Darling had stepped between her and her older brother. “She’s your sister, Geritt. You’re supposed to protect her, not hurt her.” He’d picked her up from the ground, then taken her back to the house. Instead of playing ball with her brother, he’d spent the entire afternoon drinking imaginary tea with her and her dolls.
How could she have let her blind hatred for his uncle rob her of those wonderful memories of his kindness when they’d been kids?
Darling had never been anything but gentle with her. And the worst part of it all was the knowledge that he, being older, would have remembered those childhood visits even better than she did.
Yet he’d never once mentioned them.
Her door slid up.
She froze, wanting it to be Darling there so that she could finally apologize and beg him to forgive her.
It wasn’t. Rather a very tall, athletic woman and a short, round man. The woman stayed in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest while the man came forward to examine Zarya.
“Open your mouth.”
She arched a brow at his sharp order. “Excuse me?”
He grabbed her jaw and forced her to obey.
Zarya tried to fight him, but he appeared to be used to that. It was like trying to swat away a combat fighter with a shoe.
“So what do you think?” the woman asked as he stepped back.
Grimacing at Zarya, he shrugged. “She’s not the most beautiful, but she’s not hideous. Teeth are good. She’s mid-twenties, which isn’t quite too old yet, though she’s getting there. You said she’s not a virgin, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Too bad… Unused women always go for more. Still, we might get a decent profit on her, if I hold her back and put her with slim pickings. But it won’t make us rich.”
Were they discussing what she thought they were?
Surely not.
“What’s going on?” she asked them.
The woman looked at her coldly. “Darling wants nothing to do with you. Said he never wants to lay eyes on you again. Since he doesn’t care what we do with you, I decided to sell you off to a concubine dealer. After all, it’s what a whore like you deserves.”
Horrified, Zarya started to speak, but before she could, the man clapped a choker around her neck.
An instant later, she was fully aware of everything surrounding her, but incapable of responding in any way. Not a single sound came out of her mouth. She couldn’t even open it.
The man pushed a button and she stood up as if he controlled her completely.
No! She’d heard of things like this, but she’d always thought they were lying about them.
Why would Darling do this to her?
Why do you think? Could he really hate her so much that he’d let this become her fate?
Her heart shattered as the truth stared her straight in the eyes. In the end, he was an aristo. Buying and selling people like her came naturally to him.
With a satisfied smirk, the man forced her to walk out of the cell. “I’ll send your credits to you after the auction.”
“Thanks.”
Once they were alone, the man stopped Zarya so that he could touch her hair and smell it. “Too bad the prince is gay. Sometimes I can get a lot more money for a prince’s whore. Male plebs like to take possession of something they know was used by a blue blood. It makes them feel important.”
If she’d been able to, she’d have laughed at his words. Darling wasn’t gay. Not by a long shot.
But who would ever believe her?
The man’s eyes softened as he released her hair. “Don’t worry. We’ll find you a worthy master.”
You’re not going to find me anything. She’d kill herself before she allowed him to sell her.
And as he forced her to walk in front of him, she realized that death was the only outcome she could have.
It’s all right. At least in death, she’d be with her family again.
Darling stared at the scars on his face. After all the surgeries and pain…
He looked even more like a twisted freak than he had before.
It’d been bad enough when only half his face was scarred. But this was revolting. They had literally butchered him. There wasn’t an unmarked inch left anywhere on his face or neck.
“You’re going to remember us. Every time you look in a mirror, Your Putrid Highness, you’re going to think back and know that your family is the one to blame for your deformity. They wouldn’t pay two creds to save you. You’re going to wear their cruelty on your face the way we wear it in our hearts.” Pip’s voice rang in his ears. His only wish was that his friends had saved Pip for him. That heartless bastard was the one he’d wanted to rip to shreds the most.
Then again, he had a long list. Not everyone who’d attacked him had been there when the Sentella had freed him.
But soon they would meet again. And this time, he wasn’t chained…
He looked down at his hand where Syn had attached a cybernetic finger to replace the one Pip had cut off. At least it looked natural.
Unlike his face.
But what did it matter, really?
After what the Resistance had repeatedly done to him, he had no intention of ever touching or being touched by another human being again. He was sick of it.
Then again, he was sick. Period.