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“Thanks,” I said gratefully. I’d been dreading walking bare feet out in the corridor again. Slipping on the slippers, I hurried after Lilja.
Unlike earlier, several men in black combat attire had appeared in the corridor outside. They were all busy dragging the corpses and carrying them away. Another group mopped up the blood and filth covering the floor.
“This way,” Lilja called, guiding me away.
Reaching the ground floor, she navigated through a network of hallways, leading me to a different part of the manor. This remote corner remained untouched by the recent invasion.
Lilja slipped through a pair of open doors at the end of the hallway. I walked in after her and found myself in a vast kitchen space. The place was so big, it even boasted a long, rectangular dining table in the corner with twelve chairs.
Modern amenities like a giant steel-door refrigerator and cooking hobs dotted the old-fashioned kitchen. Flower-patterned curtains hung at the windows. Fire burned in a crate set against a nearby wall.
I moved toward it, eager to warm my freezing hands while Lilja sank into a chair at the dining table.
“You okay?” said a strange female voice.
An aged woman, probably in her early seventies, moved toward Lilja. She wore a sunflower-patterned apron over a pink dress. Her hair was completely silver.
“Hey, Dora,” Lilja said in a low, tired voice. “Can you get us something to drink?”
“Who’s this?” Dora asked instead, gazing at me.
“That’s Lucia. She’s my guest and my brother’s captive. Whatever you do, donotlet her out.”
I frowned at Lilja.
“Stop pouting and get over here,” said Lilja, slapping the table.
“Is everything okay upstairs?” Dora asked as she bustled around the kitchen.
“They’re cleaning up now,” said Lilja. “There were nearly two hundred that attacked us tonight. We were completely unprepared, you know? Leon called to warn us only a minute before the attack began. Our dads are gonna be impressed when they hear what we accomplished tonight.”
Dads?Did she just say ‘dads’?
“You want some coffee, deary?” Dora asked sweetly.
“Fuck you,” Lilja snapped. “Get me some Jack. And maybe something to eat too.”
Dora didn’t even react to the cursing. Instead, she continued rummaging in the fridge.
I took a seat beside Lilja, wary of her volatile mood.
Yakim fed me earlier that day but I was ravenously hungry again. The battle left me feeling drained and exhausted. Not to mention the way we fucked back in my room...
Squeezing my eyes, I forced myself to forget the memory.
The smell of toasting bread and frying bacon wafted into my nostrils.
My stomach groaned, making me glance toward Lilja. She’d become quiet and was sitting with her shoulders hunched, her gaze lowered onto the table.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She turned her head to gaze at me. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I’m not even sure I should get close to you.”
“Why not?”
“Yakim won’t allow me to become a part of this,” she said with a brooding look on her pretty face. “I know their revenge on Callum Baldwin’s a personal one. They don’t want me getting caught in the mess. Yakim could be planning to send me away as we speak.”
“You’re the strongest girl I’ve ever met,” I said in a serious tone. “You can fight just as well as your brothers. You proved yourself tonight.”
