is on the totem pole here…where the stanky fish belong.”
Her two minions nodded in agreement.
The brunette minion stepped up, her boot treading over my hand. Cartilage and bones cracked and popped under her weight. A scream bubbled in my throat, but I pinched my lips together, a grunt huffing through my nose. She looked to be in her forties, rough and worn. Leathery. She was very lean from lack of nutrients. Her sagging expression showed she had nothing left and nothing to lose.
“That’s not how it works here,” the blonde snarled, brutal energy dancing off her. Clearly, she loved the power trip, especially having her backup team. She wanted me to cower. “You earn your place here, fishy, and you have yet to earn anything.”
“She looks fuckin’ familiar.” The brunette shoved her boot to my neck, leaning over, her lids squinted, trying to figure out where she knew me from. The fear I might be recognized locked up my expressions. Being in Istvan’s world made me very known; images of Caden and me along with Istvan and Rebeka circulated in the society gossip magazines and papers in Leopold Weekly. I hoped with no dress or makeup, far from the elite world, no one would recognize me, not placing the charity princess in the House of Death. But my unique features could be the very thing that outed me. “Doesn’t she?” She peered over at the leader, her voice harsh and coarse.
“All privileged bitches look the same to me,” Blondie snarled, cracking her boot into my stomach wound again.
I shoved down the unbelievable pain screaming over every inch of my body. This was the first time anybody had ever successfully snuck up on me. Ever. And it pissed me off that it was this common bitch.
Suddenly, my injuries, lashings, the fact I had only eaten a slice of bread for dinner, and my blood loss didn’t matter.
Like Bakos had told us, enemies waited to attack when you were at your weakest. There was no excuse. I let my guard down. My mind circled the scenario, assessing all the places they had me at a disadvantage.
Use your weakness against them.
“I don’t need to earn.” My gaze met hers. “I. Take.” I waited a second to let her absorb my intention. My fingers wrapped around the foot on my neck, and I yanked hard. Using the energy of her fall, I swung my legs up and kicked out, my boot cracking against the blonde’s face, flinging her back into the rail.
“Mio, get her,” the blonde screamed at her Asian friend.
As I tried to scramble back to my feet, Mio’s stubby leg slammed into my gut, knocking my ass back to the ground with a gush of air. The lean chick leaped back on her feet and rushed me, kicking and scratching at me.
“You bitch!” I heard the blonde snarl, joining in with her friends.
Come on, Brex! Get up. I tried to conjure energy from the depths of my soul, knowing I could take these three, but it leaked out of me like a blown tire. The lesion from earlier had torn open again, spilling blood down my side and face. My gunshot wound burned as my skin tugged.
A kick to the gut curled me over with a cough, my brain shutting down. They continued to beat me until I was coughing blood.
From a distance, a whistle snapped off the metal, shrilling the air. “Stop!”
The three paused, looking down the walkway.
“Enough,” a man’s voice boomed down to us.
“Grab it,” the blonde hissed to the brunette. She slunk past me into my cell.
Steady footsteps running down the metal catwalk vibrated beneath me.
“Come on, Dee.” The blonde motioned to her friend, who was already running away.
Dee leaped over me, her arms filled with my blanket. The three of them bolted off. My lids fell closed, my body no longer able to fight the pain coursing through me.
I could hear the guards yell after them, their footsteps stopping when they got to me.
“Damn. They broke her good.” The sultry voice reminded me of the guard on the front gate when I first arrived, the pretty one who resembled a horse-shifter.
“Human-on-human crime.” Another one snorted. “Like we give a fuck. Just drag her in.”
“She looks in need of a healer,” the first man replied. “She came in with a bad injury. Looks like she’s already been whipped and beaten since.”
“Why do we give a shit? Just a human. One dies, we get ten more,” the second one with