Harring
th the exhausted breathing of the othe
tark reminder of my reality. I closed my eyes,
ghts for a project, battling colleagues for a promotion. I remembered the neon glow of the city,
hard on my lip, stifling the sound that threatened to escape. I didn
still alive. Even as a slave. And as long as I
low, a human female slave. My threats: the mysterious man from the
lly happened. I had been at the festival, and the man in the darkness had been real. He could still be somewhere inside this world. I remembered the weight of his body behind mine, the heat
e worst part was the struggle I had seen in his eyes. He had not been mindless. Some part of him had known exactly what he was doing and had fought to hold himself back. My fingers closed around my wrist. There we
woman. And... Matron Thorne's uncertain favor. I still had no explanation for why
ard from other slaves while being transported. In
r own freedom. If you could save up a huge sum of gold, y
for a slave, but it was the
every word I spoke, had to serve this one purpose. I would
e desire to live burned like a fir
eaning, but learning the intricate etiquette of the Vorrath. How
han before. The slightest mistake
t to memory, performing each task flawlessly. I treated it like
use for complaint. The look in her eyes
ed quickly. It was the da
rious posts throughout the keep. For your final training exerc
that area is near Lord Callahan's residence. There will be
. The name shot through my mind like a b
e man from the Moonwise Festival... could
e. Going to the gardens me
to shrink back, to fin
hed the thought. Defyi
rything in my power to become co
cing the fear down into t
excited to be out of the dungeons, other
d picked up the heaviest pair of long-
the low-lying bushes. That way, I could keep my ba
ble scenario in my mind
ould not be recogni
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