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CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
❝ The Heart Of Stone ❞
The sound of water woke her. It was a heavy repetitive sound — water sloshing against something solid, over and over, as if she were lying in the bottom of a pool that was rapidly draining and refilling itself. There was the taste of metal in her mouth and the smell of metal all around. Her cheek was pressed against something solid and damp and decaying.
She pressed her cheek further against the cool surface to relieve her burning body. It felt alight, ignited like a high fever had taken hold of her. She was conscious of the nagging, the persistent pain in her head, and was definitely sure her nose was broken.
She woke quietly, without ceremony. There was no announcing, no calling, no nothing. One moment she was asleep. Then, she woke. She realized she was trapped immediately after. She couldn't feel her hands — please, she thought, please let me still have hands — and she couldn't feel her legs — please, she thought, please let me still have legs. She spent several long minutes staring into the darkness. Everything smelled of salt and wood. She felt the wind blow over her left leg.
So she must at least still have one leg.
Slowly, her fingers began to move, so she must still have them, too. She had her limbs, but they were restrained. She was also starving. She stared ahead in the darkness again as her gaze adjusted to the light. The room was an ugly gray-green. The walls were the same green metal. There was a single high round window in one wall, letting in only a little sunlight, but it was enough. When she heard a groan, she realized she wasn't alone in the room.
The shadows were thick, but she blinked through them, adjusting her gaze and narrowing her eyes. Across from her, her hands bound together and chained to a large steam pipe, was Maia. Her clothes were torn and there was a massive bruise across her left cheek. She could see where her braids had been torn away from her scalp on one side, her hair matted with blood. There was another groan, and then a creak, and her head snapped too fast to her left - so fast she felt dizzy.
At first, she saw nothing but the darkness. Then her eyes caught movement.
She froze.
Slowly, she realized what she was looking at.
She said, "Shit."
The moment she sat up, Maia stared at her and burst immediately into tears. "I thought," she hiccupped between sobs, "that you — were dead."
"I am dead," Simon said from beside Esme. He was staring at his hand. As he watched, the blisters fading, the pain lessening, the skin resuming its normal pallor.
