Page 51 of Demure
“I don’t know what he will do.” Slaine motioned to Sierra’s dirty nails. “Continue your plan. It may be a while before Aislan is able to come for you. I don’t know what his plans will entail either; I just know that he is cunning, and adept at getting around the rulings of his father, as he has been doing so for a long time.”
Sierra was about to ask for more information, when, like the days prior, the door was rudely pushed open, and she was collected by the two guards.
Once she was redeposited in her cell, Sierra resumed her digging. The dirt floor was hard-packed, but she was pretty good at using her short nails to get her hand in and remove the dirt clump by clump. To avoid having an obvious pile of dirt by the corner, each clump she removed she repacked in the ground around her room, trying to make it as even as possible so no one would notice the random appearance of more dirt.
She had yet to make it to the bottom of the wall, and she wasn’t even sure this was an exterior wall, which could prove problematic later. Either way, she didn’t see another solution, so she continued her excavation.
On and on she dug, only pausing once when the door to hercell opened enough for a bit of bread on a plate to be passed through. Sierra devoured it quickly, before resuming her task. Unsure whether it was night or day, she continued digging despite the mounting pain in her nail beds, squealing in excitement when she finally reached the base of the stone wall. Now, she would just have to dig deep enough for her to fit underneath, then dig up the other side.
Sierra was exhausted, however, and decided it was time for a little sleep. She would continue her plan tomorrow. If all went well, she hoped she would only be imprisoned here for another two or three days at most.
She could do this. She had to. She refused to die in this cell.
Sierra awoke to the sound of a key in the lock, rising quickly to ensure her hole was covered before the guards entered the room. She felt she had only slept a few hours, but the thought of seeing Slaine and having some food for her stomach was enough to perk up her tired body.
When the guard grabbed her arms, Sierra winced as their hands encircled her biceps. It made sense that she was a bit sore after the hours of digging the day before. She just hoped she was able to push through the pain to dig again today.
Her hope quickly died, however, when she noticed the guards were taking her on a different path than normal. As they continued to take more turns around corners Sierra wasn’t sure she recognized, her mind began to go wild, thinking of all the things she could do or say if she was being brought to Conlan directly.
All of these thoughts tumbled through her heart as she was instead pushed into the room containing the tub which she had bathed in upon her arrival. Like before, a woman stood and motioned for her to get in the bath as soon as the guards released their grips.
Although she hoped this was just because her dress was now officially brown, she feared it was likely because they planned to take her blood again. Stripping herself of the gauzy gown, Sierra stepped into the tub, quickly concealing her dirt-packed nails beneath the surface. She cleaned what dirt she could, hoping it wouldn’t be too obvious that she had been passing her time trying to dig out of her cell.
It wasn’t until she was handed a bar of soap that Sierra noticed that her arms didn’t look like they normally did, covered in red spots, and lesions every few millimeters. Instead, the spots had begun to fade, almost from the inside out, with her normal skin peeking through the center of each lesion, which were now no more than pink rings.
Sierra couldn’t believe her eyes. For years, the spots had inhabited her skin, and now they were disappearing of their own accord, without Sierra needing to take a pill or use one of the creams the doctor had given her. Sierra resumed her washing, trying to think of anything else that could have caused this miraculous almost clearing of her skin. By the time the small bit of soap was gone, Sierra had come to the conclusion that the Sidhe realm itself must be healing her, or perhaps the fact that she hadn’t eaten much besides fruit and bread for the last few days was the answer.
Sierra would’ve liked to spend more time in the bath, looking at her clearing skin and enjoying the enveloping warmth of the water, but within a few minutes of her using the last of the soap, the woman beckoned for her to rise, pulling a new white gauze gown over her head.
With a sigh, she glanced down at the dress as the woman tightened the waistband. They must’ve had multiples of these on hand, as Sierra’s brown one was still in a pile on the floor by the tub. She glanced around, hoping to see something that resembled underwear, only to be disappointed. Before she could ask the woman who had handed her the dress, the guards were back and leading her down the hallway.
The little hope she held out that this was just a chance for her to wash and change disappeared the moment she was pushed into the room with the stone slab, and she braced herself for what was coming.
Sierra rolled her eyes as she was led to the slab and held down just as she had been before. This time, Conlan wasn’t even there, and it was a different man who collected her blood. She couldn’t be sure, as her eyes had been pressed closed the entire time, but Sierra was pretty sure they took more than before. From a medical standpoint, Sierra knew she would be fine, but she also knew that taking someone's blood made them hungry and fatigued, so she may not be able to dig the rest of the day. She promised herself she would try anyway.
The moment Sierra stood, she knew she had been correct in her assumptions. She felt lightheaded, and was forced to lean on the shoulder of the guard as they led her back to her room. Unlike before, their dragging tactic didn’t work because of how lightheaded Sierra felt. She could tell this annoyed one of the guards, as he huffed when they practically had to carry her the last bit to her cell. She wanted to make a smart remark, but she found she was too tired to even do that.
By the time they arrived at her dungeon cell, or wherever it was they were keeping Sierra, the two guards were carrying her between the two of them. As they leaned down to place her on the ground, Sierra tipped her head back, her eyes making contact with one of the guards.
For a moment, Sierra thought she really was losing it, as Aodhan’s emerald-green eyes looked back at her. But then she blinked, and his face transformed to the point where it didn’t truly resemble him. Sierra shook her head. She had clearly lost too much blood.
But then, to her shock, the guard held a finger to his lips in the universal ‘quiet’ symbol, before releasing her shoulders and stepping away.
Sierra mustered all the energy she could to push herself into asitting position, but by the time she did, the door was swept closed, and the room echoed with the telltale click of the lock. Sierra’s vision swam a second time, and she decided that as much as she wanted to dig today, she would sleep first. Just for a few hours…
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Once again, Sierra awoke to the sound of the door shifting open. Except instead of the usual two guards, this time there was only one standing within the arc of light the opened door allowed into her room.
Sierra moved into a sitting position, her muscles tightening in response, letting her know she had been sleeping longer than she had anticipated.
Before she could fully deduce what was going on, the guard was by her side, helping her to her feet. Sierra assumed it was time to visit Slaine, but to her surprise, the guard led her out of the cell in the opposite direction of where they usually went.
Sierra looked over her shoulder just to be sure, but before she could decide whether she should be worried, the guard grabbed her arm tightly and began speaking in a low, urgent whisper.
“Don’t look back. We must be quick.”
Sierra wanted to ask why, or where they were going, but her intuition told her this was the time to remain quiet.
