Cress

Chapter 33

Cress crouched in the corner of the van, gripping her knees

 against her chest.

She was trembling, despite the sweltering heat. 

She was thirsty and hungry and her shins were bruised 

where they'd collided with the van's ledge.

 Though she'd pulled down the bolts of fabric to sit on, 

the constant jerking of the truck on the uneven ground 

made her backside ache.

The night was so dark she couldn't see her hand in front of

 her face, but sleep wouldn't come. Her thoughts were too

 erratic as she tried to discern what these people wanted 

 with her. 

 She'd played the moments before her capture over in her 

head a hundred times, and Jina's expression had

 definitely  lit up when Cress had confirmed

 Jina's suspicions.

She was a shell. A worthless shell.

Why had Jina sensed value in that?

She racked her brain, but nothing made sense.

She tried her best to remind calm.

 Tried to be optimistic. 

Tried to tell herself that Thorne would come for her, 

but doubts kept crowding out the hope.

He couldn't see. 

He didn't know where she'd gone.

 He probably didn't even know she was missing yet,

and when he found out ... what if he thought she'd

abandoned him?

What if he didn't care?

She cousin't forget the image of Thorne sitting at that

card table with some strange girl draped over him.

He hadn't been thinking about Cress then.

Perhaps Thorne wouldn't come for her.

Perhaps she'd been wrong about him all this time.

Perhaps he wasn't a hero at all, but just a selfish,

arrogant, womanizing— She sobbed, her head

cluttered with too much fear and anger and jealousy

 and horror and confusion, all of it writhing and

 squirming in her thoughts until she couldn't keep

 her frustrated screens bottled up any longer.

She wailed scrunching her hair in her fists until her 

scalp burned.

But her screams died out fast, replaced with clenched

 teeth as she attempted to calm herself again. 

She rubbed her fingers around her writs as if she had long