Endings and Empathy by Meghan Ciana Doidge

Author:Meghan Ciana Doidge [Doidge, Meghan Ciana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781989571651
Publisher: Meghan Ciana Doidge

CHAPTER 7

Surfacing again came in whispers through my nerves. Small-scale flushing. The shimmer of my own power stirring within the blood tattoos on my spine, as if responding to outside stimulus. A light breeze across my face that smelled … clean and clear, but somehow canned as well?

My shoulder blades and the back of my head were cushioned … by smooth, but thick fabric under my hands …

Then I could wiggle my toes … and fingers.

I swallowed, my mouth and throat uncomfortably dry.

I reached out with all of my other senses … feeling nothing.

I was either alone or surrounded by nonmagicals.

I opened my eyes.

And instantly knew where I was — in one of the Collective’s stasis chambers. A dome of what looked like glass — actually a thick, transparent composite — arched over me. Not enough space to sit up within. Not enough space to fully bend my knees or stretch out my arms.

No matter.

I wasn’t going to be sticking around.

Keeping my movements minimal as the rest of my body regained awareness in a flood of painful prickling, I carefully removed two IV lines and a number of sensors attached to me. All the while, I systematically engaged and released muscle group after muscle group.

The needle marks on my arms instantly clotted, then healed over with only a trace of pink. The older bruises beneath — from repeated jabbings, most likely — had almost faded.

If my healing abilities were reasserting themselves, then I had gained immunity to Lindi’s magical suppression, which I assumed had been steadily fed to me through one of the IVs.

I ran my fingers around the edges of the stasis chamber, looking for an internal latch for the lid, and using my toes where I couldn’t easily reach with my hands. I could have twisted around, but then I wouldn’t have been as primed to deal with someone coming in and checking on whatever monitors I’d just deactivated. Or whatever alarms I’d triggered.

No latch.

I was going to have to exert some brute force.

Something clicked within the four corners of the chamber. Then the lid lifted upward with an expulsion of air, seemingly of its own accord and on no discernible hinges. An upgrade to the version of the chamber in the fortress compound that Daniel had been stuffed into.

Interesting …

Had I triggered a fail-safe?

Or had someone hacked the internal systems?

I waited a moment, expecting someone in the room beyond that I still couldn’t see or sense to notice that the lid had opened.

Nothing else happened.

The light breeze I’d felt before — the air being filtered into the chamber — had dissipated. Meaning … someone hadn’t deliberately opened the lid? Rather, had they simply shut down the unit, allowing a fail-safe to force it open so I wouldn’t asphyxiate?

I curled my fingers around the edges of the lid, exerting just enough pressure to realize that it opened on one side, sliding to the right on supports I couldn’t see.

I pushed upward. The lid moved sluggishly on dormant hydraulics, opening up a narrow space before getting stuck.

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