“Whoops. Am I really that loud?”

Ruth chuckles.

“No one is getting blown tonight,” Warrose says with a hand draped over his eyes.

“Exactly,” Ruth adds. “So, at least Warrose’s nightly routine is perfectly intact.”

Skylenna and I burst out laughing, her shoulders shaking against my arms.

Warrose pops up from his relaxed position on the cold floor.

“Is that going to help you sleep at night, little queen?” His husky voice is taunting, daring her to travel through this topic with him.

“Not if you’re obnoxiously loud putting that right hand to work,” she retorts.

We all laugh again, louder this time.

Damn. Get him, Ruth.

“I’d like to retract my little queen nickname. You’re a little rebel talking to me like that.” Warrose cracks a smile. “I guess I’ll keep us both awake with this right hand. Every. Night.”

Ruth loses her tickled expression, and her olive cheeks blossom with color.

“You’re disgusting,” she seethes, yet she shakes her head, biting back a smile.

“How about we have a no masturbation rule while we’re here,” I offer.

Niles groans dramatically. “Who invited the prude?”

At this, Skylenna giggles. And I want to bottle up that sound. Play it over and over again in my mind. She’s so pretty when she laughs. In the asylum, she seemed so drained of life, so heartbroken. It took so long to hear that cute little noise.

She turns into me, her pink lips grazing my ear as much as she can with the bars keeping us apart. “I don’t get to touch myself tonight?”

My cock takes notice, filling with heat at her question, her sultry tone, and her warm breath. “Did you want to touch yourself?” I whisper back.

She nods slowly. “My clit is throbbing, and I’m so wet.”

“Fuck, baby,” I growl.

The sexual energy races through my veins. It’s enough to give me the strength to rip these bars apart like they’re made of cardboard. I want her in my lap so fucking bad.

Greystone’s dark, ravenous presence closes in on the front. My vision blurs slightly, the first sign I can feel myself start to dissociate.

Get back, I warn him. We’re in the Vexamen Prison.

I’m beginning to not care about dangerous surroundings when it comes to Skylenna, he replies casually.

I ignore him and focus on how her long fingers travel through my hair, tracing the nape of my neck. “When this is all over, can we move far away from here?”

“Where would you like to go?” I’d follow you through hell, baby.

“Maybe there’s a nice country out there? Somewhere that doesn’t have a fucked-up government. Somewhere no one knows our names.”

I nod, breathing in the scent of rain and lilies from her hair. Where no one knows our names. Wouldn’t that be nice? But would our system of alters still have a need for me? Or would I simply disappear?

Is there life for me outside of this chaos?

I want that to be true.