Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Skye
Ishould have brought more than a blaster. Not because I needed to shoot someone, but because I needed something to carry supplies.
“A tote bag would be more useful than this,” I said under my breath, as I pulled the secret door closed behind me and squeezed around the rack of clothing with the blaster pointed at the floor.
Not only had I never fired a blaster before, I wasn’t sure how much good it would do me if I faced trained Imperial soldiers. Being armed might not help me.
As I let my eyes adjust to the darkness, I listened for movement in the building.
Athena had assured us she was the last one in the theatre and that she would lock up after herself, but that didn’t mean others didn’t have keys or even that suspicious Imperial guards might not come back to do a more thorough search.
I waited until I was sure that there was no one else moving around with me before walking on my toes across the dressing room.
I opened the drawers in Athena’s table as quietly as I could, but I found nothing that would work as a bandage.
One glance at the spangly, glittery dresses on the rack told me they would be useless.
Casting a last, worried look at the clothing rack hiding the secret room, I slipped into the corridor.
I needed to move fast. Kolt might be conscious and keeping pressure on his leg, but the amount of blood he’d lost worried me, as did the hue of his skin.
His usual golden-bronze skin was almost as pale as mine, and that wasn’t a good thing.
I tried not to let my thoughts spiral as I tiptoed down the hall, but it was hard not to worry. The plan, which had seemed like a good one at the time, meant that Kolt was now injured. How had I ever thought that his stabbing himself with the end of a spoon was a good idea? I knew better than that.
You didn’t have another option, I reminded myself. You had to escape, and he refused to let you be the one to be wounded.
“Stupid, macho Vandar,” I whispered, even though there was no heat in the words.
As much as I despised the Vandar for taking Jasmine, I couldn’t deny that Kolt had been nothing but brave and generous. Maybe there was some male macho shit going on, but there was more than that. As much as I was loath to admit it, the Vandar battle chief wasn’t the brute I’d thought him to be.
That’s because he kissed you like you’ve never been kissed before.
I groaned as I shook my head and tried to banish the memories of his lips on mine, even as my pulse quickened and heat scorched my cheeks.
It was more than the fact that he was a startlingly good kisser.
Ever since he’d lost his memory, he’d been softer.
Whatever impulse he’d had to appear tough and heartless had vanished along with his memories.
Which means the Vandar who’s been kissing you is not the real Kolt, I thought. Before he hit his head hard enough to make him forget who he was, he’d been dismissive, annoying, and verging on hostile. But now, he was like an entirely different Vandar.
“What happens when he remembers everything?” I asked out loud, the hush of my voice a comfort in the ominous silence of the corridor.
Would he be horrified that we’d kissed? Would he regret revealing himself to me? Would he take back everything he’d said to me?
I couldn’t think about that now. Not when I didn’t know if he’d ever remember. At the moment, I had to focus on saving him and then on both of us escaping. All the rest could wait.
Suddenly, I spun on my heel. The bathroom. How could I forget? Athena had said it was right next to her dressing room. I hurried back down the hall and opened the door next to the dressing room.
My heart plummeted. It was a storage closet, not a washroom.
Before I closed the door, I hesitated. Maybe the closet contained something I could use to wrap Kolt’s leg.
I squinted as I scanned the shelves, since the inside of the closet was even darker than the hallway.
Rolls of paper, balls of twine, piles of fabric scraps, heavy-duty tape …
“Jackpot,” I said, trying not to cheer out loud.
I could use the fabric scraps as bandages. I picked up a roll of silver tape. I could even use that to close the wound, although I didn’t want to be Kolt when we eventually pulled it off. It didn’t matter. We would escape by then, and once we’d reunited with the Vandar, a real medic could fix him.
I tucked the blaster into the back of my pants as I loaded up on supplies.
Now all I needed was to find something to clean the wound.
I had a bad feeling that the spoons they’d given us in the prison hadn’t been the cleanest, which meant that Kolt’s cut might be infected.
It would explain why he’d fainted, although I suspected that was mostly from blood loss since the Vandar clearly cut himself deeper than he’d intended.
I closed the closet door and noticed a door on the other side of the dressing room. Was this the door Athena had meant? I opened it and breathed a sigh of relief. I’d found the bathroom, which meant the actress hadn’t lied to us.
I left the door open as I stepped inside, but I used one hand to grope along the wall for the lights. Once I found a panel, I held my breath and pressed it. The small room instantly illuminated, and I cringed from the glare after being in the dark.
Blinking a few times, I bustled to the cabinet next to the sink.
I laid my supplies in the washbasin while I opened first one drawer and then the other, almost weeping with relief when I found a bottle of astringent.
It might be what the actresses used to strip off their heavy stage makeup, but I suspected it would also do the job of disinfecting a cut.
I twisted off the cap and inhaled, flinching from the sharp smell.
Yep. That would do it.
Replacing the cap on the bottle, I closed the drawer and eyed my haul. Time to get back to Kolt and do my best impression of a medic. I scooped it all up into my arms and headed out, using my elbow to tap the panel and extinguish the lights.
Once I was plunged back into darkness, I took a few moments to let my eyes adjust and get my bearings.
The last thing I needed to do was bump into walls and drop supplies from my unwieldy pile.
When I could make out faint shapes and locate the walls, I started forward, shuffling my feet to feel for the doorway of the dressing room.
I found it and picked up my pace as I headed for the rack of dresses that hid the secret door.
I didn’t think I could squeeze behind it with my full arms, so I used one foot to pull it out.
The metal legs scraped against the floor, and I cringed at the sound, my arms bobbling and knocking a roll of tape to the floor.
The smack it made on the floor was louder than I’d expected, and I held my breath.
There might be no one in the theatre, but the last thing I wanted to do was draw attention to our hiding spot.
Cursing under my breath, I did a deep knee bend without tipping at the waist and dumping everything else on the floor.
Once I’d snagged the tape from the floor, I stood again and slipped behind the rack.
I turned and used my backside to slide open the door to the compartment, the light from inside spilling out into the darkness.
Just as I was about the duck inside, I heard it. A thump from somewhere down the hall. And then another. My pulse jangled as I recognized the sound. Footsteps. More specifically, boots. And they were coming closer.
I backed into the hiding space and hurried past a wide-eyed Kolt and to the bed, where I deposited the supplies without making a sound.
I didn’t know if I had time to get back and close the door fully, so I put a finger to my lips before reaching up and tugging on the hanging string to turn off the light.
Darkness surrounded us as I crouched next to Kolt, resting a hand on him in warning as the footsteps grew louder and a thought sent a chill through me. Someone was looking for us.