I walk back out to the hall, sitting down at the table again when the food is delivered, but this time I don’t touch it. I don’t care to be even more disadvantaged than I am right now, while Bella eats like she hasn’t in weeks.
“Be mad at me all you want, but you’re eating, Darlia.”
I don't even look at Cayden when he speaks. I just keep my eyes on the candle in the middle of the table, watching as the flame spins with the breeze in the room. It’s so peaceful. The flame isn’t worried about anyone else, or impressing anyone. It just burns until it can’t anymore.
“Unless you want me to feed you like a baby, you will eat, Darlia.”
Rolling my eyes, I pick up my fork, making sure to glare at Cayden before taking a bite. Today’s dish is a shrimp pasta. I’ve never had shrimp before, but I don’t mind it. It’s a lot harder than the fish from yesterday, and the tails are crispy, but the pasta is creamy and perfect. I wish whoever made these dishes made the food at The Academy.
“Good girl.”
“Go to hell.” I have half a mind to stab him with my fork. I want to, but I also need him to give me more information to keep myself alive. Right now, he has me in the palm of his hand, and he bloody well knows it.
Cayden chuckles at my sharp retort, but doesn’t say anything else, letting me enjoy the food without interruption as the event begins. I pay no attention to the items on sale, and neither does Cayden, which interests me. Why would he come here to pay no attention to the items on auction? It makes no sense other than being a waste of time.
“See anything you like?” I ask as casually as I possibly can, but his eyes never leave mine. They soften for just a moment, and the scar through his eyebrow goes smooth.
“Yeah, darling. I do.”
Marcus looks up at us as Bella looks at me confused, but I don’t manage any words as I look onto the stage, seeing the items being auctioned off. But then I see the thing that makes my blood run cold and my heart drop. And suddenly, I remember the one thing I never found when I turned her room upside down.
“As our luxury item of the night, we have a diary belonging to one of the deceased in a discontinued government trial project. Name Lauren Blakley, age eighteen. Lauren was one of the weaker members of the trial, but her recounts of the events with other girls within the trial go into never-seen-before detail. For safety reasons, the diary was gifted to us heavily censored, however, there is still a fair amount to read. The starting bid on this item is $200,000.”
Lauren. Deceased.
Lauren is dead.
Discontinued government trial project?
Cayden is saying something, but I don’t hear it. I think Bella grabs my hand, kneeling down beside me, but I can’t look at her. I can’t hear anything. I can’t feel anything.
Lauren is dead.
Lauren died, all because I didn’t speak up. Because I didn’t fight back against the Madam when she paired me with Bella.
Lauren is dead.
Lauren is dead.
I promised to get her out. I promised she would live. I promised to make sure she had a long, happy, and healthy life. I promised I would get her out of The Academy.
I broke my promise.
Standing as quietly as possible, not wanting to bring any more attention to myself than there already is, I walk towards the bathroom again, locking myself in a cubicle and sitting down on the closed toilet seat as the tears start to fall. This time, I don’t even bother to stop them. My head is spinning and my breath is short gasps. I remember Trainer calling this hyperventilating in one of our classroom lessons.
I am completely powerless right now. In this moment, I am not the lethal assassin. I’m just a girl who lost her sister.
I pull my knees up to my chest and rock myself back and forth, something Lauren always did, something I’m now desperately seeking comfort in. It takes a while, but eventually the tears stop, my breathing evens out, and after a longer moment, my head stops spinning. I force myself to keep it together, to just make it back to The Academy and make it to my assigned bunk, then I can completely fall apart.
But when I open the cubicle door and see Cayden on the other side, and I run into his arms, falling apart the instant he holds me steady.
“I’ve got you. Breathe, darling. You’re safe.”
But Lauren isn’t.
I failed her.
Chapter 14:
