Lorraine's POV
The hospital bathroom was small, barely more than a cubicle with flickering lights and cracked tiles, but it might as well have been a palace and I wouldn't have cared, not when I knew what was waiting for me this morning. The warm water stung as it hit the cuts on my skin, a brutal reminder that comfort in this academy was never without pain. I let the water run down my body, washing away the sweat, and the exhaustion, at least the physical kind.
But nothing could rinse the heaviness in my chest. Elise was gone. Just like that.
I closed my eyes, willing the water to numb me, to freeze the storm inside. It didn't work. It never did.
Once I was done, I stepped out and reached for the folded uniform Adrian had gotten for me, crisp, neat, and smelling faintly of cedar.
I wore the uniform and stared at myself in the mirror.
