Sam
When Sam comes to at last, she thinks she has already died. There is a searing light blinding her with a yellow glow. From somewhere nearby comes the sound of a faucet running in a sink and the clink of dishes. When she opens her eyes and squints in the brightness, she realizes she’s lying on a bed in a sun-drenched room, a slight breeze stirring from an open window.
She winces, remembering fragments of what happened, but when she tentatively moves, she’s surprised to feel only a dull ache in her chest instead of the hellish agony of broken ribs and torn insides that Sebastian and Will inflicted on her. A numbness pervades her body.
Clipped footsteps make her turn her head toward the bedroom door. Demeter bustles in with a sweep of perfumed air, her white hair tied back into a neat braid. At the sight of her, the woman frowns.
“Awake already,” she mutters, then nods at Sam. “You better lie back down, girl. Your body needs rest to heal properly.”
Sam stops shifting and tries to lie still.
“You’re going to have to bear it,” Demeter tells her as she sits beside Sam on her bed. “I could fix most of the wounds on your body, and piece your ribs back together—but the lost skin on your wrists and ankles, of course, I can’t fix with alchemy. I’ve covered the damage with a synthetic mesh that will act similarly to skin. A skin graft is what you really need, but that requires a hospital.”
Sam remembers that Sebastian changed her skin into stone when he bound her to the street, and Demeter is unable to reverse the damage. She can only ease Sam’s pain.
Hesitantly, Sam holds up her wrists to see them both wrapped in thick layers of gauze.
“How did you find me?” Sam murmurs as the woman puts a tray on the desk beside her bed.
“It’s not important,” Demeter replies. “You can’t stay here for long. Once Diamond realizes that you’ve survived your ordeal, she’s going to have every crewman out in the city looking for you.”
The fog in her head clears somewhat as Sam realizes what the woman is saying. “Diamond doesn’t know I’m alive?” she asks. “She doesn’t know I’m here?”
The woman ignores her and taps on the bowl of soup. “Drink it all,” she says. “Your soul will need strength.”
“But—” Sam starts, then pauses. “You work for her.”
“And so did you,” Demeter replies dryly.
Sam pushes herself laboriously upright, trying to ignore the burning agony from her wrists, and takes a sip of soup that Demeter feeds to her. It’s a rich broth, hearty with meat and vegetables. She swallows carefully, noting the lack of pain from her ribs and chest, then eats the next few bites more eagerly.
“You can stay here for the night,” Demeter tells Sam as she eats. “I have a rental car you can take in the morning. Head south until you pass the border, don’t stop unless you absolutely have to.”
“And then do what?” Sam mutters. “Forget that this ever happened?”
“And then run,” Demeter replies. “For the rest of your life, you run.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” she says.
The alchiatrist shakes her head. “You can’t stay here.”
“I can’t leave,” she replies.
“Why not?”
“Their prisoner. Ari—Shakespeare. I need to get him out.”
“You’re a foolish little girl,” Demeter mutters. “You thought you could play this game, didn’t you? You don’t have a chance in hell. Prisoner exchange is still on, you know, tonight at the estate. If Diamond doesn’t kill him, Lumines likely will, for him being potentially compromised. You think you can take on both syndicates and win?”
“I’m getting him out,” Sam repeats.
Demeter shakes her head in exasperation. “I can only buy you so much time.”
“What about you, then?” Sam retorts, nodding at the woman. “Why are you helping me?”
Demeter forces her to eat another spoonful, then puts the bowl down and regards Sam with pursed lips. She looks out the window and looksback. “There was a time when I was your age, you know,” she says. “Young and full of fire, excited by the power Diamond exuded and enticed by the promises of alchemy.” She leans forward. “You see a lot in thirty years. Thirty years lets you watch the transformation of a human, a society, a way of life.”
“And what have you seen?” Sam asks.
