags me back toward the receptionists’ tier. My legs can barely hold me, but I keep my gaze forward.
As I sink into my seat beside Lira and put my head on the table, making my plate hit my empty glass, I hear her whisper, “You’re mad. You’re absolutely mad.”
Maybe I am?But I needed to do this for myself.To channel my anger and frustration about everything I’ve seen and done.
The room swims and my body aches from the cage, every nerve still raw from its shocks. I’m trembling and drenched in sweat, but at least I’m seated again, hidden among the receptionists.
It’s over, and I survived.
Only then does it settle in—Rae is watching. Waiting for me to fold.
She can stare at me for the rest of the night. I will not be beaten by her.
Then, my name is spoken again.
“Eve Eden. Stand,” Rafe says.
For a second, I don’t believe it. I think my mind has slipped into a dream, and that the echoes of pain I just suffered are making me hear things that aren’t real.
Lira grips my arm under the table, whispering, “Eve, you have to stand up.”
Slowly, unwillingly, I rise.
Rafe says, “The human employee has committed not one violation, but two. She has broken staff decorum with violence. And she has defiled herself in the forbidden act of the Eclipse Kiss.”
My knees nearly give way. The Eclipse Kiss.God help me—how could he know?I feel the heat of shame climb up my throat. Not only does he know, but he is going to make me pay for it. Here. Now. In front of everyone. And this punishment may actually kill me.
