He didn’t sleep in his quarters anymore, didn’t even speak to her except the bare minimum. He only collected her at the start and end of her shift. And with the lack of him in the bed, her nightmares of a face covered in a blue tattoo and birds eating eyeballs returned.
What she wouldn’t give to order a sleeping aid in the middle of the night with her PALM, but things didn’t work like that here. There wasn’t a dispensary in Mace’s quarters or every few meters in the corridor.
Mace had been so dedicated to his silence, when they walked side by side toward the med bay and he actually spoke to her, it made her jump.
“We need to go to processing after your shift.”
“Why?” She barely resisted the urge to grasp her locket protectively. Had someone figured out she wore a tracker? She swallowed against the lump growing in her throat.
“Captives need to be interviewed within two weeks of their arrival. It’s mandatory.” He spoke in a flat tone.
“And you don’t want me to be interviewed?”
He didn’t answer, instead leading the remainder of the way to the med bay in silence.
Tension rolled through her stomach for her entire shift. Scenarios raced through her head, ones where she was thrown into the brig for her tracker. Ones where her lineage was exposed, and they tortured her for being ruling class. Ones where she was locked in a cell instead of allowed to work.
By the time Mace retrieved her, she’d put herself in a right state. The calm she’d attained over the past few days evaporated.
Her hands bound in front of her, the walk to processing felt like a death sentence. They arrived through the docking bay, the same one as that first day. Her body trembled remembering the line of medical officers, and the one who’d resisted and was murdered.
Mace led her past the area where she’d been scanned, to a door beyond. After tapping on his vambrace, it opened into a long corridor, blank doors alternating on both sides. He glanced at his vambrace and strode forward.
For a moment, her feet wouldn’t move, then Mace threw a scowl over his shoulder. Glowering back, she stepped over the threshold, and the door slid closed behind her.
He stopped at a door on the right and tapped on his vambrace. It slid open on a soft whoosh. A sterile scent assaulted her nose, not unlike the smell of a medical lab. Two chairs and a slender metal table sat in the middle of a small room, one entire bulkhead filled with a viewer set to opaque. She couldn’t tell if there was anyone on the other side.
When she felt the warmth of Mace’s hand on her lower back, she stepped forward. Her bonds separated.
Not five seconds later, a man wearing a long gray coat stepped through the door on the side. She tensed. It was the same person who’d processed her on her arrival. He bustled to the table, an air of hurry surrounding him.
He sat, then sent her an expectant expression. The hushed sound of the door closing behind her made her spin around. An immediate sense of abandonment tightened her stomach.
Mace had left her there.
Chapter eighteen
Panicked,Niawhippedaroundagain and stared at the blond man in confusion.
“These interviews are kept confidential,” he said, answering her unspoken question. His palette lay on the table in front of him, and he gestured to the free seat.
Stomach twisting in knots, she walked forward a step at a time and settled herself in the cold chair.
His face blank, he glanced at his palette. “Have you been given appropriate food and clothing?”
“Yes.”
“Have you been mistreated in any way by your warder?”
Nia’s face flamed thinking of what had happened between them only days before, but Mace had walked away and stayed away ever since. “No,” she said.
The man squinted at her before continuing. “Are you satisfied with your living arrangements?”
She straightened, confusion replacing her wariness. “I can choose to live somewhere else?”
“There’s the common holding where captives live. You may or may not be assigned manual labor.” His expression changed, brow wrinkling. “Probably not since you’ve already established yourself as a doctor.”
“If that’s where captives live, why am I in Mace’s quarters?”
