Chapter 1 The Auction

★ALTHEA★

My head buzzed. It was that peculiar feeling of knowing you were unconscious and still trying to wake anyway. I tried to move my arms, but my hands struck cold metal bars.

Where was I?

I tried opening my eyes, but the brightness of the room made me squeeze them shut immediately. I forced my brain to work. The last thing I remembered was sitting in the kitchen with Evie. We were talking about the handsome gardener she fancied, and she had handed me a cup of coffee. I drank it. After that, everything went black.

I didn’t need a physician to tell me what had happened. I had been drugged. And based on the iron bars surrounding me, I had been brought to a place I had always feared I would end up.

A sudden, freezing splash of water struck my entire body.

I gasped, my eyes flying open as the cold stunned my system. My consciousness returned in full bloom.

I shook my head, water dripping from my hair. I looked down at myself and felt a wave of humiliation. They had dressed me in nothing but a thin white chemise. Now that it was completely soaked, the fabric clung to my body like a second skin. It concealed absolutely nothing.

"Wake up, little birdie," a voice boomed nearby.

I turned my head toward the sound. Standing on a raised platform just a few feet away from my cage was Varro. My adoptive vampire father, although I had never seen him as one. Monster was a far better fit.

He was dressed in an exquisite tailcoat, holding a microphone and acting as the host of the entire event.

I looked past him and finally saw the room. It was a massive, dimly lit theatre filled with hundreds of wealthy vampires and other beings alike, seated in rows of red velvet chairs. This was an auction. A human-selling auction.

Varro smiled at the crowd, completely ignoring my glare. He began the auction with other girls. I had to sit there in my cage, shivering from the cold water, watching three different girls get sold off to wealthy monsters. The bidding was intense. In our world, the currency was simple: bronze coins were for the poor, silver coins for the middle class, and gold coins for the richest elite. The first three girls were sold for silver.

Then it was my turn.

Two large guards pushed my cage into the centre of the stage beneath a bright spotlight. Varro walked over to me, his fangs catching the light as he smiled down at the crowd.

"And now, gentlemen, for the main event of the evening," Varro announced into the microphone. His voice echoed through the speakers. "What we have here is a rare delicacy. She is twenty years old, completely untouched, and a pure human. Perfect for bloodsucking. Her blood is sweeter than anything you have ever tasted." He paused, casting a dark look across the crowd. "Trust me. I have tasted it myself."

A sick feeling twisted in my stomach. His words made me remember the first night he had bitten me just to test my flavour. He had called me a perfect pet. I was only eight then.

As the crowd started murmuring in excitement, a thought ran through my mind.

‘If only you knew.’

They all thought I was a fragile human girl. They didn't know that beneath my witch-altered brown hair and false blue eyes, I was a Fae. Not just any Fae, but a hybrid of both Light and Dark. If these vampires and monsters knew that I possessed the power to both heal worlds and destroy them, they wouldn't be bidding to buy me as a pet. They would be bidding to lock me in a dungeon and use me until nothing remained of me.

"We will start the bidding at five thousand gold coins!" Varro shouted.

Five thousand gold was an insane amount of money. But hands in the crowd flew up immediately.

"Six thousand!" a man in the front row yelled.

"Eight thousand!"

"Ten thousand from the gentleman in the back!"

"Eleven thousand and five!"

The numbers kept climbing rapidly. Twelve thousand. Fifteen thousand. Twenty thousand. The people in the crowd were losing their minds. The other girls had been sold for silver, but because Varro had promised I was a pure, succulent human, the wealthy buyers were throwing gold around as though it were dirt. It probably was to them. Men who had wives and children to feed, yet would rather spend their fortunes at a people-selling auction.

"Thirty-five thousand gold coins!" a fat vampire near the stage shouted, looking up at me with hungry eyes. He smiled leeringly, as though he knew he was the highest bidder and would be the one carrying me home.

"Thirty-five thousand going once," Varro called out, a greedy grin on his face. "Going twice–"

"One hundred thousand gold coins."

The voice came from the very back of the room, deep in the shadows. It wasn't loud, but it carried a heavy, commanding weight that made the entire theatre fall into a dead silence.

The fat vampire who had just bid thirty-five thousand froze.

Varro stopped talking.

I squinted, trying to see through the bright stage lights into the darkness at the back of the room.

The crowd of buyers parted down the middle, creating a wide aisle. A man stepped forward into the light. He was tall, built like a warrior, and moved with an aura of absolute authority. Everyone in the room lowered their heads or looked away in fear.

It was Rhazien Emberfyre. The King of the Dragon Kingdom—Cinderpeak.

I knew this because Evie had told me about him. His fiery red hair was always tousled. His dark skin could rival burnished bronze.

He is a specimen, she had said.

Remembering that now, I realised what a life of lies I had been living. Evie had conspired with her dear daddy to sell me off. She had known the entire time, and I had finally thought I had a friend.

Rhazien didn't look at the crowd. He kept his eyes locked on me as he walked down the aisle and stepped onto the stage. Up close, he looked completely emotionless. His face was carved from stone.

He walked right past my cage, giving me a brief, cold glance, and stopped in front of Varro.

Rhazien reached into his cloak, pulled out a heavy leather bag that clinked with the unmistakable sound of gold, and threw it hard against Varro’s chest. Varro caught it, stumbling back a step.

"Get her out of that cage," Rhazien ordered.

His voice left no room for argument.

Varro nodded quickly, his usual arrogance completely gone in the presence of the Dragon King. "Of course, Your Majesty. Right away."

Varro signalled the guards. Instead of opening the cage on stage, they grabbed the bars and wheeled my cage into the backstage area, away from the eyes of the crowd. The air backstage was cooler, and I was still shivering in my wet clothes.

A moment later, Varro came rushing into the backstage room. He walked up to the bars of my cage, his face twisting into a harsh glare.

"Listen to me, girl," Varro whispered angrily, pointing a finger at me. "You just got bought by the King of Cinderpeak. Do you have any idea what he does to people who defy him? You are to be calm. You are to be submissive. You will always obey your master, because that is what you are now. A pet. Do not ruin this for me. I do not want you returned!"

"She is not your property anymore, Varro."

The deep voice made Varro freeze.

Rhazien walked into the backstage room, his hands resting casually on his belt. He looked at Varro with pure disgust.

"You do not get to tell my property what to do," Rhazien said coldly, his eyes moving from Varro to me. "She belongs to me now."

I gripped the cold metal bars of the cage, looking directly into the Dragon King's dark eyes. I hated Varro, but I wasn't going to let this man think he owned me either. I didn't care if he was a king.

"I am not your property," I said. My voice was quiet, but firm.

Rhazien paused. He looked at me, his eyes travelling over my soaked clothes and defensive stance. Instead of growing angry at my defiance, the corner of his mouth twitched upward.

He smirked.