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"Great to know we're the best we fucking got."
Rubbing my temples, I know he's right. With only the two of us, we're fucked. Thoughts of Aelia flit across my mind. Even if I don't survive, I need to get her out.
Twenty-Two
Aelia
"Where the hell were you?" Dante snaps as soon as I walk through the bedroom door.
"Working," I say, spotting shopping bags that weren't there this morning.
I ignore them, striding into the closet. It's close to four in the morning, yet I'm exhausted still. Jenkins didn't mention the bruises on my face, just smirked and went on with his night. Others weren't so subtle. The stares I could deal with, but the snarky comments wore on me. I don't have it in me to deal with Dante.
"We can't keep doing this, Aelia."
I glance over my shoulder and find him leaning on the door frame, arms crossed. I wish I could ignore him as easily as I did Jenkins. The fact I have to share a room with him makes that impossible. I've tried to keep our conversations as impersonal as possible. Dante's demands are making it harder to distinguish what is concern for me versus concern for his plan.Rummaging around a drawer, I can't figure out what the hell I'm supposed to wear.
"Where are my pajamas?" I ask, glaring at him. I don't need them right now, but they're nowhere to be found.
A vein in his forehead pulses and his hands curl into fists. "That's what you're worried about? Where your raggedy clothes are?"
The fight bleeds out of me and I turn away. I should retreat to my small closet. Was it a shithole? Yes. But it was my shithole. It was the first space I had that I didn't have to share. I may not have been safe there, but at least it was mine. The benefits of staying with Dante are starting to look as false as his words.
"They were mine," I whisper.
Silently, I curse the tears filling my eyes. His hand brushes my arm as I push past him, and I jerk away. I need a shower and a place where he won't bombard me with more questions and demands. The hot water can wash away my sins, absolving me from the guilt choking me. He threw in my face this morning my apparent apathy for the others like me. Thankfully, a guard came for me then or I might have pushed him out the window.
"Aelia, you can't hide forever," he calls through the door.
Peeling off my clothes, I step into the shower. I shake my head, biting my lip as I turn the handle, cold water shocking my system. I shiver my way through until steam fills the room. My motions are methodical—shampoo, rinse, conditioner, rinse, soap, rinse. Running my hand up my leg, I mourn the loss of my hair. It was one of the first things I lost when Father sold me.
The headquarters back then was housed in a mansion belonging to one of the council members. Somehow, the old man had a full-on medical office inside his damn house, with an on-call doctor. The man was terrible, obviously, but he did some type of treatment to remove the hair from my legs, arms, and other places. My cunt, as Dante so gracefully called it, is bare because I didn't have a choice. That was the point I stopped fighting. It'll never grow back, a constant reminder of when I lost control.
"Have you eaten?" he bellows, and I jolt, almost slipping on the slick tiles.
I haven't, but I have more shit to get done before the sun rises. I overheard one of the guards whispering about a disturbance in the Pit. The others down there may not appreciate my visit, but I'll hopefully get to talk to Rachel. For as much as Dante wants to tell me I'm not doing enough, at least I'm doing something.
I wrap a towel around myself and open the door slowly. Dante's tall frame leans against the wall, tracking my movements as I make my way back to the closet. I throw on new clothes, typical ones I wear to work. Always playing the part. I'm tired of wearing a mask.
"Where are you going now? We have things to discuss. You can't honestly tell me they have you going back in."
"Stop snarling at me. It's starting to piss me off," I say calmly.
"This shit is important, Aelia. And you're ignoring it."
"Just because I'm ignoring youdoesn't mean I'm ignoring other things. Don't be butthurt about me going to the Pit."
His stunned look sends grim satisfaction through me. Serves him right. It's his penance for being an asshole since he found me. I've stopped assuming he came to save me. He never gave me a good reason to believe he didn't just stumble upon Grant leaving and accidentally find me. Until he gives me something to change my mind, I'll continue to believe it was entirely coincidental.
"First of all, I'm not butthurt."
"The air quotes are unnecessary."
"Second of all, we need to talk," he says, blocking my path when I try to walk away. "Before you go to the Pit."
"Fine. What is it then?"
He huffs, crossing his arms. "Some girl found me on my way out of Jenkins's office."
