Page 116 of Elas

Doors line the walls, and Gale waves his hand at them as we walk. “Examination rooms and offices that our researchers use when they need somewhere quiet.”

“Examination rooms?” Elas questions, and Gale nods.

“For the subjects living in the apartments. We don’t bring them back into the lab unless it’s necessary.”

“Do they receive the same treatments as the other subjects? The ones housed… elsewhere?” Elas asks.

“No.” It seems to be all the answer Gale is willing to give, but Elas presses further.

“Do they ever interact with each other?”

Gale lifts his brow ridge again. “The good ones may socialize on occasion, yes.”

“What about the others?”

“They don’t interact beyond whoever can hear them from their quarters.” Gale says nothing more about it, and Elas doesn’t push for more.

The Curtiphan assistant rushes ahead to swipe her access card over a sensor that makes a tinkling beep. I gawk at the long hallway beyond the double doors, lined with floor-to-ceiling reinforced windows that overlook a series of rooms. Some are like the exam rooms in the main lobby, but as we get deeper into the hallway, the equipment becomes more complicated. Sinister stainless steel devices lie on trays, more like power tools than medical instruments.

Gale looks directly at me for the first time, and a nervous swallow bobs in my throat beyond my control. “Knock that sympathy off your face, human. You might not understand it, but the research we do here is crucial. It will change the very trajectory of our kind. A few sacrifices are necessary for the good of the many.”

I gulp again, words waiting on the edge of my tongue. They’re ready to erupt, to tell him he’swrong. That the ladder of progress can be climbed without using others as the rungs.

But I fight it back, only giving him a meek nod instead.

Unease churns in my gut as he gestures towards the windows. “One sided glass. Members of our medical team don’t work unsupervised, and you’ll be monitored at all times.”

“This is where August will work?” Elas confirms, and Gale nods.

“This is where we need the most manpower. He’ll transport the subjects to and from their quarters,assist with procedures, and perform wellness checks after they’ve been in the labs. They can get… touchy.”

Elas tenses, waving a hand up my frame. “He is human. One of our kind could easily overpower his weak body.”

Gale’s polite demeanor slips, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Most of them stopped fighting long ago, but if they do? That’s what the shock collars are for.” My stomach drops right out of my body as I draw in a sharp inhale, and Elas’s eyes flicker to mine in clear warning. I’ve already been told to suck it up once, and something tells me the second request won’t be so civil.

If I’m not careful, I’ll be the one to end up with a collar around my neck.

Elas

Inahistorysaturatedwith terrible ideas, this might win a gold fucking medal.

August was already struggling to keep his composure, and this asshole throws out the use of shock collars in casual conversation like it’s an everyday event. But I suppose around here, it is. August’s face has gone pale, his throat fighting against a swallow, and Gale’s mistrust is growing.

“Your technology is impressive,” I say, forcing the attention back to myself. “This makes the hospital at Glaston look outdated, though I’ll deny it if you ever tell Chief Aeliphis I said so.”

Gale’s chuckle is weak, but his shoulders loosen as we continue through the hallway. Most of the rooms are identical aside from the differing equipment in each one. The air is thick with bleach at this end of the hall, but it doesn’t erase the coppery undertones of blood. A cleaning crew works inside the last room, scrubbing a horrifyinglylarge crimson stain off the ground. August pales further as one of them wrings rusty red water from her mop.

Dim light shines through an exterior door at the end, and I skim the barred locking system it uses. It doesn’t appear to need a keycard to open from the inside, though it might set off an alarm. We return to the main lobby, and Gale’s Curtiphan assistant dashes forward to unlock another hallway. The doors open to a similar stretch of windows, but beyond them are rows of…

Cells.

It’s the only accurate description. Nyx explained them to us, so I should’ve expected them, but that claustrophobic fear claws at my chest all the same. Tiny rooms with barred doors and no privacy, with a narrow cot on one side and a sink and toilet on the other. Most of the beds are full, the occupants huddled beneath threadbare blankets.

They don’t even bother to look at us.

One human woman sits on the toilet and stares as we pass, seemingly unconcerned with her nakedness. Her eyes are blank, no emotion left inside them, and her cheeks are sunken. A metallic collar clamps around her thin neck, so tight it indents her skin.

She looks away, and we keep walking.

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