“One hundred.”
“One twenty.”
“One forty.”
Her gaze flicked over the crowd, searching for something or someone, anything that wasn’t this. When her eyes found mine, the air between us stilled. It wasn’t recognition. Not at all.
It was an impact.
For one impossible moment, I felt the entire room drain of oxygen. The noise around me blurred. The lights dimmed. There was nothing but her before me, blood rushing beneath pale skin, the faint tremble of her mouth, and those eyes locked on me like she already knew I was the lesser evil in a room full of monsters.
She didn’t look away. Not once.
And neither did I. Somehow, having her gaze on me made me feel slightly calmer, as if it was a reminder of the fact that I could control the situation.
“Two hundred!” someone shouted from across the room as laughter rippled.
I didn’t blink.
“Two fifty!”
A man in a red tie smirked, lifting his paddle higher. “Three hundred.”
My blood ran cold. I didn’t plan the next part. I didn’t even think it. The words just came out, low and precise.
“Five hundred.”
The room went quiet.
All heads turned. Some towards me and others towards the announcer, waiting to see if I was serious. The man in the red tie let out a short laugh. “Half a million? She'd better be able to breathe gold.”
A few men laughed nervously. I didn’t respond.
I just continued to stare at her.
The announcer’s smile twitched but recovered quickly. “Five hundred thousand. Any counteroffers?”
Silence stretched thin. No one dared.
He raised his gavel. “Sold.”
The sound of the strike was a dull echo that shouldn’t have hit as hard as it did. Her lips parted, barely, like she couldn’t believe what had just happened. Neither could I, if I were being honest. My pulse hammered once, then steadied, falling back into the familiar rhythm of control.
I’d just bought a stranger.
A girl with fire in her eyes and chains around her wrists.
I didn’t know why.
Maybe because every instinct I had honed to survive, the same instincts which warned me of lies and death, were suddenly screaming that if I didn’t take her with me, someone else would. And she wouldn’t be able to survive that. Maybe because the look in her eyes reminded me of something I’d buried years ago, the exact sound before I failed to save someone else.
Someone who was once dear.
Either way, it was done.
I set down the cracked glass and stood, buttoning my jacket. The crowd parted like water, but no one dared to meet my gaze. No one wanted to.
They’d all seen what happened when I wanted something.
