As I talked, Calum remained silent. I couldn't ask for transparency without offering it myself, and these people were nothing like Anton and his crew. Suddenly, my insistence that he kept this story to himself didn't seem so important.

"Camille Vance isn't my real name. I made it up on the fly. Vance was the name of the company who made the dumpsters Gavin uses outside his bar. But I can't tell you what my real name is because I don't know."

I calmed myself with a deep breath and said, "I found myself in an abandoned warehouse one morning four years ago, with no recollection of how I got there, my age, or my name. I spent the next few months sleeping in parks, under bridges, in abandoned warehouses. I picked up odd jobs where I could, but if I had any experience working, I didn't know about it."

"Work had been steady, and I was paying for one of those hotel rooms you could rent by the week. I thought I was finally getting my crap together. I wanted to plan for the future. One day, a guy a few years older than me came into a diner I was working at."

"Anton was like no one I'd met before. He wasn't handsome, not in the traditional sense, but he was charismatic. His clothes and car screamed well-off. He flirted with me, and I flirted back. I'm not shallow, but I craved the security of the persona he was putting off. By the end of the week, he'd convinced me to put in my notice at the diner. He promised he would take care of me."

I thought about that week. He had made me laugh until my stomach hurt, and his sweet kisses as he walked me to my door in the evening would linger in my mind as I slept. Never once had I seen the truth. The black stain in his soul.

"Anton lived in this gorgeous upstate New York mansion. When I saw it towering at the end of the driveway, I pinched myself. How did a worthless nobody like me end up someplace like that? Anton said my wide-eyed look of wonder was charming and so innocent. He said that's what drew him to me in the first place because the world hadn't ruined me.

"I thought he was being sweet, but what I learned later was that he preyed on women like me. He liked us down on our luck and dependent on the kindness of others. After I insisted on having my own room, he struck me. I was told that he didn't bring me to his home so I could mooch. If wouldn't earn my keep on my back, I would earn it with the rest of the staff."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Calum turn his focus from the ocean to me. I refused to look at him, terrified of the pity I would see. When he brushed a tear from my cheek, I pulled away. I hadn't cried about this in years.

With a shaky breath, I continued, "It mortified me. I wanted to crawl into a dark hole and cry. What had I done to Anton to make him hate me so much? Surely it was my fault. He'd plied his charm well enough to make me feel guilty, but apparently not enough to make me abandon my own morals. I still refused to sleep with him."

"I went to my room to see the damage he'd done to my face. I'd already determined that I was going to be sweeter and kinder to him. The Anton I knew respected me for not being promiscuous; he'd told me so. I must have been harsh, or perhaps I'd mislead him. He'd naturally assumed that I was ready for the next step, and he'd been shocked to find out otherwise."

"These were the thoughts going through my mind when I stood in front of the mirror inspecting the bruise blossoming on my cheekbone. Just thinking about the excuses I made for him makes me feel sick. I stared at that bruise for an eternity, wondering how he would still find me attractive with it. I sobbed, wishing it would just disappear, and when it did, I nearly fainted."

Even though the memory was mired in pain, I had to chuckle at the comical reaction I'd had to the vanishing bruise. I'd dropped to my knees, my hands grasping the countertop, while I hung my head, trying to catch my breath. The room really spun for a moment, but I gathered my nerve and pull myself back up.

"I pushed around the area where the shiner had been. The skin was perfectly smooth, but it was still tender. Whatever I'd done had only hidden the damage, not healed it. When I woke up, it was still sore, but there was no visible damage."

"I went down to meet Anton for dinner, expecting a flowery apology and a promise for it to never happen again. Instead, he reissued his threat, telling me I had just a few days to figure out how I wanted to live there: as a servant or a mistress. He told me to take my dinner to my room. On my way out, he complimented my excellent application of makeup. Bruises are hard to hide, he told me.

"I moved everything out of my room that night and asked one housemaid where I could sleep. She gave me a knowing look and told me we could room together. Her name was Addie, and she showed me the ropes. Addie told me that most of the house staff had initially opted for the mistress' trek, only to discover it was just a detour to servanthood."

Addie had been my very best friend. I could still remember the sparkle in her light brown eyes and the way her strawberry blonde curls always escaped from her bun. We'd whispered about our hopes and dreams until the stars dimmed in the sun's glow. I was crying steadily now as I told my story, pushing back images of her perfect porcelain skin, damaged and bleeding. Unseeing eyes. Strawberries stained crimson.

"Anton struck me many more times. Most often after cornering me in whichever room I was cleaning. He would tell me how he wanted me more than anyone else. At first, I melted under those words, but I remembered Addie and the countless other women he'd misused and abused. I stood up to him, and each encounter earned another mark. Another mark I wished away.

"I paid attention to my body when I hid the bruises, focusing on how the energy pooled in my middle, and I learned how to manipulate it. I thought about other changes. First it was eye and hair color, but I grew bolder until one evening, Anton's rugged face was peering back at me from the mirror. I could've used my gift in so many ways, but I only wanted one thing. I wanted to get out of that house. I wanted to take Addie with me. We were going to be free."

"One evening, they assigned me to the dining hall. I expected Anton to be wooing another unsuspecting woman, but it ended up being a large group of his business associates. I didn't really listen to what they were talking about, but by the end of the evening, Anton and some others in the group were quite drunk. He snatched me and pulled onto his lap while I was refilling his glass of wine. I just sat there while he ran his lips over me, knowing if I made him look foolish in front of his coworkers that he'd punish me more than usual, and all I thought about was that in a short time, I'd be far away from him."

"I guess my indifference made him angrier than my outright refusal. He backhanded me, and I hit the floor. All of his associates laughed. Even the women. One looked at me and told Anton he should give up on screwing normals. That's when he laughed and told them I wasn't a normal. 'Go on, sweetheart. Show em what you can do.' I pretended like I didn't know what he was talking about, but he kept kicking me. Over and over and over. I felt a rib break, and I finally shifted until I looked like the arrogant woman who'd spoken earlier."

"The entire room burst into applause. They congratulated Anton on his find. Never had they seen such a Talent. They promised to report it to the higher ups. He left me there. Bleeding and broken on the floor. They gave me three days to heal before Anton sent me to the basement. They poked and prodded me for weeks to see what the extent of my power was. I couldn't take on any form that wasn't human. Gender didn't matter. Maintaining a shift was easy. Shifting itself drained me. I hated every single minute, but I learned how to master it completely.

"I saw others with gifts down there. One girl breathed fire and another could talk to animals. They were all studied and put into cages."

Anya and Maribel were their names. Anya would wake in the morning with her dark cheeks streaked by dried tears and fresh sores forming around the fire resistant plate they strapped over her mouth. After just one look at the girl, I knew she wouldn't have been a danger to anyone but herself.

Maribel rarely rested. She spent her nights screaming and throwing herself against the plastic walls of her cage. I couldn't hear anything through the soundproofed material. I learned from one of the less vile lab assistants that her cage was sealed and inspected daily for any bugs or other living creatures. She'd almost escaped in her first week of captivity by calling all the bugs in the house to her aid.

I needed no special restraints. My gift wasn't deadly, and my one attempt at fighting my way out of the examination room had earned me a strong sedative and a headache. I envied those girls and their gifts, but I knew now I'd never have escaped if they had seen me as dangerous.

"Did you ever learn who these people were?"

I startled at the sound of Calum's voice. The simple words he spoke were heavy with barely constrained rage. I risked a quick look at him, and instead of the pity I so feared, I saw a man holding onto his temper by a thread. "Yes. All the equipment and paperwork said Mador. I'm sorry. When you said Gavin was working for Mador, I knew who they were immediately. But I didn't trust you. I can't go back. I can't."

He turned to me then, taking my hands in his. Beneath the anger, something else lurked. Something I couldn't identify. "Listen to me. I'm not worried that you didn't tell us then. You're telling me now. I cannot explain to you how grateful I am that you've chosen to be completely honest with me, but I need you to leave nothing out of your story."

"I'm done hiding," I whispered, goosebumps rising across my arms as he squeezed my hands. Knowing what was coming next, I was thankful he didn't let them go.

"Experiments continued daily, but I knew they were growing bored with me. After so long, there was really little else to learn about what I could do. Anton stopped by one day to check on my progress, and I overheard a conversation he had with that same vile woman from the party. While his discoveries had earned him a few pats on the head, they expected more. He either needed to find new pets or his current pets needed to show more potential. Either way, they were going to be shipping us to another location soon."

"They strapped me to a table, so I couldn't even turn my head to escape his fists. He told me how worthless I was, and hit me until his knuckles cracked, and I couldn't tell his blood from mine. I'm not sure how I survived that one, but I guess knowing what I do now, a normal person wouldn't have. He left when he realized he couldn't get anything else out of me."

"They sent someone in to clean me up and tend to my injuries. The state I was in disgusted the lab assistant, and she promised she'd help me. That night, Anya fought back the only way she knew how. She killed herself. I'm still not sure how she did it, but she burned from the inside out. For the first time, I considered death as a viable escape route. I figured I would just have to wait for Anton to visit again and antagonize him until he beat me to death. Thankfully, the lab assistant was true to her word. She used the chaos of the Anya's death as a distraction. She snuck me out, and I found Addie waiting for me."

I stopped then. I had pushed this memory away so many times that its clarity overwhelmed me.

"It's okay," Calum whispered.

"We didn't make it far. Shots rang out, and Addie hit the ground. She was already dead when I turned her over. I wish I could tell you what happened next, but I have no memory of how I made it to the river. The mansion was burning behind me, and I could hear Anton screaming. The last thing I heard before I jumped into the water was his promise that they would find me. He must've been injured because he didn't follow me."

I stopped. There was no need to tell him about how I'd stayed conscious until I'd drifted far enough down the river that I felt safe enough to drag myself on the shore, or how I stumbled through the woods until I found a fishing camp.

Calum tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, the small gesture warming me from the inside out. "I really just expected you to show me your talent and then demand to be told everything."

I laughed. He had me figured out, but I was determined that was the old Camille. "I think that's what I planned until I opened my mouth and experienced word vomit. I've never told anyone that story before. After seeing Addie die like that, I was terrified to bring someone else into my business. I've convinced myself it was for my safety, but I think I didn't want to chance anyone else being hurt. She died trying to be my friend."

"Camille, she did no more than you've done yourself. You can't live your life stopping others from doing what you're willing to do yourself. No one forced her to save you. And I know about Katerina. You can't blame yourself for the choices she made, either."

His words were a balm to my blistered soul, giving me permission for the first time in years to forgive myself just a little. I'd promised myself after I settled into my new life working at The Green Knight that I wouldn't harden my heart against love; it's why I always dreamed of my something more. Yet, it did just that. I told myself that believing in it was enough. I didn't have to be an active participant in life.

"I know you don't want me to, but I need to share your story with the others. I promise we will tell you everything, but for now, I just want you to understand that we have a common enemy. Mador Industries has to be brought down, and you're with the team who is working to do that."

I nodded, content with that much for now. I understood little about this world or this group of people, but it was enough for me to know that they opposed the people who'd tormented me for so long. "I don't have to know everything," I explained, my eyes scanning the horizon. I half expected the sun to be setting, but the shimmering yellow orb was still climbing towards its zenith.

"Thank you." He stood, brushing sand off of his dark denim-clad legs. He helped me to my feet, and I wondered if it was just in my head that his hands lingered far longer than they needed to.

"Now, wait a second," I admonished. "I said I didn't need to know everything. I still need to know what you brought me out here to tell me."

The scar across his face pulled tight as he smiled. "You miss nothing. You wanted to know why we were so intent on keeping you separate? Well, for one thing, because we are a training base for soldiers in the fight against Mador. We guard our secrets closely."

We walked back to the beach houses, and I could see several of the students eating breakfast at the rows of tables outside of the house used as a dormitory. Kent and his two male friends were putting trays on the wooden tops. Bri cast a seductive smile at the handsome crew before her eyes fell on me. The smile turned to a smirk before slipping completely off her face when she saw who my walking companion was. I considered stumbling just so Calum would steady me with his muscular arms, but the gleam in his eye stopped me. Damn man knew exactly what was going through my head.

"As for the other, it's not just because we didn't know where you came from, but also about the company you appeared to be keeping. If you'd known Gavin worked with the same company Anton was involved in, would you have trusted him? Hell, even if he just knew him?"

I considered his words. "No. I would've run screaming in the other direction. Especially considering I met him just days after escaping Anton. I didn't trust him then, but I was out of options. My ability to change my appearance was the only peace I had about staying in that town. Anton knew what I was capable of, but he didn't know how to tell me apart from anyone else once I shifted. How close was I to being caught the entire time?"

"It's over now. There's no reason to dwell on that. Focus on the future. Like, learning how to defend yourself." Calum stopped in front of the training room Anna and I used. As expected, the lights were off and the pink-haired beauty was sleeping off her hangover. I eyed my escort curiously as we entered the room. "I think we've covered enough for now. Get in the center of the mat."