Page 68 of Hell Storm

“I am.”

“Do you know where we are?” he hesitated to ask.

I swallowed quickly. “I do. Blackthorn Sanatorium.”

“And … do you know anything of this facilities history?”

My patience was thin, and growing thinner with each question he asked. Mostly because none ofourquestions had been answered since we arrived.

“I know this is its third life,” I offered. “Its first was when it served its intended purpose—as an asylum. The second was when Ian Percival turned it into his …funhouse.”

Speaking of it forced me to recall some of the stories I heard about Dr. Percival’s experiments—on humans, on his own people.

“Hmm,” Aaric uttered thoughtfully. “It seems you’re more than just a pretty face after all.”

Unsure of what to make of the backhanded compliment, I sat silent and motionless.

“Has anyone given you a tour yet?”

I frowned.

Was he kidding?

“I’ll take your silence as a firm no,” he snickered. “Well, this entire section of the facility was established as Dr. Percival’s personal quarters. As I’m sure you can imagine, his experiments often left him too mentally exhausted to make the trek home, so he often spent his nights here.”

Deciding not to speak, I looked around the room again. It was easy to imagine the monster himself unwinding with a fresh glass of blood in hand, relaxing after a long day of inflicting pain and misery on his test subjects.

“You’re a Roamer, aren’t you?” I blurted. “If I’ve come to properly understand your collective mindset … you hate Dr. Percival, don’t you? For how he’s fought to oppress your population?” I paused, trying to steady my breaths when those words hit too close to home. “How can you even …behere? Surrounded by his work, his memory?”

My skin crawled just at the thought of it.

Aaric sat quietly at the other end, and I couldn’t help but to wonder if I said too much, if I somehow overstepped my boundaries. It wouldn’t be hard to do, considering I had no idea what those boundaries were.

“Why am I here?” I askedthisquestion, thinking he might be slightly less adverse to answering.

“Because I thought it was time we meet,” he answered, missing the point. “You have to admit, it’s a bit peculiar that a Doll belonging to one of the Dynasty’s beloved princes would get herself into so much trouble at one of my races.”

One ofhisraces?

That remark alone raised so many questions, but I had to run damage control first. If he thought I was just a Doll, it seemed he had no clue who I was, or that I, technically, belonged to allfourprinces. Not just Levi.

“I take it it’s been a while since you’ve tuned into a Dynasty broadcast?”

He hesitated to answer. “Our connection was severed by the Tech Regulation Department just over a month ago, when they detected us hacking into their signal. And since our usual, go-to guy is no longer with us, we’re all, admittedly, a bit out of touch.”

My team had also encountered a close scrape or two with the Tech-Reg Department, but Felix had been clever enough to bypass them. It didn’t sound like Aaric’s crew had gotten as lucky.

“Have we … missed something vital?” he asked, and I could hardly believe he thought I’d actually answer that question.

“Nothing you haven’t already deduced on your own,” I lied. “For instance, that Levi’s taken me as a Doll. And, for the record, I participate in the races because he indulges my interests. Racing just so happens to be one of them.”

When Aaric stayed silent, my nerves kicked into overdrive.

“And I call B.S.,” I blurted, deflecting yet again. “You didn’t invite me here because I’m Levi’s Doll. You didn’t even know I was marked before tonight. Neither did your men,” I accused.

I was certain that, had it not been for the skimpy dress he put me in, hestillwouldn’t have had a clue.

Despite the blinding flames before my eyes, I felt him glaring.

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