A wall of glass, bright, even though it’s tinted… the inner caldera looks like an enormous shattered peak. Like the broken top of Mount Saint Helens.
This one makes my skin crawl with a different sensation.
Jess has told meallabout the monsters they hunt. And even if she’s not worried about them… they absolutely terrify me.
“We won’t let anything hurt you.” Arc puts a supportive hand on my back before I realize I was leaning away from the window.
Exhaling, I push those thoughts right out of my mind and try to focus on the task at hand.
My muscles feel heavy. Not so bad that Icouldn’twalk, but even with socks, looking down at the bare floor… knowing it’s going to be freezing cold…
Maybe being around someone who can hear your thoughts isn’t so bad. Arc doesn’t ask me if I want to try standing, he just scoops me up.
He’s not warm, but he’s not as cold as the floor would be.
“Thanks,” I say, even if he doesn’t actually need me to say it.
The others watch as he carries me—a second blanket dangling beneath me—to a dark doorway.
No windows here, but a light flicks on as soon as he crosses the threshold, and that other blanket drops to the floor before he gently lowers my feet onto it.
I wobble a little in his grip as I test out my disused muscles.
They work well enough, which means I haven’t been out of it fortoolong.
“You good?” he asks, hand still gripping mine tight.
“I’m not going to be running laps for a while, but I can manage in here.”
Nodding, he leaves me alone, and I take in a cold breath of air.
It’s a standard Isia bathroom, and I shimmy the blanket across the floor so I don’t have to lose that extra layer.
When I’m done, I’m grateful that the sink’s hot water stings at my hands.
There’s a bathtub in the corner, and Laurel has told me the water won’t ever get cold… I am definitely going to find out if she’s right.
Later.
Ignoring the mirror in front of me doesn’t do me any good, and when I finally glance at my reflection, I look… like I’ve been through it.
I’m translucent—because I’m cold—and it makes the shadow of a bruise on my left cheek stand out even more.
My hair is snarled, and there’s a pale green mesh near my hairline with the dark line of a cut beneath it.
I glance at the door, but they aren’t going to barge in on me… and when I let the blanket around my shoulders drop and peel my leotard down, there are more bruises beneath my patchwork of tattoos. Purple and blue and green beneath the black ink.
I do remember getting hit by something. I’d thought it was a car in the brief initial moment.
I certainlylooklike I was run over.
Gingerly putting myself together and wrapping myself up again, I shimmy back to the doorway.
I hold my arms up like a little kid asking for uppies, and Arc doesn’t disappoint. Until he puts me back in the bed and doesn’tkeepholding on to me.
His lips twitch, and I wonder how much of that disappointment he got from my thoughts.
“Most of it. But you need to rest.” He looks at the others. “Shock can stay with you if you like.”
