Penance (The Atonement Series Book 1) by Pam Eaton

Author:Pam Eaton [Eaton, Pam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cooper Ave Press
Published: 2024-02-18T00:00:00+00:00

The cell door slides open, and my friends file in. I’ve been sitting in the back corner against the cement wall, waiting for either them or guards to come get me.

Dot’s the first to slowly approach me once the door clangs shut. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” she says gently, and if I wasn’t so spent, that gentleness might floor me.

Javier tears a piece of cloth from the bed sheet and hands it to Dot. She wets it in our little sink and kneels in front of me. She moves to dab at my face, but I shake my head and lift my hands. I can’t handle having them stained any longer.

She nods and starts cleaning the blood from them. “You did what you had to,” she starts in a firm but tender voice.

I start to shake my head, but she cups my face, forcing me to look her in the eye. “He would have killed you. He would have mutilated your body. We heard him.”

“His blood is coating my hands,” my voice cracks.

“You defended yourself,” Mary says from across the cell.

“Would you have wanted any of us to act differently?” Gabriella asks.

“Never,” I say, my words a vow.

“We’ve trained for this our whole lives,” Javier says from the bunk next to me.

“But we’ve never taken a life,” I tell him.

He leans forward. “I don’t think that’ll be your last.”

I know he’s right. We’ve been trained killers since we were little. But knowing and becoming are too very different things. I lean my head back against the wall. “What now?” Gavin asks, speaking for the first time since they returned to the cell.

Na’Kya puts a hand on his arm. “Let her rest. We’ll figure that out come morning.” He looks like he wants to protest, but she squeezes him arm.

“Get in the bed,” Dot tells me. “You need to rest.”

Javier moves to help me up from the floor, but I wave him off. “How bad is your knee?” he asks as I move myself to a bottom bunk.

“I don’t think it’s broken,” I say.

Dot cleans the rag in the sink. “It might not be broken, but it’s already pretty swollen.” She wraps the cold, wet cloth around it, and I hiss at the contact. “Let’s hope it heals quickly. Because if they stick you in another fight soon…”

She lets the sentence hang, but I get it. I’ve got a weakness right now that’ll be exploited in a heartbeat.

I lie down in the bed, and Dot crawls in on the other side. Soft murmurs fill the cell, but we all quiet down quickly. Dot turns on her side, facing me, our heads close on the pillow. I saw you sign to your dad, she signs, hiding her hands between our bodies. We all saw it.

I hesitate, but there aren’t any secrets between Dot and me—aside from my attraction to Luca, but that’ll fade quickly. We need them. And I have to hope one of his men or our moms have found out about the fighting.

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