I tucked the blaster into the back of my pants as I loaded up on supplies. Now all I needed was to find something to clean the wound. I had a bad feeling that the spoons they’d given us in the prison hadn’t been the cleanest, which meant that Kolt’s cut might be infected. It would explain why he’d fainted, although I suspected that was mostly from blood loss since the Vandar clearly cut himself deeper than he’d intended.
I closed the closet door and noticed a door on the other side of the dressing room. Was this the door Athena had meant? I opened it and breathed a sigh of relief. I’d found the bathroom, which meant the actress hadn’t lied to us.
I left the door open as I stepped inside, but I used one hand to grope along the wall for the lights. Once I found a panel, I held my breath and pressed it. The small room instantly illuminated, and I cringed from the glare after being in the dark.
Blinking a few times, I bustled to the cabinet next to the sink. I laid my supplies in the washbasin while I opened first one drawer and then the other, almost weeping with relief when I found a bottle of astringent. It might be what the actresses used to strip off their heavy stage makeup, but I suspected it would also do the job of disinfecting a cut. Itwisted off the cap and inhaled, flinching from the sharp smell.
Yep. That would do it.
Replacing the cap on the bottle, I closed the drawer and eyed my haul. Time to get back to Kolt and do my best impression of a medic. I scooped it all up into my arms and headed out, using my elbow to tap the panel and extinguish the lights.
Once I was plunged back into darkness, I took a few moments to let my eyes adjust and get my bearings. The last thing I needed to do was bump into walls and drop supplies from my unwieldy pile. When I could make out faint shapes and locate the walls, I started forward, shuffling my feet to feel for the doorway of the dressing room.
I found it and picked up my pace as I headed for the rack of dresses that hid the secret door. I didn’t think I could squeeze behind it with my full arms, so I used one foot to pull it out. The metal legs scraped against the floor, and I cringed at the sound, my arms bobbling and knocking a roll of tape to the floor. The smack it made on the floor was louder than I’d expected, and I held my breath. There might be no one in the theatre, but the last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to our hiding spot.
Cursing under my breath, I did a deep knee bend without tipping at the waist and dumping everything else on the floor. Once I’d snagged the tape from the floor, I stood again and slipped behind the rack. I turned and used my backside to slide open the door to the compartment, the light from inside spilling out into the darkness.
Just as I was about the duck inside, I heard it. A thump from somewhere down the hall. And then another. My pulse jangledas I recognized the sound. Footsteps. More specifically, boots. And they were coming closer.
I backed into the hiding space and hurried past a wide-eyed Kolt and to the bed, where I deposited the supplies without making a sound. I didn’t know if I had time to get back and close the door fully, so I put a finger to my lips before reaching up and tugging on the hanging string to turn off the light.
Darkness surrounded us as I crouched next to Kolt, resting a hand on him in warning as the footsteps grew louder and a thought sent a chill through me. Someone was looking for us.
Chapter
Twenty-Three
Kolt
There was no time to question Skye when she hurried into the room and dumped an armload of curious items onto the bed. There wasn’t even time to ask if she’d been the one to make the noise that had startled me back into alertness before she put a finger to her lips and doused the light.
Despite feeling her kneeling beside me and being comforted by the touch of her hand on my arm, I didn’t know what was going on—until I heard it. Footsteps. Slow and deliberate, the thumps of boot leather against the floor marched ever closer.
I held my breath, aware that Skye hadn’t pulled the door to the hidden space closed. The only things hiding us were the dark and a rack of costumes covering the opening. That wouldn’t be much protection if an Imperial guard was looking for us.
The footsteps hesitated in the dressing room, and Skye gripped my arm. I wondered if she had the blaster at the ready, but even whispering to ask would give us away. I imagined I could hear the slow breathing of the person standing near our hiding place, which made me even more determined not to breathe.
Then the lights flashed on outside our hidden room. Despite the rack of clothing covering the entrance, light seeped through the hanging costumes. In the shadows, I could make out Skye crouched beside me, holding the blaster by her side with a fierce expression on her face.
“I told you it wasn’t here.” The shrill voice sounded nothing like a Zagrath guard. It actually sounded a lot like the stage manager we’d encountered earlier.
“I was sure I brought my cape to the theatre,” another voice said, this one softer and higher. “And I thought I saw Athena with someone who was wearing it.”
I glanced at the red cape that Skye had discarded, lying in a tired heap on the floor. She frowned, as if giving herself a mental kick.
“Why would Athena have your cape?” The extravagant costumes hanging on the rack rustled. “If she’d borrowed it, she’d have hung it here. See? No capes.”
“You’re right. It’s not here. Someone else must have taken it, thinking it was theirs.” A heavy sigh. “I’m sure it will turn up.”
“Whatever you do, don’t tell Athena that I let you into her dressing room. She’d have my head.”
A giggle. “Your secret is safe with me. Thanks for letting me back in to look for my cape.”
“It’s fine. I wasn’t far from the place when you caught up to me.” The lights flicked off. “But let’s not make this a habit. You know the Imperial guards are cracking down on activity after hours.”
“We’re a theatre. They can’t expect us to hold all our shows during the day.”
A bitter laugh. “I don’t think the imperial guards care much about theatre or art or anything that involves ideas that go against theirs. We’re lucky they haven’t shut us down for good.”
