Ike leaves without another word, leaving the four of us to speak in silent, knowing glances. Well, the three of us—Bennett, Grey Bun, and me. Dani, meanwhile, stares at me from the next bunk, smiling inanely and rocking back and forth. I’m supposed to act like them, unaware and confused, but I can’t stand the thought of not comforting them. I doubt Bennett or Grey Bun would rat me out, anyhow, and I have to trust my instincts right now, while my dose of Luck still holds.

“Hey,” I murmur, keeping the wobbly out of my voice and smiling warmly at them. “How you holding up, Dani?”

Their smile widens into a beaming grin. “Honesty.”

Bennett snorts. “Damn idiot hasn’t shut up all day. Had to work next to them in the pit. ‘Honesty, Honesty’,” She bobs her head back and forth and mimics Dani’s spaced out tone.

“Hey,” I say darkly. “Cut it out. They can’t help it.”

Bennett regards me with a mixture of surprise and awe. “Look who went and grew a pair.”

Grey Bun jabs her in the side. “Leave the girl be. She’s been through enough without you picking the wounds.”

“Alright, Jenna, I didn’t mean no harm. Just drives me nuts, is all.”

“Honesty,” agrees Dani.

I sigh. “Wish I had some Composure to help with that, Dani. I’ll think of a way, though, I promise.”

Bennett frowns, then shifts closer to the edge of her bunk. She stares at me for a moment, and I consider telling her to back off until I notice the look in her eyes—she’s sizing me up. I can’t figure out why, but I decide against challenging her, at least until she says more.

She nods to the warden station on the far wall, where a female warden is setting up for the night watch. We all watch her inspect her papers and pick up a flask. Inspecting the interior, she tuts and walks to the dormitory exit, humming under her breath.

Once she’s gone, Bennett speaks again. “You got a supply, girly? Someone sneaking syrups in for you?”

Bennett’s a sharp one—either Ike and I have been awful at hiding our exchanges, or she’s the only inmate to catch on to us. Guess I was right to be on my guard with her. I shake my head. “No, nothing like that.”

She cocks one eyebrow and reaches inside her linen tunic. After checking the dorm one last time, she looks at Jenna and places a finger over her mouth. Jenna nods her agreement, and Bennett finally withdraws her hand.

Curled between her fingers is a small glass vial, filled with green liquid.

I strain against the handcuffs, forgetting Ike cuffed me to the bed. “Please, don’t do anything with that.”

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Bennett looks offended. “If I was gonna do anythin’, don’t you think I’d have done it already?”

I shake my head, gritting my teeth to regain control. There’s nothing I can say to get the Composure back from her. I can’t be the only inmate who gets syrups once in a while, although I’m sure I’m the only person getting dosed to break out. If she finds out what Ike is planning, Bennett could rat us out.

But I need that Composure. I need Dani to be lucid and helpful—getting out with them in their current state will be next to impossible.

I jerk my chin at the vial. “What do you want?”

Bennett grins. “Take us with you.”

“I don’t know—”

“Bullshit. We know you and Ike are—” she crosses her little fingers over each other, linking them like two hooks.

“It’s not like that.”

“Might as well be. Whatever he’s planning with you two, we want in.”

I slump against the bed, wondering how my luck ran dry already. “Alright.”

What choice do I have, after all? Maybe they’ll end up being helpful, who knows.

Bennett nods to Jenna, who scampers across the cubicle to my bed, and reaches under the mattress. I open my mouth to complain, but she clamps a hand over my lips, widening her eyes as she checks the warden’s station. Then, ducking back down behind the low wall, she presents a hair pin.

I sigh into her hand, my heart pounding.

She raises her eyebrows at me again—Okay?—and I nod in reply.

Yes, get me out of here. Let’s do this.

It doesn’t take her long to unclip the cuffs. I reach out to Bennett, waiting for her to give me the vial, but she holds out her hand instead. “Deal?”

I take her hand and shake it without hesitating. This isn’t the time to argue, and I can worry about the repercussions later. Given the choice of getting Dani out in a fugue state, or all four of us, I’ll take the latter.

Bennett smiles, gripping my hand. Her dark skin is full of cracks, her forearms scarred with burn marks and soot. “Pleasure doin’ business with you.”

She gives me the vial, and I turn to Dani. With my back turned to Bennett, I slip the tiny vial of Luck from my vest and hold it in my fist, hoping I’ll be able to get Dani to drink both without them noticing. I motion to Dani to sit on the floor with me, to stay out of sight.

“Keep watch,” I say to the other two. I’m not concerned about the wardens, I just want to keep Bennett from seeing the vial of Luck.

Composure first. I uncork it and touch it to Dani’s lips, helping them to sip. Once they’ve drained the green liquid, I pretend I’m checking the dregs while I open the Luck vial. “Just a little more,” I say, helping them to down that syrup, too.

Once they’ve drunk both vials, I put the empty containers back into my vest and wait.

Bennett prods me in the shoulder. “That it? I thought it’d fix them?”

“It takes a second.”

Dani reaches out and stroked my cheek. Something in their gaze softens the lump in my throat—some kind of block I’d put in place to hold back my grief. I have to break away from their comforting touch before I let go and break down in the dormitory. I reach up and take their hand in mine, bringing it down to my lap.

There’ll be time to grieve. I can’t focus on that right now. I have to get us out of here.

“Back in your bunks, inmates.” Ike’s voice startles us both. I glance up from the floor and see him standing over us, pointing at our bunks.

On the top of Dani’s mattress sits a small piece of folded paper. I rest my hands on the mattress to help myself stand and close my hand over it, crumpling it in my fist.

“Lights out!” Ike bellows over our heads.

All four of us flinch, but settle into our bunks as the lights shut off one by one.

Once Ike is out of view, I unfold the paper in my hand, struggling to read it in the increasing darkness.

Keycard in the Pit—locker 2310, back room. Shift change in thirty minutes.

The last lights flicker out, and the dormitory falls silent except for the echoing footsteps of wardens.

“Kyla?” Dani whispers, voice cracking.

I breathe a sigh of relief. “Hey, you.”