Chapter one
Sienna
It’s been fifteen years since the Veil between us and them fell.
Fifteen years since humans realized we were no longer at the top of the food chain in the most literal of senses.
The thin, iron handcuffs pinching my wrists were chained to the next girl in front of me, and because she had to keep walking, so did I.
I had to remind myself that I let them catch me. That this was where I needed to be to find Jordan. He’d been taken in the last raid over on fifth street, during the hours that I was dancing. I couldn’t let him go without a fight. Without trying to get him back.
He was the closest thing to a little brother that I had, and the fact that he’d been stolen out from under me . . . my guts tensed and I tried not to think about it.
Four lines of women, all shackled together. I was in the third line to the right, trying to see past the bodies ahead of me.
“Why are we stopped?”
“Who knows?”
“Maybe they’ll let us go?”
A laugh answered that question.
Another time I might have laughed with them. I’d always enjoyed gallows humor. This time, though, the gallows were a little too close for comfort.
For just a moment the rain eased off, almost to a drizzle, but the sound of water falling caught my ear. I turned my head to the line of girls on my right, shuffling along the same as us. All shades of hair, all under thirty by the looks of it.
But it was the brunette closest to me that I locked my eyes on. She didn’t even look up as her bladder emptied, soaking the filthy, white dress she wore. Her knees trembled as the smell of urine, strong even in the muck and rain, filled the air.
“Chin up,” I said softly, “nothing is set in stone. I’ll bet that a lot of us end up just as maids.”
That was my hope. Become a maid to the shifters, and then I’d find Jordan and we’d make our escape. At least I’d been able to figure out that much—I knew which part of the territories he’d been taken to.
The girl’s dark eyes swept my way, the tears in them spilling over. “My older brother sold me to pay off his gambling debt. My mom couldn’t stop him with the new rules. I shouldn’t be here. I can’t . . .I can’t do this.”
A bolt of fury shot through me at her words. What had this world come to? Since the Veil had fallen and the “Others” had taken control, life for us humans had been in a slow, downward spiral. These past couple of years, though?
A straight nosedive.
As much as I’d love to blame that all on the Others, turned out humans were just as monstrous as the creatures that hunted us. Brothers selling sisters, husbands sacrificing wives, brokers auctioning people like cattle, to the highest bidder.
But I wasn’t here to change the world. I was here to find my friend and get us both the fuck back home.
I blew out a slow, shaky breath and laid my hand on the girl’s lower back, giving her what little comfort I could.
“I’m sorry, honey. I really am. But you will be okay, I’m sure of it. You’ll be fine.” Of course I had no belief in such assurances. Not really.
Not with all the stories that came out of the territories. Blood and death. Torture and rape.
You couldn’t really call that a fairy tale waiting to happen, no matter what the powers that be tried to convince the General populace.
“I’m sure your brother—”
“He doesn’t care about me. And my mom didn’t even try that hard. I’m one less mouth to feed.” She wrung her hands together, over and over, her cuffs clinking.
Jesus, and I thought I had it bad. At least my parents had the decency to die on me before they saw me here, like this. Chained up and being sent to the auction pens like an animal.
The sound of retching ahead of us echoed down the line, a cascade effect as other girls were triggered by the sight and noise.
“Shite,” I hissed the word and grit my teeth, looking away. This was not the time to show weakness.
I’d been assured by one of the pen guards who frequented the bar I danced at that the next shipment was going to the werewolves. The shifters. It was their turn for new girls and boys.
Which meant it was my one shot to get to Jordan.
I had a boat lined up to meet us, two months from the day I went into the territories. I touched the beaded bracelet on my wrist. I’d started with sixty beads. I’d remove one a day to keep myself on track. If I couldn’t find Jordan by the last day. . .I’d have to leave without him.
But I refused to even consider that as a possibility.
Ahead of me, the young brunette trembled so hard that her body rattled the chains connecting her to the girl in front of her, and to me behind. Still, she shuffled along. A tug on my own chains got me moving forward, but the brown-eyed girl needed a lifeline.
I could be that for her, for at least a few minutes.
“Hey. My name is Sienna. What’s your name?”
“Hannah.” She hiccupped a sob. “You really think a lot of us will be maids? I don’t want to go with the wolves. Or the blood. . .suckers.” Her voice lowered and she shook her head rapidly, as if straight denial would save her.
Our four groups kept on shuffling along through the mud made from thousands of feet being pushed into the pens since our treaty with the Alpha Territories over a decade before.
That treaty was simple. Our side offered human sacrifices in exchange for relative peace from those that could destroy us if they chose. They could come replenish their supply as needed from the mainland, so long as they didn’t create chaos by swooping in and creating terror and mayhem on the streets.
Vampires, werewolves, fae, demon and the fallen were not allowed to roam freely here.
Supposedly.
A shudder rippled through me. “I think you’ll have a shot at being with the fae, or maybe even the winged guys. You’re very pretty, and beauty is highly prized there.” At least, from what I understood. To be fair, I didn’t know a lot about the pens—people who went in didn’t come back to tell the tales—but Hannah didn’t have to know that. And she also didn’t have to know that we were all going to the wolves. No point in adding to her panic.
The crack of thunder above our heads was followed by a brilliant flash of lightning that cast the lines of girls into stark relief on the shoreline pens.
“How did you get here?” Hannah asked through her hiccupping sobs. “You have an accent. Where are you from?”
I smiled, though it felt odd when I wanted to have my own little breakdown. Because reality was setting in.
Two months.
I had two months to find Jordan and get us both out.
“My parents died not long after the Veil fell and the world went to shit. I was in an orphanage in London for close to ten years before they said I was on my own. I’ve just been . . .making my way across North America ever since.”
Always there was a pull to keep moving, to keep going. I didn’t stay in any city long. Just long enough to make some money dancing so me and Jordan could move again.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
Staying in one spot was a fool’s errand and a good way to draw attention to you. Especially at my age. A few more years and I’d be outside the range of what Collectors were looking for.