Dust

XLVII

I sit in silence for what might be eternity; soon after Shi's and my conversation, the officers that had bet on him returned and dragged him out. As Shi passed me, I watched as he bucked back and forth, trying to escape their grip, but all that earned him was a mouthful of wolfsbane—which ended as a mouthful of blood. It was brutal, and I hated to see him treated that way, but I couldn't do anything but scream at them to stop. I was trapped behind these bars, anyhow.

I wonder if they're hurting him.

That's a stupid thing to ask, in truth. My stomach twists at remembering Shi's horrible and regretful screams, his voice going hoarse as his tongue sizzled like an ember. Of course they're hurting him, and it's my fault. If I hadn't messed around and dragged him into this, maybe if I'd just left his cave that time and told him it was best to leave me alone, everything would be okay.

Well, now it isn't.

I sit back in my cell, burying my face in my hands. It's dark and it's musky and all I want is go home. I want to kiss my mother on the cheek, hoist Finn up on my shoulders, throw knives in the training room with Damien. I want to talk to Sloane. Make her trust me again. I want...I want Gael. I want anything but this. I want Gael.

Voices coming from the hallway break me from my reverie, and I scramble to my feet, approaching the bars and closing my fists around them, tight enough to turn my knuckles pale. "Shi? Shi, are you okay?"

His reply is a cough; he sounds sick and out of breath, and it's when I get a look at him as the officers pull him past me that I feel like pulling my own heart out of my chest—no, like I already have done that. One of his eyes is swollen and bruised, blood still trickling down his lips, and red scars disappear underneath his shirt—which is now stained dark crimson. He staggers as he walks, eyes lifting to me. "Gemma," he croaks. "Gemma..."

"Shi! What did they do to you?" I yelp, and the officers simply sigh and shove him back in his cell as if he's nothing but a wrinkled ball of paper. "I don't imagine what you could want from us, okay? It's not like we've bothered you!"

I step back from the door as the officers begin to unlock it. I think about running, but don't, both because of Shi's consequence and the fact that I won't leave him here. "Don't play dumb," says one of the officers, grabbing hold of my arm, unlinking my handcuffs, and starting to drag me up the hall. I glance back at Shi, but only catch a glimpse of the sorrow in his gold eyes before the officer's buddy barks at me to pay attention. "You know what you've done."

I don't, but don't say so, because I have a history of talking too much and getting punished for it. I can't, however, let one thing go: "What the hell did you do to Shi? Who am I going to see?"

"Shi?" the officer blinks, then cracks a grin as he brings me to a set of stairs. "Ah!" he says then, looking over my head to his friend. "I think she's talking about Fido."

"Oh. Well, Fido's a bad dog," his friend says. "He wasn't cooperating. Hersch made sure to take care of that."

The blood underneath my skin boils with the heat of pure fury. I don't care who this Hersch guy is, but if he thinks he can treat Shi that way, treat me that way, he has something else coming.

We stop outside a set of double doors, and one of the officers—who, since he doesn't care to introduce himself, is now Officer A to me—loosens his grip on me, only to grab my wrist up firmer and jerk me in his direction. I meet his cold gaze with my own, trying to ignore the acidity of his breath. "I'm gonna make this easy for you, cutie pie," he says, and I wince, because "cute" is not on my list of favorite words. "You cooperate and do what the Prez says, and you leave here without the damage Fido did. If not...well, you saw." He adds a humorless laugh at the end, lips turning upwards.