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22

Peer closer and you’ll see all the battles buried in my skin.

Khalani lost all sense of time as they worked. She let the quiet rage fuel her, every echoing slam of metal building into a war cry. Beside her, Takeshi’s pickaxe crashed against the wall, a deep-seated wrath lying beneath his eyes.

Despite her protests, he deliberately took the heavier rocks from her, leaving Khalani the lighter ones to place into the nearby carts. She didn’t miss his white-knuckled grip on the pickaxe.

When a shrill whistle cut through the air, all the prisoners bent over, hands on their knees, panting heavily as they struggled to catch their breath. But Khalani and Takeshi stood tall as they exited the tunnel, accustomed to living in harsh conditions.

“Get in line,” one of the Dealer’s barked as they re-entered the expansive cavern.

Now that the effects of the injection had worn off, she was able to focus on the area around her and get a clearer view of the prison.

The cavern’s ceiling loomed thirty feet overhead, with several large, spiky stalactites hanging ominously. They looked one whisper away from skewering whoever was unfortunate enough to stand underneath.

Bright white lights hung from the four corners of the cavern, casting a harsh glare on them. Ten buildings dotted the cavern. To her right were five white rectangular buildings that appeared to house all the prisoners.

To her left were three large brown buildings, the Dealers moving in and out of them like clockwork. Directly ahead was a small, discreet grey structure, and in the corner, atop a ledge, stood the mysterious black building where Dr. Strauss had vanished.

The only exit appeared to be a long tunnel on the far side of the cavern, where several Dealers were posted.

Nothing in the vast space gave any indication to where the prison camp was located.

For all Khalani knew, they might not even be in Hermes anymore.

Most of the prisoners shuffled into line with unsteady gaits, their hands covered in open blisters. At the front, two men used ladles to scoop a murky, brownish liquid into bowls.

Her stomach growled, and just as she slipped into line, a rough jostle from behind nearly sent her flying.

The thin prisoner who bumped into her didn’t offer an apology. The middle-aged woman simply shuffled forward, nearly shaking in anticipation.

When Takeshi pulled Khalani back, a smaller prisoner protested, “No cutting!”

Takeshi turned, fixing the man with a glare so blistering it could melt ice. The prisoner’s mouth snapped shut, and he quickly found another spot in line to stand.

Khalani bit her lip and faced forward, begrudgingly recognizing the advantage of having Takeshi by her side. For now.

It didn’t make her any less tempted to activate his shock cuffs, though.

When she reached the front, she studied the two men distributing the food. Their hair was closely shaven, and they wore slim, grey uniforms that covered their entire bodies, including their necks.

But their expressions were too blank. Too empty as they mindlessly scooped food.

“What’s in this?” she dared to ask.

The two men didn’t speak. One of them slid his empty focus past Khalani, as if she didn’t exist, and stiffly handed her the bowl. The other looked directly at her, but his gaze was lifeless.

She swallowed, hands trembling as she grabbed the bowl and swiftly drew back.

“We have to find Jack and get out of here,” Khalani whispered to Takeshi. “Did Raziel give you any indication of who he might be?”

Takeshi shook his head.

Prisoners were scattered around the cavern, some eating alone while others huddled in small groups. Just as Khalani was about to find an empty spot to sit, she noticed the girl who’d helped them earlier sitting against the rock wall beside an older man, possibly the oldest man in the camp.

“Let’s go over here. She might be able to help,” Khalani said.

Takeshi’s gaze narrowed, no doubt preferring to maintain his distance from everyone, but he nodded and stuck close, clutching his bowl like he was prepared to break someone’s jaw with it.

The girl from earlier had her blonde hair pulled up into a disheveled ponytail as she sipped the food. Beside her sat the old man, his grey goatee and wrinkled skin matching his hunched over, frail back. His veiny hands trembled as he clutched his bowl, some of the liquid dribbling onto his beard.

When Takeshi’s and Khalani’s shadow fell over them, the girl glanced up with a deep frown, setting her bowl down cautiously.

“Can we sit with you?” Khalani spoke first.

The girl’s lips set in a thin line, her calculating gaze shifting between Khalani and Takeshi. The silence stretched on as the old man stared at his hands, admiring the silver ring on his finger, petting it adoringly.

“I don’t know,” the girl started. “He doesn’t look very friendly.” She pointed at Takeshi.

“He is,” Khalani lied with a forced smile.

“I’m not,” Takeshi responded at the same time.

Khalani shot him a glare that spoke of imminent murder, but Takeshi simply yawned. Yawned.

But the girl seemed pleasantly surprised by his honesty and snorted. “Me neither. Have a seat.”

“Thanks.” Khalani quickly sank to the ground before the girl could change her mind. “Do you mind if I ask why you helped us earlier?”

The girl waved her hand dismissively. “That was only because I didn’t want to hear you scream and break your vocal cords when they shocked you for missing Dr. Strauss’ inspection.”

Khalani gulped, brushing her hand along the metal cuffs. “How the hell do we get these things off?”

“You can’t. If you try removing them without the right device, they’ll pierce your wrists with metal shards. You won’t die immediately, but you’ll bleed out over several hours. I’ve seen it happen.”

Takeshi set his bowl down. Harder than necessary, his forearms bulging. Apparently, that put a wrinkle in the alternative escape plans he was no doubt brewing.

“What’s your name?” Khalani asked.

The girl didn’t answer right away. The awkward silence stretched forever, but whatever the girl found in Khalani’s eyes must’ve satisfied her, because she answered.

“I’m Elise. This is my father, Clyde.” She turned to the old man, her eyes softening. “Dad, can you say hi?”

Clyde stared at the ground, mumbling over and over, “Key. Ring. Save. Key. Ring. Save.”

Elise heaved a deep sigh, the crestfallen expression apparent on her face as she mumbled, “Sorry. My dad’s not feeling the best these days. What about you?”

“I’m Khalani. This is Takeshi,” she said, absently tilting her head toward him, forcing a smile. Takeshi, on the other hand, offered his all-time favorite greeting—a long, uncomfortable glare.

“How long have you both been here?” Khalani cut in, trying to steer the conversation away from themselves.

Elise glanced up in thought. “It’s hard to keep track of time down here, but I’d say at least a couple months. When we first arrived, there weren’t many people, but they’ve brought a lot more over the past few weeks.”

Khalani shifted forward, forgetting her bowl. “Why are you—why are we here?”

“Some prisoners have theories, but no one really knows. I was at home, making food for my dad when the Dealers barged in. They said they only wanted me, but I made such a fuss—punching and scratching multiple officers—that they took my dad too, as punishment.” Elise’s voice hardened at the end, her fists clenching.

A response lodged deep in Khalani’s throat. The thought of someone like Winnie being brought there because of her actions, forced into the worst conditions every day…she might’ve ended everything herself to escape the guilt.

“What theories?” Takeshi leaned forward intently.

Elise’s eyes still held a steely edge, but she explained, “Some think we’re mining copper for new electrical devices in Hermes. Others believe the gangs ordered hits on the prisoners and making us disappear is the Dealers way of maintaining control. The best one I’ve heard is that the prison will eventually be used as a fertility camp and they’ll make us fuck each other, have kids, and brainwash us. So, like I said, there’s a bunch of crazy ideas but no solid answer yet. Try asking the Dealers and they’ll just shock you. They love doing that.”

“Key. Ring. Save. Key. Ring. Save,” Elise’s father kept mumbling against the backdrop of despair.

Suddenly a distant scream pierced the air.

Khalani lifted her head, scanning the cavern to pinpoint the source.

Her attention fixed on the ominous black building across the expanse.

“What happens over there?” she asked, her voice tight as the building seemed to stare back at her.

Elise’s face paled as she followed Khalani’s gaze, her expression turning grave.

“Listen to me, both of you.” She turned back, her voice low and urgent. “If you want to survive, stay as far from that building as you can.”

“Why? Who is that man from inspection? Dr. Strauss? What will happen to the prisoner they took this morning?”

“Key. Ring. Save. Key. Ring. Save.” Clyde spoke a little louder, his eyes widening as he stared at the floor like it was about to rip open and swallow him whole.

Elise placed a calming hand on her father, cooing gently, “It’s okay, Dad. It’s okay. I’m here.”

Clyde’s shoulders slumped and he leaned into his daughter, his repeated words slowly becoming a faint murmur. Elise drew a deep breath, steadying herself before speaking.

“Dr. Strauss is the biggest mystery in this wretched place. He’s the camp’s undisputed leader, but no one knows much about him. We only see him in the morning for inspection where he always picks one prisoner to be taken. He stays in that building all day, doing God knows what. All I know is that whoever goes inside doesn’t come out.”

The gravity of Elise’s warning sank in as Khalani glanced back at the building.

“Hey.” Elise snapped her fingers, grabbing her attention. “Don’t even look over there. There are cameras all over, and I just know that psychopath of a doctor is watching us. If you want to survive, keep your head down, do the chores they require of you, don’t piss off the other prisoners, and never, ever, go near that building.”

Khalani agreed. But as she sat there, forcing herself not to peek at the black structure, she felt an unsettling pull, a magnetic force looking back at her across the expanse.

Takeshi continued to shoot her wary looks, but she ignored him, counting down the seconds to the end of the week.

604,800…

604,799…

604,798…

A loud bang interrupted her counting. Her brows furrowed as a couple of Dealers placed two large red bins in the center of the cavern, twenty feet apart. The scene grew even stranger when they haphazardly tossed a yellow ball onto the ground.

Prisoners began to rise, dusting off their uniforms. Some approached the ball, lips turned down and their expressions grim, as if they’d rather tear off their own skin and vanish rather stand there.

Another smaller group of prisoners ventured toward the grey building, where Elise said the showers were located. They were open showers, with no rules against men and women bathing together. Because of that, Khalani doubted she’d be showering that entire week.

The rest of the prisoners gathered toward the back of the cavern, forming a large crowd. When a few cheers echoed back to them, Elise snorted.

“Jack must be up again.”

“What did you just say?” Khalani whipped her head.

Elise gave her a confused look. “I said Jack must be fighting tonight.”

“What do you mean, ‘fighting’?”

“A few months back, a bunch of prisoners committed suicide with the pickaxes,” Elise explained. “That’s when they started putting out bins for stupid ball games at the end of the day. When that didn’t work, they let the prisoners vent their anger by fighting each other. They still get suicides, but you’d be surprised what a little bloodshed does for morale. Dirty bastards ate it up.”

Khalani and Takeshi stood at the same time.

“Well, I can’t blame you for wanting to see. Nothing else to do,” Elise remarked in a bored voice before turning to Clyde. “Dad, you alright here?”

“Key. Ring. Save. Key. Ring. Save.”

“Okay, you’re fine.” Elise rose and joined Takeshi and Khalani as they walked toward the group of prisoners.

The fighting area didn’t attract as much pandemonium as the pit in Braderhelm, but they still had to weave through layers of white-uniformed prisoners to reach the front.

The task became much easier with Takeshi pushing people aside. Standing nearly a foot taller than everyone, the other prisoners needed only one look at the cold promise of death in his eyes before instinctively stepping aside.

When they reached the front of the line, two men were fighting in the middle of the circle. There was no pit, just a gravel floor and a circular wall of prisoners staring into the center with a mix of anger, excitement, and bloodlust in their gazes.

She flinched when one of the men took a hard punch. He dropped to his knees, shaggy brown hair falling to his shoulders and a scraggly beard that desperately needed shaving.

The other fighter stood tall, with sandy grey hair. He appeared to be in his forties, a determined glint in his eyes, a confident demeanor, and a strong build that filled out his white uniform.

The shaggy man struggled to his feet, throwing a flurry of punches, noticeably off-balance.

The middle-aged man dodged them with ease, landing another hard clip to the ear before tripping the man so he landed face-first on the gravel. The man groaned, blood pouring from his nose.

Her gaze lingered on the crimson liquid, raw violence fueling her adrenaline.

“Finish him, Jack!” several prisoners shouted.

Without thinking, Khalani gripped Takeshi’s wrist.

Jack. The middle-aged man was Jack!

Jack stared down at the broken man, utterly silent against the cacophony of voices that urged him to inflict more damage. He squared his shoulders, not even breaking a sweat from the fight.

Everyone studied him intently, waiting for his next move.

From what she knew of men with power, he’d likely deliver further punishment so no one would question his authority—

“Someone take him to his cell and help clean him up,” Jack ordered, striding through the crowd without looking back.

He disappeared behind a line of people, and she panicked, moving to follow, but an alarm rang out across the cavern.

“Break is over,” a voice crackled over the speaker. “Return to your cells immediately or face electrocution.”

“Shit.” Khalani stood on her tiptoes, trying to spot Jack, but the crowd closed in around her, pushing everyone toward the white buildings.

“C’mon.” Takeshi said in a low voice. “We’ll find him tomorrow.”

Frustrated, she glared at the back of his head but let Takeshi guide her through the crowd. They walked to cell thirty-two in tense silence, and once they stepped inside, the clear doors automatically closed.

“Great,” she huffed, facing the transparent barrier. “This is just perfect.”

Takeshi sat with his back against the wall, his left knee propped up and the other leg stretched out. The cell was so small that his boot nearly touched the wall.

“What’s the matter, Kanes? We’re in the camp we’re supposed to be in, and we’ve already located Jack. I say we’re making good progress.”

“I’m not talking about that.” She whirled, letting the full force of her fury hit him for the first time. “When I agreed to this mission, I didn’t know that I would have to share a tiny cell with you for a whole week.”

Takeshi studied her for a long moment, his expression unreadable. “Are you angry, Kanes?”

She scoffed. “Gee, I don’t know. Whatever gave you that impression, Takeshi?”

“This is about the club, isn’t it?”

The pressure in her heart built like a cave-in, painfully replaying the harsh truths she never wanted to face.

Takeshi said it himself.

She liked people that hurt her.

That dark, twisted side of her still existed. The part that attracted what you believed you deserved and brought you closer to destruction.

Back in the underground, she re-learned the hardest truth. No matter how hard you try, you can’t change anyone but yourself.

“You played me,” she stated.

Takeshi shook his head adamantly. “That’s not what happened.”

“Did Raziel not instruct you to go out on the dance floor and feel me up? To make it seem like we were in love?”

“He did, but—”

“There is no but!” she yelled. “You took advantage of my feelings and made me look like a fool.”

Takeshi’s charcoal eyes simmered, his expression contorting with darker emotions as he moved closer, taking up the remaining space.

“Do you seriously believe you’re the only one with feelings?”

Khalani froze. She held up a hand, making sure he didn’t take another step closer. “Don’t. Don’t you fucking dare. You don’t get to say that.”

“Why not?” he seethed. “Because you don’t want to hear the truth? You want to believe you’re the only one who cares? That you’re the only one whose heart is ruined?”

“You don’t have a heart, Takeshi!”

Takeshi went utterly still.

Raw hurt flashed across his face. Like the cuffs around his wrists activated and pierced him with a thousand lightning bolts.

Her own chest tightened, nausea building up in her throat.

She’d never seen his expression hold so much pain. Not even in their worst moments.

“Takeshi…I don’t…I didn’t mean—”

“It’s okay, Kanes.” Takeshi quickly composed himself, but the deep wells of misery lingered in the hollow lines beneath his eyes, the tension in his jaw, and the stiffness of his muscles.

It was as if every part of him fought to keep from spiraling out of control.

“You have every right to feel that way. And you’re probably right.” His voice lowered. “My actions hurt you. And you’re the last person I want to hurt. You deserve so much better than this.” He gestured to the cell around them.

But she believed the thing he was really pointing at was himself.

Her chin trembled, tears aching to fall.

It felt like the world was stacked against them.

And no matter how bad they fought. No matter how much they fit together in all the best and worst ways, it seemed like they were destined to crumble and fall apart.

Because he was saddled with the same capacity for self-destruction that shaped her.

She sniffed, struggling to contain her emotions, unable to meet Takeshi’s gaze. He looked past her shoulder, not able to quite look at her either.

“I didn’t want to end like this,” she whispered, her body held taut, summoning all the willpower left within her to stay strong.

Because that’s what was important. What was needed.

But she wished she didn’t have to be strong.

Sometimes…it would be nice to be weak.

“I didn’t either,” he admitted in a low voice.

It felt like an entire book wouldn’t be able to encapsulate their relationship. The anger, the yearning, the angst, the respect, the pain in letting go.

He lived in a million phrases.

But all she ever wanted to hear was one.

Silence stretched between them, and she was about to ask one last question when the lights suddenly shut off, plunging them into complete darkness.

“We should get some sleep.” He ran a hand through his black locks. “Big day tomorrow.”

“Yeah,” she replied absentmindedly at the reminder, completely numb.

They lay down on opposite sides of the cell. Worlds apart. Her hands folded beneath her, and she stared at the wall, wishing she could rewind time.

“Takeshi?”

“Yeah, Kanes?” His deep voice stroked against her skin.

“I just want you to know that what I said before wasn’t true. I know you have a heart.”

“Kanes, you don’t have to—”

“No, I do,” she interrupted, needing him to understand. Khalani wouldn’t find closure unless she spoke her truth. “I know you have the biggest heart, because in another story, I would’ve wanted you to be my ending.”

Takeshi didn’t speak for the longest time.

The old Khalani would’ve regretted those words the moment they left her mouth, but she didn’t.

Her feelings reminded her that she was still human.

And like a candle flickering in the dark, Takeshi let his bleeding heart spill on the floor next to hers.

“In another story, you would’ve been my beginning.”

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