He helps her out of the nook and leads her by the hand farther into the alley. A chain link fence blocks passage to the road, and he peers left, right, left through the mesh. He sways as though he has to pee before whispering to her.

"You'll be safe soon."

"What do you mean?" She studies his tiny face—so earnest and determined for its size.

"I can't say." He wraps his little worms of fingers around two hollow diamonds of the fence. "I promised I wouldn't. Just know that they can't keep hurting you. We won't let them."

She sinks to her knees to meet his eyes. "Who's we, Laksh?"

"I can't say."

"Is it God?" she pleads. "Is it you and God?"

Laksh stares at her like she's insane. She stands and rubs her aching head. "Lately I've been saying things out loud that should be thoughts and nothing more."

He hugs her about the waist, and she raises her puffy eyes to where a sunray has cut through a gap in the buildings, creating a halo effect that looks like a ringed planet the alley orbits.

"There are girls in the walls." Prisha's lips, pale and crusted gray, move as stiffly as stone. "I heard them breathing, every night, all night long, as if the house itself was alive."

Yashvi places an icepack on her own lips. It has melted by now, but it's still cold enough to alleviate some of the swelling Prithviraj left.

"The men there, they do such evil things." Prisha covers her eyes with her wrist. Her breaths are quick and angry. "Things that take you away from yourself and never give you back."

She and Yashvi lie silent a moment in the bed of their chamber, shoulders touching. Yashvi bites down on the blanket and the cotton softens against her tongue.

Beyond the Labyrinth, she considers, there can be no survival. Beyond the Labyrinth waits the street, dazzling, yes, full of lights and feelings closer to love than anything I've known . . . but also in the street are the very men who come to the Labyrinth to pay for what they might have free of charge, had they opportunity.

We are not free because of Madam.

Yet we are also not free because of Madam.

We have no liberty because of her, but she also sells us at a price. Not free. A price. Not free and not free.

Madam gives us a paradox of value.

"I told you I wouldn't return," Prisha says. "I meant it. I never returned."

Yashvi detects Prisha's body growing colder by the minute, freezing the blanket, freezing the entire bed.

"I'm not here," Prisha says. "I'm gone."

"Can't we go out into the city again?" Yashvi swallows back tears. "Can't we just go there and you can forget about the girls in the walls?"

She peeks under the blankets and sees a glimmer. A razorblade that Prisha pinches between two fingers, making its way to her extended arm.

"Can't we just go?" says Yashvi.

Prisha rolls away from her, their shoulders no longer touching.

"Prisha," says Yashvi. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing."

But Yashvi can see the blade dent Prisha's skin.

This is what it takes. To erupt the room in snarling, hissing, yelping, and the thuds of elbows and knees, this is what it takes.

The blanket lassoes, ribbons, kites, and bulges as Yashvi and Prisha wrestle beneath it. A razorblade flashes in the center of it all. Like a lone star in space. Clear and radiant and religious and atheistic and agnostic. Prisha kicks as Yashvi pins her down, grabbing at her arms. The girls topple to the floor. Prisha envelops the blade in her fist and clenches it hard and blood spills between her fingers. Yashvi pries the fist apart, plucks the blade from a well of red, and runs to throw the door to a blustering yawn.

Prisha tackles her, coiling the blanket around her neck. Yashvi chokes, writhing in a boa constrictor of fabric.

She just manages to flick the razorblade into the night.

A twinkle and a tink.

The blanket unravels about her neck.

The girls sit tangled in each other before the yawning door.

"We've made a racket," Yashvi says, still coughing.

Prisha wriggles free of the jumble of their skinny legs. "Goondas will check in."

Sure enough, down the block, men shout and boots drum.

Yashvi looks at Prisha. Prisha looks back at her.

The girls aren't sure which of them says what comes next, but one of them says it, and inevitably it doesn't matter who.

"Run."