When she could feel her fingertips again, she laid the string over one of the three tips of the shard and pressed it down with her thumb. Then she wound the string over the dulled tips, crossing between one tip and the other until the string formed a handle. She knotted the end around the string that covered the hollow of the glass to secure it. The fat made everything slippery and the work harder, but the string didn’t tear and stayed in place once she put tension on it.
The resulting weapon was crude, but the now string-covered straight edge fit into the crease where her fingers met her palm. She could curl her thumb and pinkie over the string on either side of the dulled tips for grip and control. The result was a weapon she could drag across the side of someone’s neck or face—or even their arm or side—as if raking them with her nails, just much more effective. She stood on nearly numb legs and practiced the attack a few times: push her arm out and then yank back, cutting deep. She grinned as she turned the blade over in her hands.
It works.
With that thought, lethargy set in. She’d risen to this occasion on adrenaline alone, and her relief over finishing the weapon’s construction washed most of that away. The door was locked, so she wasn’t going anywhere. Even if she found a way out, Skeever was damn-knew-where in the complex, and she would probably have to fight her way out with nothing but this improvised weapon. It made much more sense to go to sleep now and make a break for it once she only had Dani to worry about. It was time to sleep and rest up for tomorrow, because it was going to be a make-or-break day.
“Lynn?”
She shot up before she was fully awake and scrambled for her shard. “Yeah?” She winced at the wobble in her voice. Years of experience in waking up to threats allowed her to instantly dredge up the details of her current predicament. The shard had dropped onto the ground, and she gripped it. She stuffed it into her boot the exact moment the door was pushed open.
Eduardo smiled at her, but he stayed in the hallway, keeping distance between them. “You slept well, yes?”
“Fine.” She stared at him expectantly. The glass dug into the skin of her ankle a little, but probably not enough to draw blood.
“It is breakfast time. Are you hungry?”
She nodded.
“All right. Come.”
Lynn picked up the nearly extinguished candle as well as her bundle of bloody clothes and stood. She bit back a groan—sleeping on the floor had left her stiff and sore. Hauling the heavy stretchers yesterday probably had something to do with it too.
Eduardo guided her away from her cell.
Sounds of conversation floated to her from the kitchen. The voices quieted the moment she walked in, but a flurry of gray fur, sprawling limbs, and a lolling tongue careened into her hard enough to nearly knock her over.
Skeever! Despite her discomfort around these people, she instantly dropped to a knee and wrapped him in her arms. She let him lick her entire face and grinned as she tried to restrain him. “Shhhh, shhh, Skeeve! Skeever, shhh.” Lynn could have cried over feeling Skeever’s robust form and hearing his soft little whining noises.
“Skeever!” Kate’s tone was as cold as a bucket of ice water.
Skeever whined and looked up but didn’t move from Lynn’s side.
Lynn searched for Kate amidst the others gathered around the table.
Their gazes met.
Kate snapped her fingers by her chair.
Skeever trotted over, low to the ground, and settled by her chair, shivering.
Yeah, assert your authority, bitch. I’m taking him with me when we leave, and he isn’t coming back. Lynn got up slowly, keeping eye contact. “Good morning to you too.”
Kate’s jaw set. “Sit—”
Lynn almost told her to shove it.
Dean glared at her from beside his mother. Toby, on her other side, looked up at her wide-eyed. Cody watched her with that damn smirk; Eduardo had slipped past her during her embrace with Skeever and smiled at her tentatively. Lynn wondered where Dani, Ren, and Flint were. Without a word, she sat down on the only chair around the table without a person on each side.
No one ate of the bread, fruit spread, and cheeses on the table.
Lynn’s stomach growled in the silence.
Cody’s smirk deepened, but he didn’t comment on her hunger. “Sleep well?”
“Great. I always sleep well in captivity.” She didn’t return the question. She didn’t really want to know, and she had absolutely no interest in conforming to social norms.
Silence fell again, and no one filled it until Ren entered, bearing two large bowls.
Cody got up and took them from her before putting them on the table.
Ren sat next to Lynn and nodded curtly.
Lynn nodded back.
“All right, let’s eat.” Cody pushed the bowls over to Kate, who used her fork to skewer two pieces of bacon and placed them on Toby’s plate. She scooped some eggs onto it and added a piece of bread. While she leaned over to talk softly in his ear—probably to coax him into eating some of it, as he made no move toward his knife and fork—Dean took the bowls and helped himself to a full plate.
Lynn didn’t react to any of it. She sat and waited. Her stomach growled again. “Where’s Dani?”
“Packing.” Ren cast her a reproachful glance.
Don’t blame me for taking her with me; blame Kate for this whole endeavor. Lynn watched the progress of the bowls around the table.
Cody took his share, then Ren, who wordlessly passed the bowls along to Lynn.
Lynn took as much as Cody. If they thought she was actually going to get Richard, she was entitled to a generous helping—and if they disagreed, they could piss off. She reached over her plate to take three slices of bread from the basket, lathered them freely with butter, and ate one in five bites, barely chewing. She was famished. The more she ate, the more she became aware of it.
They were probably looking at her, but she couldn’t be bothered to care. Everything tasted so good: warm and crispy bread, molten butter, fatty bacon, fluffy eggs. Much better than scraps of meat, scavenged roots, and maybe some traded-for cheese. She didn’t even bother with a knife and fork. She ate like the Wilder they thought she was and was perfectly content doing so.
The chair next to her scraped over the floor.
Lynn jumped and dropped her bread. Dani. She stared at her, trying to read her.
Dani sat but didn’t look at her. Ren pushed the bowls past Lynn toward Dani, who quietly took the remainder of the bacon and eggs.
Lynn couldn’t read her. What else is new?
Silence fell again, but this time Lynn was aware how tense it was.
Ren and Eduardo were silent; Kate was busy trying to get Toby to eat, and Cody and Dean kept staring at her. It was annoying, but she didn’t care half as much about that as she did about the fact that Dani didn’t look in her direction so completely that it had to be deliberate.
Lynn scooped the last of the eggs into her mouth—wastefulness was a sin—and looked at Dani.
She’d shoveled most of her breakfast in quietly.
Lynn pushed her chair back and stood. “I think it’s time to go.”
Slowly, Dani pushed her chair out and stood. Her hand trembled, but she grabbed the chair to hide it. “Okay.” She nodded without meeting Lynn’s eyes, but she met Kate’s.
Kate stood. “Dani has provisions packed and a blanket for a stretcher to carry…” She faltered. “…him on.”
“Right.” The tension was making Lynn’s skin crawl, and she planned to rush through the goodbyes. “Backpack, weapons?”