Women rushed to use their cupped hands to drink up water from the buckets. In their thirst and desperation, they splashed and grunted.

Like animals, Serina thought. That’s what they’ve made us.

“All right, come on,” she said, her voice hoarse. “We’ve got to take turns. Everyone gets some.”

The guards never brought them food or turned off the light, but the water helped a bit. With the light to see, they were able to arrange themselves so that most of them could sit down. Val kept his arm pressed against Serina’s, and she leaned into him, her heart heavy.

Many of the women cried, heavy sobs of hopelessness, but Helena’s keening wail vibrated deep into Serina’s bones. To be reunited with the person you love, to have hope for the first time, only to have it all torn away…

“All I wanted was to be with my sister,” Mirror said, burying her head in her hands. “We’d never been apart, and then, in a moment, that was it. I’ll never see her again now.”

“I have a daughter,” Blaze said, her voice gravelly with emotion. “I was put in Mount Ruin just after she was born. She’ll never know anything about me. She won’t remember me. But I remember how small her hands were, her little fingers.… I burned down my own house, killed my husband, because he looked at her as something he could sell, as money he could make. I couldn’t stand it. I thought I’d escape with her. I thought we’d run away together, that she’d have a better life. But they caught me and took her away. Now I’ll never find her. My Lucia. My light.”

And then they were all telling their stories.

“I wanted to get to Azura so badly. I have nothing here, I never did. I’ve always wanted to leave Viridia,” a girl from Jungle Camp said.

“My best friend died on Mount Ruin a year ago,” another said. “And I’ve had nightmares ever since. I miss her so much. I think maybe she took part of me with her, and I’ll never be whole without it. Without her.”

Serina leaned against Val, his heat the only thing keeping her from falling completely apart. During a lull, his deep rumbling voice filled the room. “I went to Mount Ruin to save my mother,” he said. “I had a plan.… I was going to get a job as a guard and get her out of there. But she’d already died by the time I arrived. She was already gone. And now I’ve watched so many more women die.”

So much sadness. So many lost chances and so much longing. Serina wished more than anything in the world that she could change these stories, that she could give all these women the happiness they deserved.