“How about a little taste?” He advanced toward me.
I shrank back, but Piara’s finger jammed between my shoulder blades again, like the barrel of a gun.
Ray towered over me. The crate I stood on helped me little in gaining any height on him. From this close, I made out the designs painted on his skull. Golden hexagons of various sizes were scattered against his coal-black skin. Some were painted solid gold, others were just outlines, and some were three-dimensional images, like golden coins lying on his head or melting into his skin. Knowing how much shadow fae preferred patterns and symmetry, I suspected Ray chose such a chaotic design on purpose, to unsettle anyone looking at him.
“What’s the matter?” he cooed, curling his shapely lips into an exaggerated pout. “Do you not want to share your pleasure with me, Sweet One? Lucky for me, I have something that can help.”
He raised his hand to the yellow flower on his chest, and my heart all but stopped seized by terror.
“No…” I barely managed to squeeze the sound out of my tightening throat.
The images of Maria and Peter fucking against their will rushed through my mind. To me, it was the worst kind of violation, the one when one's mind was assaulted along with the body.
Yet no one here would stop Ray from doing whatever he wanted. Xavix stood by idly. His ragged security team was busy with containing the rowdy crowd of onlookers. They didn’t concern themselves with the behavior of the high bidders.
Xavix had called Ray “the Master of the Wall.” I had no idea what that meant, but the title clearly came with enough power for Ray to do anything he wanted around here.
Ray’s smoky tendrils spiraled around me, trapping me into a cage of shadows. He brought the flower to my lips. I recoiled against Piara’s hands pushing against my back. Panic lanced through my chest. I couldn’t let Ray do this to me. But I had nothing to stop him with. No strength, no power, no army…
Only my words.
At least, they hadn’t taken my voice yet. I stared straight into his eyes. They were light green like the summer grass on a sunny day. Such a warm, harmless color for such a cold, unfeeling man.
“Take your fucking flower,” I said firmly, spitting out every word into his face, “and shove it up your ass where the sun doesn’t shine.”
Xavix gasped, clutching his scroll to his chest.
Mazra snorted a strangled sound that meant something between shock and amusement.
Ray’s eyes narrowed into slits, his glare cutting into me like a blade. Shadow fae derived no pleasure from humor and didn’t genuinely laugh at jokes, but Ray clearly knew an insult when he heard it.
“If you’re not sweet enough to give me what I want, I’ll force it from you,” he hissed. “I always get what I want, human.”
He delivered the threat as a fact, in a voice filled with confidence. I trembled in fear and…anger. Ray didn’t care that I was a person, that I had my own mind, thoughts, fears, and desires. It meant nothing to him.Imeant nothing. To him, I was just a thing, a fucking “Vessel” to do with as he pleased, to force and break if he so wished.
I balled my hands into fists. I’d never hit anyone in my life. I didn’t even know how to land a punch. Back home, I worked in a preschool, for fuck’s sake. I taught kids to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner. I used to firmly believe in that too. That was just over a month ago, but it felt like a lifetime had passed since the shadow fae had stolen me from my best friend’s basement.
My past life was but a dream now. This tent on the beach, the crate I stood on for all to see, and the fae man’s threat to force me to his will were my reality.
I straightened my spine, rolled back my shoulders, and willed my voice not to shake.
“Try to shove that flower in my mouth, and I’ll bite your finger off,” I gritted through my teeth, fully intending to deliver on my threat.
His lips parted in a sneer, revealing the sharp points of his fangs. He raised a fist, aiming it at my face, and it took everything I had not to flinch.
“Do you really think you can—” he started but got no chance to finish.
“As much gold as she weighs,” a voice interrupted our argument, stopping it from erupting into a fight I would’ve surely lost.
That strong, quiet voice came from the dark corner by the entrance, and it had enough power to rise over the noise of the crowd, getting everyone’s attention, including Ray’s.
Ray grimaced, his fist suspended in the air. Mazra turned her head toward the entrance in a jerky movement, as if having long forgotten about that particular bidder.
Xavix eagerly turned to the shrouded shadow. “Is that your bid, sir?”
“Yes. I’ll pay the Joy Vessel’s weight in gold.”
“What?” Ray glared, dropping his fist to my relief.