I staggered, only just managing to keep my feet.
Hand on my lacerated shoulder, Jasper steadied me. “Straighten that nose, will ya?” he said, then opened the coach doors, revealing the steel bars of a cabin altered for one reason—the transport of slaves. Standing aside as the battered Eloran woman was placed in the center of the cage, Jasper watched his partner jam a finger up each of Alicia’s nostrils.
When he pulled it straight, her nose crunched and my stomach heaved—splattering Jasper’s fancy, expensive boots with bile.
“Fuck! Check this beast for weapons before we get on the road,” Jasper said, tossing me against the lip of the cage. “No more surprises.”
Adventurous hands traced the length of my torso, sparing nothing for modesty. And had I the strength to do more than glare, I would have made the fool suffer for the invasion. As it was… his touch lingered on my breasts.
“I can confirm the mystery of her gender.”
Jasper snorted, splashing his boots with water from a battered canteen. “Your magics are tied to this cursed wood, aren’t they, my filthy little sprite?”
I sneered, trying to ignore the rasp of calloused hands.
“See, I have a theory,” he said, chucking me under the chin and catching my tongue between my teeth. “Once you’ve been separated from this forest, you’ll be powerless. Oh, you don’t need to confirm it. My benefactor agrees with me. Was the first to do so, as a matter of fact, after he saw what you’re capable of on the road the other day. And who better to support me than one of the emperor’s own magic wielders?” Jasper got close, his nose scant inches from mine. “He gave me these fetters, and told meexactlyhow to use them against you.”
Ofcoursehe did, the manipulative dog! I should haveknownmy Elite parasite would stoop so low without even bothering to show up himself. The coward couldn’t even show up to set his own trap!
“He had them etched with symbol of the serpent, because one such as yourself can’t stand against the power of the Divine.”
The Divine? I barely avoided rolling my eyes.
“To be honest”—he shivered, thumbing the likeness of a serpent on a silver chain—“I’m not all that thrilled about the notion of an Elite coming into the possession of a powerful demon like this one. They’reallcursed, if you ask me. The Blood. Downright unnatural.”
The fool’s hands ran over my hips. “Yeah? What you thinkin’, then?”
“What if… what if she died?”
“Then we don’t get paid,” the fool returned, palming first my left, then right thigh.
“Ah, but you said it yourself. We’ve already got half of Rawlings’ payment, which was more than the sum we received for gatheringtenslaves last month. If we were to tell him she died when we took her from the forest…”
The fool’s dark eyes lit with greed. “Then we could sell her to the circusandkeep a generous business partner. He’d never know what happened to her. I can’t imagine he wants her for more than an oddity. It wouldn’t be a tragic loss…”
“The circus is too good for her,” Jasper snapped, glaring down at me. “I’d rather see this wretch sold to the salt mines for all the trouble she’s caused over the years.”
“Yeah,” the fool said, sliding his hands lower, to palm the globes of my ass, “but if you sell her to the mines you’ll never recoup any coin.”
Jasper grinned. “Circus it is.” Dumping me into the cage, he slammed the door shut with an ear-splitting clang, sending a final glance at the glimmering blue shield and the chaos buzzing behind it, then boarded the coach. “There’s an auction house not far from here,” he said. “If we’re going to double-cross Rawlings, we’d better make it there by nightfall.”
Too late, Kas howled, her voice a haunting echo from the dense foliage. Screaming for me.
I twisted back in spite of the pain parting my flesh and the weakness weighing me down, trying to catch one last glimpse of the beautiful gray eyes I loved so much. She was close, yet entirely too far away.
But Jasper wouldn’t have it. Reaching through the bars, he dug his fingers into the weeping wound bisecting the flesh of my back. “Ah, ah, ah. None of that.”
Kas wailed, threatening to break the dam keeping my sobs contained.
Chapter 10
A thump on my lacerated shoulder jerked me back to the land of waking nightmares.
A hand.
Alicia’s hand—the hot, sticky pain of her touch existing in stark contrast to the genteel smile gracing her swollen lips. I pulled away—as much as my bonds would allow. Uttering a strangled groan.
“So,” she said, taking in the bars of our cage, “we’ve been captured.”
