I release my breath. She tells me to “do it again,” and once again, we breathe in and out together. It’s too slow. I want to do it faster, but there’s something in her voice that makes me want to trust her. The same sort of something I’d hear in Mama’s voice whenever she was healing a patient, so I do as I’m told and after a few seconds my heart rate begins to slow, the vise around my chest loosens. Soon, my vision clears, and I find myself face-to-face with a brown-eyed fae female.
“See. All better.” She smiles.
I don’t have long to recover. The guard, who up until now was utterly useless, hollers at my savior to “Get back to work,” before I even have a chance to thank her. With Aemon’s help, I manage to stand and after quite a bit more yelling from the guard, I pick up my ax.
Aemon is going to talk to the king. You’re going to get out of here.I glance down the line, spotting the brown-eyed female who just helped me hard at work on the other end.
But what about them?
I raise the ax and, using what little strength I have left after that episode, hack at the precious stone. It only takes a few minutes formy arms to start aching, then shaking. After what is probably thirty minutes, but feels like a lifetime, I think I might die. Actually, I’m kind of hoping for it. How do these people keep going all day, especially when they aren’t getting enough to eat?
Luckily for me, work is called to an end for the day soon after, but I don’t know how I’m going to make it through tomorrow. I just want to go home, lie down in my nice fluffy bed and fall asleep, but I don’t have a bed, and I’m far away from home. We hand over our bucket of gems as we exit, and a guard gives us a bit of metal with a number one stamped on it. “What is this?” I ask Aemon.
He shrugs. “Dinner token, probably.”
“Oh, because we can’t eat—”
“—if we don’t work,” he finishes. “Exactly.”
Legs still locked to the long chain, the whole group is led back to the clearing where we first came in. The guard finally unlocks us from the long chain but leaves our feet manacled. The moment I’m free, I drop at the first bit of open space I see beside the wall. I lean my head against the cool stone and close my eyes. I’ll figure out something better tomorrow. For now, I just need to rest.
“What are you doing?” Aemon asks.
I open one eye to peek up at him. “I’m going to try to get some sleep.”
He turns his head up toward the ceilings, his lips moving as if in prayer. I wonder if he’s praying for the strength not to kill me right now? I definitely don’t have the strength to fight back if he tries. “They’re not going to wait for you to have a nap to serve food, Katya.” He spits my name out like a curse. “You have to get it now or never.”
“I’m alright with that,” I reply, closing my eyes.
“Fine. I’ll see if I can get something for both of us.” He holds out his palm, and I drop my token into it. “But don’t expect this to become an everyday thing.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
He spins around in a huff and marches off. I don’t know what’s got him all in a tizzy, but I’m way too busy with my own pity party to deal with his issues right now.
“Where have you been?” asks a raspy male voice, venom dripping from every word. My eyes snap open, and I am suddenly very awake.
I don’t know much about humans, but I can tell that this one is past his prime. His salt-and-pepper hair is thinning badly and the little bit he has left hangs in long wispy strands to past his shoulders. His skin is sickly pale and weathered, deep lines etched into his flesh like a crumpled piece of parchment. “I’m sorry?” I ask as politely as I can because I have a feeling this man is the kill-first-asks-questions-later sort.
He draws back, eyes narrowing as he studies my face. “Oh, I thought you was somebody else,” he says with a shake of his head. “You ain’t seen another fae girl, dark hair like you? Name’s Jael.”
“No. I’m sorry.”
Another man, this one younger and wearing a toothy smile that doesn’t fit the current circumstances, comes up from behind the old man and throws an arm over his shoulder. “Branson,” he says, giving the old man’s shoulder a pat. “What have you found here?”
Branson, to his credit, shrugs off the other man’s arm, and with a nod to me, he says, “Just a girl. Get back to your business.” He turns and walks away, but the younger man doesn’t follow.Instead, he crouches in front of me and unabashedly runs his gaze up and down my body, his eyes heating as they reach my breasts.
I glance over his shoulder, hoping to see Aemon on his way back from getting food, but no such luck.
“Who you looking for, girly?" He pinches my chin, turning my head so I’m forced to look at him.
“Uh, my husband. He should be back any time now.” I try my best to suffuse my voice with confidence, but it comes out weak and unsure.
The man doesn’t miss it. His grin grows even wider, if that’s possible, but his grip on my chin tightens. And it hurts, but if there’s one thing I learned from Leodin, showing weakness only eggs bastards like him on, so I steel my spine and slap his hand from my face.
“Don’t touch me,” I say, and this time, I’ve managed to get some anger behind it.
That smile drops like an anvil, and it occurs to me that I might have read this situation wrong because instead of backing off, this guy looks at me with murder in his eyes. He grasps me by the nape and squeezes so hard I can’t stop the cry that escapes my lips. “You think you’re better than me, bitch. Huh?”
