Of Thorn and Thread (Daughters of Eville #4) - Chanda Hahn Page 0,41

to run away, you disappear.”

“Disappear? Maybe it’s because the girls escaped.”

“Not disappear as in escape, more like killed and dropped in a hole.”

“Please, Tamara. Help me,” I whispered, hearing a commotion coming down the hall toward our room.

“I can’t. I’ll get in trouble.” Her eyes flickered to the door just as it opened, and Madam Esme stepped through.

“I thought you would be finished by now, Tamara?”

Tamara picked up a porcelain dish of face powder and applied it to my face.

“Not too much. I want her to look innocent,” Esme ordered.

She turned to me. “Tonight is the night. You have gathered quite the honored crowd. Some of my best clients with the biggest purses will be here. They’re all so excited to meet you.”

I screamed internally as I underwent hours of treatment under the watchful eye of Madam Esme and Tamara, or her guards. I bathed with bath salts and perfume, hair brushed and curled. My nails were painted, and my lips decorated with a soft rouge. Tamara brought a mirror to me and I saw my reflection and I didn’t recognize the woman before me. My white blonde hair shimmered like moonlight, my pale skin looked like alabaster. A soft lavender veil draped across my mouth and they accented my eyes with charcoal to make them look bigger. The drugs dilated my pupils, and I looked like a scared doe.

Madam Esme returned, wearing a velvet red dress with gold bangles on her wrists. Her hair curled and pinned on top of her head. Her nails were a deep blood red. She sauntered over to me and lifted my chin and gazed into my eyes.

“Because I know that you’re the fighting kind. I’ve prepared a special dose for you.” She waved in the guard, and a man came with a long needle attached to a glass jar. He pricked it into my skin, and I watched helplessly as they pumped the drug into my system.

“Listen to my command, Aurora, your powers are gone. You’re nothing more than a slave to man’s desire. Aura is no more.”

I would have cried, if I could, but even my body didn’t obey.

“Repeat after me,” she commanded. “My powers are gone.”

I couldn’t disobey. “My powers are gone.” My mouth moved on its own.

“I obey man’s desire.”

“I obey man’s desire.” I wanted to throw up. Rail against the woman.

This time a single tear escaped.

“Drat, you ruined your makeup. Tamara!” Esme screamed and the poor girl came scrambling in to fix my eye makeup.

“No more crying, do you hear me?” she ordered.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Then it’s time.”

It was the first time I left my room, and I was scared. The silken room was the only constant along with Tamara in this drugged-induced prison, and I knew what to expect within the fuchsia-colored walls. I didn’t know what dangers lay beyond.

I remember stairs. Stumbling on carpets, and someone having to hold me upright as I navigated the twists and turns that never seemed to end. Lanterns flickered at each passage and I felt a draft as we entered a room, and the ceiling rose. I smelled incense, but then something else. Earth. As though we were underground.

The room brightened, and they led me to the middle of a group of men where they forced me to kneel on a silken pillow. I was glad I was kneeling because I didn’t think I could stand anymore.

The lanterns behind the men cast them into hazy silhouettes. My glazed vision couldn’t focus, and it looked packed. For once, I wasn’t afraid to be around this many men because I couldn’t hear what they were thinking. Yes, it was probably horrid thoughts, but I didn’t know. I sat there, my hands in my lap, and I couldn’t stop staring at the jewel embedded into my painted thumbnail.

Who would do that? It was impractical.

“What’s wrong with her?” someone asked.

“It’s the drugs. All the girls are on it, and it keeps them compliant,” an older man answered.

“I don’t know, it seems to take all the fun out of it.”

“On the contrary, they will do anything you ask of them. Their free will’s gone. If you want them to fight, they will fight. If you want them to act like a cat, they will act like a cat.”

“A cat? Is that the best that you can come up with?”

“It’s too dark, can we see her?” a firm voice called out.

“Why, certainly.” Esme stepped forward and lifted my chin up. I couldn’t focus on the speaker. My eyes