Chapter 0403

"We're doing our best, Seraphina. We want to build a life here. The Wolves aren't bad people—well, maybe a few exceptions, but most are content with how things are run. The boys attend school. Your mother helps at the bakery when she isn't caring for Braelyn. Alpha Alexander allows me to work at the gate now."

"Braelyn?"

"Your sister." He smiles faintly.

"Can I meet her?"

He shakes his head. "Not while you're down here. Not until you're no longer considered a threat."

"A threat? I can't smell anything but my own filth. I can't hear anything beyond your voice. I can't heal. I nearly passed out earlier. My stomach feels strange and hollow. Yet you think I'm dangerous."

"Then prove everyone wrong."

He turns to leave, then pauses. He pulls an apple from his jacket and sets it just inside the bars. "Here. It isn't much, but I could hear your stomach growling from the top of the stairs. If you want a chance, Seraphina, do everything they ask."

He didn’t know I already had a task.

"What if it isn't enough?"

"Then I suppose you didn't try hard enough."

I stare at the apple for a long time. Caleb had no reason to be kind. No reason to advise me. If anything, I thought he’d be glad I was facing execution.

I take the apple and retreat into the shadows. I don't eat it. I roll it between my fingers, thinking. How can I get something useful from Evelyn?

Time moves strangely here. It's always dark unless a light is left on. I only know day from night when one of us is taken out. So I have no idea how much time passes before Evelyn returns.

She’s crying—really crying—as Lucas shoves her down the stairs. This time, it sounds genuine. When she comes into view, my jaw drops. He’s shaved her head completely bald. She’s even balder than I am.

Strands of her long blonde hair cling to her dirty sweatshirt. Lucas pushes her into the cell, and she rushes to her dark corner.

"Maybe next time you won't lie," he sneers, turning away without a glance at me.

"Evelyn?" I whisper once the door closes.

Her sobs echo. "He shaved my head. He took everything."

"Why?"

"He said I was lying. Hiding things. He did it to punish me."

"It'll grow back." I repeat what she always told me when I ran my hands over my own fuzz. "He's cruel."

"He's punishing us. He can't shave my hair—it's already gone."

"Do... do you have any food?" she whispers.

I look at the apple. She can smell it, just like the protein bar. If I keep hiding what I have, she might grow suspicious. Stop talking to me. That would sign my death warrant.

"My stepfather visited. He brought an apple. Do you want it?"

"An apple?"

I nod and step into the light to show her. "I can roll it over."

"Thank you. You don't know what this means. My stomach hurts so much."

I take a small bite, then slip it through the bars. I push it hard enough to reach her.

She devours it in seconds. Foolish girl. She should have made it last.

"What did he ask you?" I need to know everything.

"He wanted to know if there was anyone else."

"Anyone else? Like others who were made Human?"

She hesitates. "He thinks I'm working with Levi. They all do. Nothing I say changes their minds. You have to tell them they're wrong!"

"Did you tell them they're wrong?"

"Of course. But that man—he just stared. Then he asked about a girl named Hannah."

"Hannah?"

"I've never met anyone by that name. Levi never—"

"Never what?" My knuckles whiten as I grip the bars.

"He never brought anyone to the prison named Hannah."

"Did you meet the other prisoners?"

"A couple."

That isn't what she told me before. She'd described a story like mine—locked up nearly all day.

"This isn't much different, is it?" I gesture at the walls. "Though I can't believe you killed someone in the library. That couldn't have been easy."

"It wasn't. But I did it." She sounds proud.

Isn't it amazing how easily Evelyn slips up when she thinks someone's on her side? She told me she killed someone in the bathroom to escape. Not the damn library. I don't even know if the prison had a library.

But it's becoming clearer and clearer how much of her story is bullshit.