I couldn’t have been more wrong.
With every step, my back twisted and jolted, irritating the open wound. My ribs spat fire into my lungs, causing pitiful little gasps of pain to escape my lips. It wasn’t long before the slavers were pushing me roughly ahead. Before I was tripping over my feet in a bid to keep up to their long-legged strides.
“Thank fuck. I see the slavers,” Mule said from beneath a dark scowl, wiping sweat from his brow when we reached the main road.
“Matthew! We were almost done waiting. I’m glad you’ve made it, and with the villain in tow! Wonderful, wonderful,” a man wearing an expensive-looking overcoat said as he clasped hands with each of my captors.
“Our payment?” Matthew asked, his grip tightening painfully over the whip lash on my shoulder.
“Ah, yes. Here we are. As agreed upon,” he said, handing over a heavy leather bag that jingled from one set of hands to the other.
Bounty hunters.
Hired thugs paid to dupe me.
I hung my head in shame.
“Now, let’s have a look at our little wood menace, shall we?” the expensive man said as Matthew pushed me away. “Oh my! She certainly won’t sell for very much, will she? You are a girl, yes?” he asked, removing my gag and turning my head this way and that.
My knotted brown hair decorated with braids and feathers, walnut-stained face, and tattered homespun clothing must have made quite an impression. I smirked, showing off the full wattage of a fierce, unnatural grin.
The slaver’s head snapped back in surprise, and he hastily removed his hand from my face.
“Careful, them teeth ain’t just for show,” the bitten man said, holding up his arm.
I licked my lips.
“Feisty—gotcha,” the slaver said. “We’ll keep her locked down. Anything else?”
“Might need medical attention—but the bounty said dead or alive, so we figured a few scratches and bruises wouldn’t make a difference,” Mathew said, as he divided the cash between his companions.
With an inelegant snort, I rolled my eyes. Broken bones and lacerations were a more apt description of my current state.
“No, no, that won’t matter. Auction istake-it-or-leave-it. I’d imagine she’ll be a good fit for the latter category. This one’s headed for the salt mines,” he mused. “Nothing like some honest manual labor under the lash to fix an attitude, eh? But no matter. It’s worth it to have her stopped. You’ve done a marvelous job, gentlemen. Ladies. I’ll be sure to contact you directly if I’m ever in need of your services again.”
With that, the bounty hunters walked out of my life without so much as a backward glance.
I had a new threat to contend with.
“What shall we call you then, dear?” the expensive man asked as he pushed me toward a strange-looking cage containing several other captives.
His hand brushed the lash on my back and I hissed in pain, but said nothing. Seething in silence.
“No matter. We’ll name you Hob. You look like a hobgoblin and smell like a dumpster, so I think it’s a rather fitting moniker, hmm?”
Feet stumbling, I stopped. Gaze flicking over the majestic carriage idly hovering over the road.
The last time I’d seen it, it had been nothing more than a drawing on my father’s desk. A magnetic carriage—ofTritandesign. Intended as a solution to the energy crisis, the magnetic car used the earth’s magnetic field for propulsion—a more noble project hadn’t been taken on in years.
And now it was being used to transport slaves to auction.
Corrupted. Yet another Tritan treasure ruined by the empire.
I dug my nails into my palms as fury burned through my blood.
“Don’t like that name?” he asked, breaking into my thoughts. Making my brain skip a beat as I tried to focus on the present. “Too bad. It suits you.” With that, he gave me a vicious shove and locked the door of the magnetic carriage behind me. The terrified faces of my cellmates stared at me in what I could only imagine was revulsion.
A trembling hand reached out, making me cringe. I focused on the savagely beaten profile of a girl no older than me. A girl who, even beneath the greenish tint of bruised skin, was beautiful. Her highlighted brown hair and sparkling green eyes a magnet I couldn’t look away from when she asked, “You’re the one who was freeing Elorans?”
