He steps closer. The girl beside me begins to shake so violently her teeth rattle. I feel her terror spike, a high-pitched scream in my mind that threatens to shatter my concentration.
Stop it,I beg her silently.Don't let him see.
The Lord stops in front of her. He tilts his head, a smooth, reptilian motion. He lifts a hand, one finger extended, and the girl collapses into the mud, sobbing, begging for mercy before he has even spoken.
He sighs. It is a soft sound, but in the silence, it carries like a gunshot. "Banal."
He moves on. He passes the strong men, the beautiful women. He dismisses them with a flicker of his eyes. He is hunting for something specific, and he hasn't found it.
He stops in front of me.
My heart does not hammer; it seizes, a trapped bird dashing itself against the cage of my ribs. The air in my lungs turns to solid ice.
He is close enough that I can smell him. Beneath the scent of rain and mud, he smells of expensive wine and that cloying, suffocating incense. It makes my stomach turn.
I should look down. Survival dictates that I look at his boots, that I hunch my shoulders and present myself as harmless, broken things. That is what Rina taught me.Be invisible, Leora. Be dust.
But I cannot.
The pressure in my head is building, the dam straining against the flood of his presence. He feels… hollow. That is the only word for it. Beneath the terrifying power, beneath the arrogance, there is a gaping, starving void in this man that sucks the energy out of the air. It pulls at me.
I lift my chin.
My dark hair, heavy with rain and tangled from days of neglect, falls away from my face. I look up. Past the velvet collar, past the sharp, cruel line of his jaw.
I look directly into his eyes.
They are violet, the color of a bruise, framed by lashes so pale they look like frost. There is no warmth in them, only an abyssal depth of calculation.
He blinks, surprised. Most humans would have averted their gaze or dissolved into puddles of fear by now. He expects it. He feeds on it.
I grit my teeth, my jaw locking. I will not give it to him. I have nothing left—no family, no home, no name that matters to anyone but me. I have my mind, and I have this small, jagged shard of defiance.
I see you,I think, projecting the thought with all the force of my hidden nature.You are just a monster. And I have seen monsters before.
Something flickers in his expression. His eyes narrow. He steps closer, invading my space, his height making me feel small and fragile. My body betrays me—my knees tremble, my breath hitches—but I force my eyes to stay locked on his.
He studies me. He looks at the hollowness of my cheeks, the lattice of scars visible at the neckline of my tunic, the way my hands are clenched into fists at my sides. He sees the fear, yes. But he sees that I am holding it back.
He smiles. It is not a nice smile. It is the expression of a man who has found a rare vintage in a cellar of vinegar.
"This one," he says. His voice is a low vibration that I feel in the soles of my feet.
The slaver scrambles forward, bowing so low his nose nearly touches the muck. "My Lord! A scrawny thing, that one. Won’t last a week in the mines. I have stronger?—"
"I did not ask for your opinion on livestock," the Lord says, never breaking eye contact with me. "I said, I will take this one."
"Of course, my Lord. Of course." The slaver fumbles with the keys at his belt. "A fair price?—"
"Send the bill to the House of Imas," the Lord says, dismissing the matter of coin as beneath him. "Unchain her."
The shackles are undone. My wrists feel floaty and strange without the weight of the iron. I rub the raw skin, my eyes still wary.
"Come," Lord Imas commands. He turns his back on me, assuming I will follow. Assuming he already owns me.
I hesitate. The guard, the woman in armor, steps forward, her hand reaching for my shoulder to shove me.
"No," Imas says, halting her with a single word. He turns back, extending his hand toward me. The palm is open, the leather glove removed. His skin is pale charcoal, the nails manicured and sharp. On his index finger, a heavy ring of black stone absorbs the light.
