Page 109 of The Delta's Rogue
The witches lead me to the center, dropping their hold on my arms once I’m on my mark. Purple Hair tears the robe off me and Blondie’s hand remains on the vial, sending her magic through my system to keep me under her thumb.
Her control over my blood differs from Brenna’s. There’s a sharp frostiness to it, like an icicle plunging through my skin, and my response to her magic is more abrupt.
My heart rate increases as the full reality of what’s happening hits me.
They’ll send me onto the stage—naked—where hundreds of eyes will inspect me with hunger and greed. The guests in the audience will bid on me, calling out higher and higherdollar amounts, until one person wins. I’ll be handed over to that winner so they can force me to do whatever they want, whenever they want.
And there’s nothing I can do to stop it.
My body trembles, both from the temperature of the air dancing across my bare skin and the fear awakening within me. Water lines my lids. The tears I thought were gone forever finally return, but they remain inside my eyes. There’s not enough of them to spill over the edge of my eyelids and streak down my painted skin.
Purple Hair swipes a dark plum lipstick across my parted mouth with expert precision. The platform rumbles beneath my feet and rises towards a trapdoor in the ceiling.
I plead with my eyes, unable to move any part of me because of the magical hold on my blood. They hop off the platform and move towards a small screen in the corner playing a video feed of the stage.
“Lemon.”
The word rings in my mind. The word I’m supposed to use when it’s too much, when I want it to stop. When I want to go back to being just Sarina and Sebastian.
“Lemon.”
I push harder against the invisible chains holding my mouth shut and my tongue still. I need to get that word out. It’s my safe word, a magic word, the word that will end everything and return it all to normal.
“Lemon! Lemon, lemon, lemon!”
I scream my silent plea into the void, but the emptiness within me devours it, hiding it away as if it never existed.
There is no one to hear my cries, my screams. No one to stop what’s already been set in motion.
There’s no one to save me.
The platform halts its ascent, leaving me with a thundering heart under the white-hot stage lights, as the auctioneer clears his throat, preparing himself to begin my auction.
Rain pours from thesky, falling in heavy sheets and disturbing the smooth surface of the lake. Each drop pelts it, creating angry, skittering ripples that disappear into the depths, swallowed by the furious, chopping waves whipped into a frenzy by the raging wind sweeping across the grounds and around the buildings. Lightning cracks against the blackened night sky, slashing through the heavens with electric ferocity. It highlights the seething lake and glints off the pellets of water the dark, looming clouds spew down on us.
I take a small sip of my drink as I continue to stare out the large window at the simmering lake, counting the seconds.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five.
The thunder that echoes from the burgeoning, dominating, dark gray clouds is contentious and riotous. It’s a perfect verbal expression of the roaring storm disturbing the atmosphere. The storm that stalks closer to us with every passing moment. A storm that mirrors the racing of my heart, and the anxiety that grows every day Sarina isn’t safe with me.
“This feels like foreshadowing,” I mutter under my breath to the others.
“It’s like the beginning of every horror story ever written,” Dominic replies from my right. He lowers the pitch of his voice, mimicking the tone of an audiobook narrator. “It was a dark and stormy night…”
Nolan laughs dryly and glances around the room. “Is Reid here?” he asks. “Because that totally sounds like somethingReid would say.”
Dominic wrinkles his nose and crosses his arms. “I amnotlike Reid.”
Cassandra covers her mouth and turns her face into Nolan’s chest. My lips twitch, and I hide the movement with another sip of my drink, but Dominic catches the small smile before I can cover it.
“Dickheads,” Dominic grumbles. Then he runs his hand down his face and groans. “Oh, fuck.”
Cassandra’s laughter bounces off the glass of the window in front of us.
Nolan wraps his arm tighter around her waist, pinching her hip as he does. “Don’t laugh at other males,” he commands, tone turning gruff as he gives her a stern glare.
Her lips pinch together, and she nods, but the shine of amusement remains in her eyes as they meet mine in the window’s reflection.
