Page 11 of Beg the Night

“Holy shit.” My mouth was so dry, the words came out in a jumbled mess. “I—I thought I was the only girl down here.”

Her responding laugh echoed off the stone walls, startling me.

Breath hitching, I scanned the space, expecting every eye to be on us.

Instead, the men paid us little mind.

“I’ve been the only girl here for months,” she said with a scoff that told me she thought my assumption was ridiculous. “I was starting to think I was the only one left.”

I frowned. “The only what left? Girl?”

“The only female mystic, silly.” She inched toward me and cocked her head. “I’m Margaret. I think we’re going to be great friends.”

“Well—” I cleared my throat, in desperate need of water. “It’s nice to meet you, I guess, Margaret. But I’m not sure I’m ready to make friends in this rancid place yet.”God, my head hurt.“How long have I been asleep?”

“Two days,” she said, her expression a little more cheerful than one would expect in a place like this. “You must have been exhausted. We haven’t had anyone new in quite some time. You’re all anyone’s been talking about. I would have woken youup to eat, but you looked so peaceful. And you’re, like, really pretty.”

I blinked at her words. I wasn’t exactly proficient at socializing, having spent most of my life relatively isolated, but she seemed a little pushy. “Thanks, but I’m not sure that’s a good thing around here.”

She shifted so she sat in front of me with her legs crossed beneath her. She wore a simple black shirt and trousers like most of the men down here were dressed in.

She was cleaner and more well-groomed than I’d expect of any person who lived in a literal dungeon, especially a lone young woman in a cavern full of monsters. And she actually seemed to look…happy?

“Oh, it’s a good thing,” she said. “Here. I saved this for you.” She slid a plate of food to me. “I had to hide it from the others. They’re not very good at sharing.”

At the sight of the small portion of chicken, my stomach rumbled, reminding me that I hadn’t eaten in days. I picked it up with my fingers, not hesitating for a second as I shoved it into my mouth.

As I picked up a second piece and all but inhaled it, I couldn’t help but think that maybe this Margaret girl wasn’t so bad, after all. She had a nice energy to her. At least I wouldn’t starve to death.

Not yet, anyway.

I cleaned the plate in record time, and when I finished, Margaret stared at me with a smile on her face.

“What?” I asked. “I was hungry.”

“I knew you would be,” she said. “And I cleaned those wounds on your thigh as best I could while you were sleeping. They’re not too deep, they should heal soon. The Ministry likes to use small knives.” She paused, inching closer. “See? We’re friends already. That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

Aside from Jasmine and Kylar, I had never had a friend. And really, did siblings even count? Probably not, since they’d been stuck with me since birth.

Not anymore.

I ignored the tightness in my chest and turned my attention back to the mystic. “What did you mean when you said being pretty was a good thing?”

“Oh!” She looked over her shoulder and when she turned back, she hunched lower and angled in like she was about to share a secret. “The pretty ones get paired with the higher tiers. Director will like you. She might even pair you with a three.”

I nearly choked. “There are actually tier threes down here? I thought the Ministry was fighting to find even ones and twos.”

“They are.” She leaned in, her voice barely a whisper. “There’s only a single tier three here now. You know.” She frowned. “I take that back. Maybe you don’t want to be paired with a three. At least not this one. He’s scary. Like,scaryscary. I would stay far away from him if I were you.”

“Really?” I lowered my voice to a whisper, too, even though the nearest man was a good twenty feet away. “Who?”

She turned over her shoulder, surveying the room. And then, in a way that didn’t surprise me at all coming from her, she actually pointed at him.

I followed her finger.

And my stomach dropped.

The large man leaned on a blanket-covered cot. His bed was in the very back of the dungeon beneath one of the tiny holes in the cavern walls. He had his legs stretched out in front of him in a way that made him look way too large for that cot.

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