With forced resolve, she picked up a set of tweezers from the sink drawer. “I can get the salt out.”
Natalya’s stare could’ve started wildfires. It took every shred of courage Evie had not to cower and run.
“Once, a girl I worked with fell on a glass, and it messed up her leg. She didn’t have health insurance, so I helped her pick out the shards.” Evie gestured with the tweezers. “Let me help.”
“I don’tneedhelp,” Natalya snarled.
“Everyone does.” The statement felt as weak and trembling as Evie’s voice. But she wouldn’t leave Natalya alone like this. No matter what she said. “Please. Just let me help you.”
Natalya’s gaze was all anger. If Evie wasn’t pushing against it, she suspected it would have sent her running. Even without the manufactured emotions Natalya could conjure, she was still terrifying.
Then she looked away. She didn’t beckon Evie closer. Didn’t ask for help. Her silence was all the encouragement Evie would get.
She helped Natalya strip out of her clothes, and just touching her skin produced blazing sensory pain. Evie had to push against the feeling before she could touch Natalya fully.
Using the water to wash off the still-flowing ichor, Evie spent the next hour digging rock salt pellets out of Natalya’s flesh. There were scores of them. Every time one was removed, Natalya nearly screamed.
“What do you need?” Evie asked when she was sure there were no more pellets. Natalya was shaking so hard she had to lean against the wall.
“Sleep,” Natalya said through clenched teeth. “Rest.”
Evie started to help her stand. As she did, she stepped on Natalya’s suit jacket, and there was a clatter as a small box fell out of a pocket onto the floor.
Natalya grabbed the box before Evie could even think to reach for it.
In the bedroom, Evie eased Natalya onto the mattress. She left to get towels to press against the still oozing wounds, and in the time it took her to get back, Natalya had passed out. It was a small blessing amidst all this horror.
Then she noticed something glinting on the floor. The box Natalya had scrambled to pick up had fallen and opened.
Evie recognized its contents. She’d seen Lily and Blake and several other humans in the Court wear something just like it. All the humans who were Claimed. Who belonged to another.
On the floor—in iron, silver, and steel—was a necklace with a purple Chain pendant on it.
Chapter 31
Evie sat by the dining table in Natalya’s apartment, feeling like death itself. It was late morning. She hadn’t slept yet, and she had a painful headache that made it feel like her brain was on fire. It was easily ignored as she stared at the Chain pendant Natalya had tried to hide.
Such a small thing. A simple necklace that carried so much meaning and produced so many questions. Why did Natalya have it? Had it been meant for Evie? But then, why had she been so intent on hiding it? She obviously hadn’t wanted Evie to see it.
Though she only knew the broad strokes of what the Ribbon contracts entailed, she knew people who used them. Blake and Lily, who were so happy with Flea and Aleksander. They didn’t seem cowed or scared to be Claimed. To be owned.
The thought made her nauseous. Or maybe that was the hangover.
She checked on Natalya several times throughout the morning and afternoon. Her wounds were awful, especially the one in herside. All the others had stopped oozing, and some of the smaller ones had even closed, not even leaving scars, but the one in her side wouldn’t stop bleeding. Evie had ruined almost all the towels trying to still the flow of seemingly never-ending ichor.
Natalya didn’t move at all. It made Evie think she was dead every time she checked on her. But she was warm and breathing. She hadn’t gone cold like before.
Evie wanted to get help, but Natalya wouldn’t want that. She had barely allowed Evie to assist her. She wouldn’t want others to see her so defenseless. To see her marks.
Was that why Natalya wanted to Claim her, even after Evie said she didn’t want it? Because she’d seen them, and that way Natalya could more easily control her? It was one of the more reasonable theories.
It joined the dozens like it, all explaining that Natalya possessed the pendant for selfish reasons. But it still didn’t explain why she had been so desperate for Evie to not know she had it.
Evie was in the middle of changing Natalya’s makeshift bandages when she heard the apartment door open. There were footsteps and mumbling voices. Then a shout.
“Natalya!” It was a call of worry masked as rage. Deep, dark, and steely.
Evie exited the bedroom and moved through the apartment, finding Aleksander standing near the main door. His eyes were wild, his face twisted in fury. Behind him, one looking grim and the other frightened, were Drago and Lily.
