But I’m her daughter, she didn’t say. Because she wasn’t anymore.
One of the girls came forward. She was saying something, crying through the binding around her mouth. Her hair was a chaotic cloud around her grimy face. Tears were trickling down her chin. Flick rushed over and squeezed her hands between the bars, whimpering when the widest part of her hand struck the metal bar. For a second, she saw stars, but she shook them away.
“You have to be quiet,” Flick said, and when the girl nodded with a quick glance at the door, Flick untied the rough strip of cloth.
“Thank you,” the girl croaked. “Thank you.”
“What happened to you?” Flick asked, wishing she had water, food, a way to free them. “How did you get here?”
“I—I don’t know,” the girl whispered. “I was walking home from school when a carriage stopped beside the road and men dressed like you grabbed me.”
Flick swept a glance across the others. Her heart was pounding inher ears, loud and impossible. She could barely think, barely see, panic threatening to overtake her. Another girl frantically gestured to her mouth, and Flick quickly undid her bindings too, her fingers faltering to the point where the first girl noticed and glanced at her sidelong.
At last, Flick ripped the binding free.
“She’s going to turn us on the night of the tribute,” the second girl cried. “Into vampires!”
Vampires? Flick took a step back, trying to understand. The others were crying, weeping through their bindings, panic spreading anew. One of the boys began thudding his head against the bars. They hadn’t known. The first girl was frozen, paler than the others.
Flick glanced at the door. She wanted to get them out of here. The exit wasn’t too far. A noise thudded from outside the door, reminding Flick that she was alone. She couldn’t free them, but she knew who could.
Jin and Arthie, when they returned.
“Get out!” the second girl shouted. “Get out before they put you in here too.”
They were trapped in a cage, hungry and parched, unable to speak, and they were looking out forher? It only highlighted how terrible the Ram was.
Flick pulled the covering back over her face and nose. “I’ll return for you, I promise. We’ll get you out.”
She didn’t know if it was a promise she could keep, but it was one she would have wanted to hear regardless.
Several of them immediately perked, eyes widening. Heart in her throat, Flick tied the ropes back over the girls’ mouths, leaving them looser than she’d found them. She could give them that, at least. As much as Flick wanted to tear every last binding away and grant them that comfort, she didn’t.
The Ram was prepared to kill her daughter. She would kill a nuisance in a heartbeat. Flick had seen in it her cell, where she’d dropped two of her own men because of words Flick had said.
Though every part of her protested against leaving the girls and boys behind, Flick inched the door open and glanced down the hall.
“There you are.”
Flick froze.
“What were you doing?”
She stepped through and closed the door. It was the man who had stopped her by the calendar, and Flick didn’t think her luck would work a second time.
“I was checking on them,” Flick said, remembering to make her voice gruff at the last second. She didn’t know who he thought she was, or how many others there were for her to blend in with, but she decided to keep her words scarce.
“When did we ever check on ’em?” the man asked, and when Flick didn’t answer, his gaze narrowed, scrutinizing her.
“Maybe we should,” Flick said. “They’re hungry and thirsty. Can’t use them if they’re useless.”
He started to respond, but Flick didn’t hear him, for past his shoulder, she saw a terrible sight: the Ram. She was talking to someone in front of Flick’s door. Her shoulders were relaxed, her pose unbothered.
Flick forced a breath. She hadn’t discovered that Flick was missing just yet.
But she was about to: Flick saw the Ram pull a key out of her pocket, that gunmetal mask glinting gold in the light.
Flick didn’t wait. There wasn’t time to hunt for those pill-shaped objects now. She needed to leave. She eased away from the man, pickingup speed as she neared the exit. Sweat trickled down her back. She ran her gloved thumb over the ridges of her brass knuckles to calm her racing heart. Pain shot through her arms instead.
