Excerpt: Underwater cigarettes

Reaching the edge of the pool, she gratefully collapsed to her knees, sat, and swung her legs round and into the water. It would have made more sense to take her clothes off first, but right now the only thing on her mind was to get into the water, and worry about details later. Her feet stung a little from the heat, but not so much so that she didn't slide gratefully into the steaming pool.

If her feet had stung, it was nothing on the pain from the raw skin where she'd been acid burned. But even that couldn't have dragged her from the pool.

There was no way to guess how long she simply floated in the water, letting the heat soak into her aching body, before she finally decided that it was time to get out of her filthy clothes and actually set about scrubbing herself clean.

Of course, that turned out to be easier said than done. The strips of cloth wrapped around her arms were easy enough, but the material of her top clung to her damp skin, and the only way she could see to get out of her leggings was to tear them off.

Having finally managed to somehow remove the top, she was working on tearing through the acid thinned material of her leggings when she was interrupted by an apologetic cough. The indignity of being caught with one leg up in the air while she tried to get enough of a grip to tear the cloth apart was nothing compared to the fact that she was half naked in front of a total stranger.

There was an unwritten rule in the Death Squad that if the curtain to the springs was shut you did NOT enter. Given that Dorne had been the only female in the group following Zia's death it was a rule that none would dare break. Not even Kerrick would risk bringing Dorne's wrath down on his head. But if it wasn't any of the Death Squad, then it could only be one man...

Dropping her leg into the water, and covering her chest with one arm, she turned to face the man with all the insouciance she could muster at such short notice. She nearly laughed when she saw that he was standing with his back to her, but thought that he might not appreciate it after he'd made such a thoughtful gesture. He turned his head slightly, but not enough to be able to see her, “I'm really sorry, I just saw you walk in here and hadn't realised, well, that you'd be, and I just, well, I can't get out, and sort of, well, hoped, you know, that you could, maybe, help. Please?”