Draven raised his hands to hush them. “Celestials come in all colors. Behold my truth.”
Galen jerked on the chains attached to Cassiel’s wrists and forced his arms outward. Draven hopped off the crate, and a dwarf popped open the lid. The poacher took out one of the small glass vials nestled within straw in the crate and came at Cassiel with a dagger.
He jerked back, only to have dwarves come behind him with batons.
“Keep still,” Galen warned.
Cassiel clenched his teeth as Draven’s icy blade sliced across his wrist. Blood poured into the vial held underneath. Before the eyes of everyone watching, the wound seamlessly healed.
Draven stuffed a cork in the vial and grinned at the hushed crowd. “Place your biddings.”
The marketplace erupted with shouting voices. In a matter of seconds, the tiny vial of blood sold at an unbelievable price. Draven cut his wrist again and again, filling vial after vial. Cassiel grimaced as the dwarves ripped out handfuls of his feathers and sold them on opposite ends of the stage. His feathers quickly spread like waving black flags among the audience.
People swallowed down vials of his blood like water. They forced it into the mouths of their sick children, leaving crimson rivulets dripping from the corners of their lips. Thousands of crazed faces gawked at him, screaming for more. Cassiel squeezed his eyes shut. He trembled, his body having gone cold. Be it from fear or blood loss, he didn’t know.
All he knew was that this spelled the beginning of his end.
Chapter 49
Cassiel
Cassiel’s uncle once told him he wouldn’t realize the value of something until he lost it. It took landing himself in a cage to finally understand. Dizziness swam through his head as more blood left his body. He kept his eyes closed, trying to ignore the slice of the dagger against his skin.
Cassiel.Dyna’s voice drifted through his mind like a gentle breeze. He pictured her smile and held on to that image.
He’d not given much value to the fleeting moments he’d spent with her until he realized there would be no more. So he dared to kiss her on the ship without thinking about how she would react. And she’d kissed him back.
It was all she could give to someone dying in place of her, but he was grateful for the last shred of kindness. She couldn’t have possibly meant it to be anything but goodbye. The further she ran from the ship, the more his insides stretched as if she had taken a part of him with her. She had become a balm that softened the jagged edges of his being. But he felt hollow now.
If he could wish for anything at all, it would be to have more time.
Thinking of Dyna, her presence called to him the way it had in Corron. That couldn’t be right. He told her to go. Frowning, Cassiel reached out through their connection and sensed Dyna was only a few feet away from him. He opened his eyes and searched for her among the clamoring mass.
What are you doing? Get out of the city!
“How much for the Celestial?”
Cassiel startled at the familiar voice.
“Who said that?” Draven laughed. “No matter. He isn’t for sale. Only parts of him.”
A surprised murmur passed through the crowd as they looked away from the stage. They parted down the middle to make way for a woman coming forward. Dressed in tight black leather, her dark hair fell straight and short to her chin.
Accompanying her were two slaves in long, charcoal robes with hoods covering their faces. The tallest of the two held the reins to a white horse, pulling along a large cage on wheels. Inside stood the grandest Celestial to ever exist.
He was male, tall, and strapping in layers of muscle, wearing nothing but a loincloth. Pale blond hair fell down the Celestial’s back, stark against his bronze skin. His immense golden wings inspired speechless awe from the crowd and the poachers. Cassiel gawked along with the rest of them.
The woman smiled slyly. “I was passing through when I heard someone possessed a Celestial. I have come to offer you a trade.”
She snapped her fingers, and her robed slaves opened the cage. They led the calm Celestial by his chains to her side, and the shorter one bowed, placing them in her hands.
“Well?” the woman said to Draven as she caressed the cheek of her golden Celestial.
He didn’t recoil from her. He didn’t even fight against his bonds, nor look at Cassiel. His green eyes merely fixed on the crowd with a bored expression. How long had they kept him in captivity?
“Where did you find him?” Draven finally asked. “Are there more?”
Her laugh of ridicule rang in the hushed market. “Did you believe yours was the only one?”
