Page 72 of Lust

The doctor ignores her. “Same. They both need to wake up. Only then can we see the extent of the damage.”

Suddenly, I feel sick and constricted. There are people everywhere in the small hospital wing that obviously wasn’t designed to hold so many people.

I’m utterly exhausted. It feels like I’ve been awake for a million hours, but the clock on the wall shows me it’s still only early afternoon, so I know I won’t sleep.

I pat Juliette on the shoulder. “You look after our Ro, I’m going to help Noémi with the clean up.”

Downstairs, I find Asmodée and Arch lugging great chunks of concrete with their bare hands into a pile outside the Earthery doors.

The entertainment level is devoid of people, and all the shops and restaurants are closed. I find Noémi just inside the Earthery. “What can I do to help?”

She sighs. “We can fix ze Earthery weeth magic, but first we ‘ave to clean eet, and zere is no magic for zat. Eef you are feeling strong, you can join zose ‘oo are taking away ze big stuff, ozzerwise, eet’s just a case of sweeping ze rubble into bags.”

I catch Remy hauling big chunks of ceiling at the far end of the Earthery, so I grab a bag and a brush and head to the opposite side.

It’s so much more than just sweeping up dust. I end up loading masses of small bits of concrete into bag after bag. Beads of sweat trickle down my back and my muscles scream in protest, but I don’t stop. I know that as soon as I let myself rest, I’ll start thinking, and I don’t want to think. There are too many painful thoughts waiting to pounce: Remy ignoring me, the letters that were sent to me, the murders.

Dade’s complete disregard for me in Juliette’s room earlier.

My stomach hits the floor when I see him working alongside Remy. The pair of them are working in tandem with Asmodée and Arch. They are hauling away the bigger stuff. Remy pulls it up and passes it to Dade, who flies it out of the Earthery.

This morning, one was my boyfriend and the other my friend. Now I don’t know what either of them are. I cast my eyes down away from them both as the familiar tendrils of pain start clutching at my heart.

The hours go by slowly, but I don’t stop. I won’t stop until my brain decides it’s way too tired to think and at that point I’ll head to bed.

Finally, after hours of work and bags and bags of rubble, Noémi taps me on the shoulder. “You ‘ave done a marvelous job. I theenk you ‘ave done enough.”

“Just one more bag,” I insist, although my back feels it’s breaking and every part of my body is screaming in pain.

“Quinn. You ‘ave done enough,” she repeats. “Go and eat and sleep.”

I glance up and realize that everyone else has gone. Neither Remy nor Dade came over to speak to me. Relief washes over me, mixed with a sense of sadness that is almost insurmountable. After what happened today, I thought I was worth checking to see if I was alright. I thought I was worth something.

My stomach growls as I drag myself up to the main level. I’m too tired to eat, but I haven’t eaten all day. Reluctantly, I plod over to the restaurant and flop into a seat.

I’ve never seen it so empty; not even the demons appear to offer me food, which is a first.

“Quinn.” I pull my head up from where I’ve rested it on my hands as Remy takes the seat next to me. I’m so angry at him, but I don’t have the energy to argue. When he starts massaging my shoulders, pushing out the kinks caused more by tension than falling debris, I let him. The bastard owes me after what he said to me earlier.

“Which one were you?” he asks as he digs his thumbs into my shoulders.

“Who do you think I was?” I respond in a quiet mutter.

“I don’t know. The whole thing has me rattled, to be honest. What do you think is happening?”

I shrug my shoulders away from him and give him a tight look. “I guess we’ll find out tomorrow. Noémi is dealing with it. You know what? I just want to go back to my room. I’m tired.”

I stand and make to leave, but Remy stops me. “I can’t let you go alone. Come with me to my bedroom, and I will spend the night looking after you.”

The fucking audacity. I stare at him in disbelief. “Are you sure you don’t want to go and spend the night with Candice?” I retort, a trace of annoyance and spite creeping into my tone.

He waggles a finger at me. “I knew that was you. I should have guessed. It was a stupid idea for a trial, anyway. It would have been much better to get us going through an obstacle course. You know I didn’t mean what I said. Candice is a pain in the ass and I honestly thought you’d turned into some sex-starved monster. I wonder who was playing you?”

Anger bites at me. “Fucking hell, Remy. You told Candice that you didn’t care if I came through the games or not.”

His expression softens with remorse. “I know. I’m sorry. I was confused. You were being weird. Candice was being weird. I was flustered. She’s still my partner in the games, whether I like it or not. She really hates your guts, and I needed to placate her. She’d fuck it up for both of us out of spite if I didn’t at least try to be on her side a little.”

He has a point.

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