She holds me tighter, thrown over me, her head to mine, her arms around my back.
“I am not leaving. You are not either.” She presses her lips to my cheekbone. The scent of her, violets, cedar, it envelops me like her hug.
It breaks through, if only for a moment, each shard of hatred embedded into my brain.
And for a second, despite where we are, who is watching… I believe her. Every word she spoke.
Chapter 26
Karia
Iscrub the corner of his room on my hands and knees.
Cosmo watches, looming at my back. He left before, as I coaxed Sullen onto his feet, then to the bathroom that has a strange padlock hanging off a metal loop, reassuring him I would be okay, but I think his desire to hide overwhelmed everything else anyway.
I took the time to find a hall closet with cleaning supplies in their absence; down the stairs, to the left, too frightened to venture further. Too worried to leave Sullen truly alone.
Now Cosmo has returned, and I wish he would stay away.
“You shouldn’t do this,” he says. “It is beneath you.”
Fuck you.It’s what I want to say, but if Sullen hears us fighting, it will cause another small war.
The scent of urine is cut with something cherry-citrus from the small pale-blue bucket an inch or so from my hip. “Everything is,” I mutter instead. “And somehow I am crushed under it all the same.” My fingers are drying out, the shallow cuts from the glass at the Emporium sting from the water and liquid cleaner, but I don’t care.
I can’t do nothing.
Sullen is currently showering in the bathroom connected to this room, on the opposite side. I still have no idea where Sanford is or how, exactly, he is working with Cosmo. I have little energy or desire for retribution right now, but I cannot be idle, so this—cleaning—is what it must be. Me in a crouch, crawling around this dirty corner of Sullen’s room.
I want to set it on fire, along with this entire home I have yet to explore.
But until I have eight hours of sleep and a better of understanding of what the fuck is going on, it’s the best place to lie low, I suppose.
“Here.” Cosmo’s voice sounds as tired as I feel.
I pause, one hand planted on the hardwood floor, another curled in the damp sponge. Turning carefully to look over my shoulder, I see Cosmo extending a wine glass toward me, something deep red inside.
My mouth almost waters at the sight of it, but I must have been drugged to get here without waking.
I am slightly cautious now.
Coffee with Sullen at Dreary comes to mind, and I cut my gaze to Cosmo’s. “Are you attempting to poison me?” I have not forgotten how he put his hand around my throat. The way he tortured Sullen by stripping him down before I arrived in this room, and how he mocked him after. Cosmo de Actis is not my friend right now, merely a person I tolerate whom I know won’t kill me just yet.
Allies are thin, these days.
Maybe they always were.
It’s a good thing I slipped the knife under Sullen’s dirty, bare mattress, just in case.
I avoid looking at it even now, lest I give my secret away.
Cosmo rolls his eyes, ignoring me otherwise. “When you’re done,” he lifts the wine glass higher, “you need a shower, too.There are seven bathrooms in this compound.” He gestures once more with the wine and I watch the ruby liquid slip precariously up the sides of the glass as his gaze travels the room. It’s small, with off-white sheets piled haphazardly on the twin bed. I think they were once a brighter color, but lack of wash has tinted them. The walls are wood-paneled, the light overhead is dull yellow. There is a narrow closet door with a brass handle, a dark oak dresser, a nightstand, and little else.
Sullen spent his time here, trapped behind a door that locks on the outside.
And that might have been the best mercy he could have, that it ever locked at all.
“You shouldn’t be doingthis.Get up off your knees, Karia. This is not you.” Cosmo’s gaze lands on mine and I frown, curling my fingers tighter in the spongy softness of the yellow scrubber.
