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