“Do shut up, Marco. You got your pretty rose. I’m not paying you to voice every thought that floats through your mind.”
Taking a puff, Marco grinned. “What you pay me is borderline criminal, sir. Silence is extra.”
Jasper tried again, hands shaking. “F-Fifty is rather low, sir. I won’t be able to cover my costs, you see, it—it took years to bring her in—”
The captain smiled, hand drifting again toward the butt of his weapon.
Jasper blanched, gesturing at the auctioneer with frantic fingers. “S-Sold!”
Chapter 12
Sold.
The word echoed inside my head, almost as loud as the constant, high pitched screaming and the bottomless sucking hunger of the Raith.
Sold.
Looping my pendant over his head, the captain tucked it beneath the collar of his shirt, and said, “Collect your rose, Marco. We’re leaving.”
“A flower? For me?” Marco ashed his smoke with a flick, heedless of where the waste fell. “Captain, I’m touched. You reallydocare.”
“I trust this means you’ll release me from your absurd life-debt?”
“Don’t be ridiculous! Your life is worth far more than fifty measly coins. At least to me.”
The captain snorted, hopping onto the stage and collecting the key ring from the auctioneer.
Sold.Sold!To Captain-fucking-Rawlings. Just as he’d planned. There’d be no escape with Alicia. No daring rescue of an enslaved Trila-Glís.
It was over.
Marco cleared his throat, jerking his chin at me. “You’re sure? ‘Bout her? ‘Cause I can’t help but notice she bears a striking resemblance to another girl,” Marco said. “One who I was promised wouldn’t kill me, which didn’t end exactly the way you thought it might—”
“I said sheprobablywouldn’t kill you,” the captain said, and jangled the keys. “But you’re still breathing, which I suppose means we’re even in terms of life-debts, hmm?”
Marco recoiled, and said, “Ah, don’t be hasty now. I said ‘resemblance’. With those teeth, and the hair? Could be a different girl, I suppose. If this…isindeed a female, you’ve purchased…” The soldier stepped closer, and in a low tone, added, “But you’re sure, Asher? Absolutely certain?”
With a nod, the captain knelt before me. “She’s a prize beyond compare.”
I didn’t meet his eye. Couldn’t.
Marco dropped his cigarette, crushing it into the wood beneath his heel. “And what does a man like you do with the prize he’s coveted for so long? Personally, I’m curious as to what’s beneath all this filth,” he added, nose wrinkled as he reached to tug a length of my knotted, stained hair.
“I’m afraid a bath will have to wait,” the captain said, running his thumb over the twisted scars on my right hand, his touch landing on the brand for the first time. Tracing his backward initials with quiet reverence, for of course, this was the first time he’d seen it.
And yet, his touch yielded nothing. No taste of powerful, forbidden ki. Nothing but the rasp of work-hardened skin and the terror pounding at the back of my throat when his lips curved in a soft smile.
“I’ve got something a little more…permanentin mind.” And then he patted his breast pocket, inky eyes gleaming with smug victory.
The Raith feasted, dimming the lights as my heart fluttered. Permanent? What was in his pocket that could…
No.
Goddess,no!
I wheezed, jerking away from his touch.
Was I notexactlyas he wanted me—on my knees? Bound and helpless before him, just like a…
