Page 89 of Somno Slave
I shake my head. “No, thank you. I tried it once and it made me sick.”
A faint smile tugs at his mouth before it slips away as his attention pulls back to the glass.
“What did you make of yesterday?”
“Which part?” I reply quietly.
“True.” He huffs before dragging in another inhale. He holds it between his lips for what feels like an eternity before slowly exhaling. “All of it.”
I pause, letting my thoughts run over each other until something close to clinical finally appears.
“Sex is used by offenders as leverage,” I say, keeping my tone even. “It’s a tool. Something that destabilises, that crosses boundaries quickly.”
Peter’s eyes flick toward me briefly, then back to the glass.
I pause, aware of how tight my voice has become.
“It was a performance,” I manage. “He was insulting us.”
“Right,” he mutters. “He is a sexual deviant.”
I still, the words burning a beat longer than it should. I smooth my posture before it can show, but my mind doesn’t follow as cleanly. Because the words....they drag.
Straight back to the Special Case Unit classifications.
Psychosexual deviant.
Sexual sadism.
They pierce me.
Peter...he would have known. This has just confirmed that he knew the labels.
So, why didn’t he tell me before?
This isn’t a minor detail.
Peter knows exactly what preparation looks like, what I should have walked in expecting, what I should have beenreadyfor.
My jaw tightens slightly.
He didn’t forget. He chose not to say it.
“You think he’s playing us?” He shifts to face me.
“I think he already knows how this ends,” I say.
Peter takes another drag, slower this time, the ember flaring briefly before dimming again.
“And he’s not avoiding it.” I murmur.
Peter stills. “You’re saying hewantsthe death penalty?”
My stomach twists.
“I’m saying he’s not behaving like someone trying to escape it,” I reply. “There’s no real resistance, no attempt to disrupt the trajectory. He mocked us. That must mean something.”
Peter studies me for a beat, cigarette paused midway to his mouth. “What do you suggest?”
