Page 44 of Her Magic Light

Coop sighed. “You really want all three of those things?” But there was a slight hint of amusement in his tone, so I answered him.

“As demanding as it seems, yes, I do.” I even put my hands on my hips and tapped my foot.

He sighed again. “Let me let Dr. Anderson know you’ll be a while longer, and I’ll send someone to take you to the shower block. Then you can change and eat. I’ll grab some clothes for you from the general supply.”

I winced. That didn’t sound like a great option. “Is that like a thrift store assortment?”

“Worse.” But he was gone before I could ask him anything else.

A short while later there were timid footsteps in my cell. “Hello?” She had a timid voice, too. “I’m Aria. I’m taking you to the showers.”

“Hi.” A spark of excitement shot through me. A different room. Being clean.

“I have some fresh clothes for you,” she continued.

More excitement.

“But have you got your sunglasses on?”

A little disappointment. Apparently, everyone had their orders regarding me.

“No. Coop didn’t leave any.”

“I’ll be right back with a pair.” Her footsteps tapped away again before quickly returning. “Can you come to your cell door?”

I moved quickly. I didn’t want her to come in, since I didn’t want anyone else to find my stash. Coop had found it, and he’d left it behind. However, I couldn’t depend on that from anyone else.

A small woman I could barely see shoved her arm into the room and pressed some sunglasses against my chest, and I slipped them on. She was just doing her job and didn’t deserve any of my frustration. I could save that for Coop, Locke, and Dr. Anderson. I snarled when I thought of the creepy doctor. Just being outside my cell with someone other than Coop or Locke felt like actual freedom, too.

Twenty minutes later, standing under the powerful jet of a shower, even in the gloom I was used to now, felt amazing. There were no windows in here, but light crept in from beneath the doors leading to other rooms or hallways. I could see enough to wash and dress. Luckily, though, not enough to see how I looked in clothing from the general supply. I didn’t need that kind of negativity in my life.

I thanked Aria as she led me back to my cell, but she only told me Coop would be along soon to collect me. She didn’t say another word before she left to attend whatever her other duties were.

I stood in my cell and waited. When the door opened and Coop came in, he pressed a warm, foil-wrapped packet into my hands.

“Breakfast sandwich,” he explained, “but you need to eat it on the move.”

I nodded and walked forward as I unwrapped the foil. The first bite exploded a taste sensation in my mouth, and I moaned. “Damn, where did you get this from?” It tasted like he’d somehow visited my favorite diner and selected my usual from the menu. “It’s great,” I murmured.

By the time we reached the elevator, I was shoving the remains of the foil deep into the pockets of the borrowed sweatpants I wore. Coop glanced at me as the doors opened and low light spilled into the hallway.

Then he sighed. Aria had taken her sunglasses with her, and he removed his, focusing his blue eyes on mine for a moment. The corners of his mouth turned down, and a hint of sadness crept into his gaze, making his eyes seem almost violet. Then he set his sunglasses into place on the bridge of my nose and reached into his inside pocket, extracting another pair for himself.

We traveled upward in our usual silence, the ride taking longer than it had before. When the doors opened, bright light hit me as sun poured in through large windows on a floor I’d never visited before. Even with the sunglasses on, I squinted.

My skin flushed. I stepped forward from the elevator, held out my arms, and turned slowly in a circle, allowing the light to hit me on all sides. Then I stood still, soaking up the warmth.

Coop cursed quietly under his breath and grasped my upper arm in one hand as he muttered into the cuff of the other.

By the time we’d reached the end of the corridor, large shutters had fallen into place over all of the windows, and low-level emergency lighting had turned on, even though most of it switched off as I walked by, leaving only the area behind me and a little way ahead illuminated.

We’d been walking toward the sounds of chatter and people, and I’d been both excited and apprehensive at the idea of seeing people again, but as the sun vanished from the hallway, and who knew how many of the surrounding rooms, the chatter turned to groaning and grumbles before falling completely silent.

There was something almost ominous about the silence, and now I really didn’t want to meet the group of people whose resentment I could almost feel in the air.

Coop took my elbow, steadying me, as we passed through a double-wide doorway with the doors flung open. We entered some type of communal space… some type of… I sniffed, and my nose twitched. Food place.

“You can take the glasses off.” He didn’t speak above a murmur, but I heard him.

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