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He reached out, but she slapped his hand away.

“It’s fine. I’ll survive. Unfortunately,” she muttered, brushing herself off with trembling hands.

But the anger refused to settle, flaring every time she met his gaze. Khalani stood, not wanting to be in close quarters with him a second longer.

“We need to go outside. Apparently, they’ll shock us if we don’t.”

She indicated his wrists, but he barely looked at them. His face twisted, like he didn’t care about anything else going on around them.

“Are you okay?” His voice was deep and guttural.

“I told you. I’mfine.”

Khalani turned, shoving the raw pain into the deepest recesses of her heart, and walked through the open doorway of the cell without a backward glance.

The bright, sterile hallway stretched out before her. She followed the few figures hastily walking toward the metal door at the end of the hall, and the hard steps behind let her know that Takeshi was on her heels.

When Khalani exited the building, she emerged into a vast, echoing cavern, her footsteps crunching on gravel. The cavern was so immense it made the pit in Braderhelm seem trivial. Scattered one-story buildings stood in quiet rows, contrasting the cave walls that surrounded them.

On the far side of the cavern stood a discreet black building. It had no windows. No one coming in or out. Something about the structure sent shivers up her spine and made her look away.

A few hundred prisoners lined up in ten straight lines in the center of the cavern. Some had a defiant glint in their eyes, while others stared vacantly at the ground, as if hope had long abandoned them.

“Excuse me?” She walked up to a young man with greasy brown hair. “Why’s everyone standing here?”

He barely glanced at her, grunting dismissively.

Okay then.

A firm grip on her arm suddenly yanked her forward. Her mouth popped open as the girl who’d entered her cell earlier dragged her to a spot at the end of the line.

“Line up here,” the mysterious girl directed, then turned to Takeshi. “You too.”

Takeshi narrowed his gaze, not used to taking orders, but he begrudgingly moved behind Khalani, watching everyone with a distrustful eye.

“What happens now?” Khalani turned to ask the girl, but she’d already disappeared further up the line.

Khalani took a deep breath and shifted back and forth, tingly nerves coursing through her limbs.

After a few minutes, the Dealers started inspecting the prisoners. They used batons to strike anyone not standing straight enough or who were slightly out of position. One of the Dealer’s scrutinized her in a way that made Khalani’s insides crawl, but he slyly smirked before moving on.

A blaring alarm suddenly echoed throughout the cavern. A Dealer with stars on the lapels of his brown uniform barked, “Kneel before Dr. Strauss.”

Like a thunderclap, everyone around her immediately dropped to the ground. Khalani glanced around in confusion but quickly followed suit, grimacing as the gravel dug into her knees.

A man appeared in front of the prisoners.

He was short, pale, had white hair that looked like patches of clouds on his head, and he wore a white medical cloak. He slowly walked down the row of prisoners, flanked by two Dealers.

His expression held an unsettling air of detachment as he shifted his focus between each kneeling inmate, holding a clipboard tight by his side.

A suffocating pressure overcame the space. She detected the fresh stench of urine from the girl to her left. Everyone heldthemselves completely still, breaths shallow, as if even the slightest movement might draw Dr. Strauss’ attention.

Who was this man that commanded such terror?

Dr. Strauss continued down her line, a disturbing, maniacal gleam in his gaze. Without warning, his measured steps came to a halt a few feet away, and she kept her eyes trained on the floor, barely breathing.

“Him,” Dr. Strauss said in a cold voice and pointed to the man kneeling in front of her.