I’m pulled up, my hands darting to his forearm, trying to stop the burning pressure on my scalp.
We’re already moving.
Down the steps toward the ring.
One.
Two.
Everyone is staring at me.
Four.
Eight.
I keep stumbling—he’s moving too fast.
Tears sting my eyes as he slams my body up against the wire mesh of the cage.
“What exactly are you waiting for?”
The man who was staring at us goes wide-eyed and then fumbles with the keys in his hand before walking toward the woman.
I want to close my eyes but she is staring at me. Closing my eyes would feel like taking the easy way out, and she doesn’t have that option.
The victor unchains her arms from the cage and drags her down roughly from the piece of wood she was sitting on. She screams.
And then everything happens too quickly.
He’s all over her, smearing her naked body with the blood of countless men as he tries to mount her. She kicks and lashes with her body, but her arms are still tied together behind her back and her legs are still chained.
I can’t watch this.
Baron has me pressed up against the cage, but it doesn’t stop me from struggling. Squirming. Trying to grab him with my hands.
“Baron, please,” I beg.
He’s laughing as he struggles with me. “Please? Please what? You will need to be a tad more specific, my sweet girl. If you’re going to beg, you should tell me what exactly you are begging for.”
“Stop this.”
We rear back from the cage, and for a moment, I think perhaps he will listen to me. But he still has a hold of my hair. He whistles through his mask, and two men appear in front of us. He pushes me toward them, and I almost fall to the floor before they pick me up and steady me.
“Take her back to her room and tie her up,” he shouts. He’s shouting much louder than he needs to.
The men drag me away. I try to fight, but they quickly get me under control.
“Face down on the bed,” he adds. “She won’t be able to sit down for a week by the time I’m finished with her.”
I’m dragged away with the sound of his laughter floating around the room.
13
Sapphire
I don’t know how long I’ve been here.
Hours, at least.
The windows are shuttered so I can’t tell if the dawn has come yet, and the men who brought me didn’t bother to light any candles. The room is pitch dark.
They used torches for light while they bound my wrists above my head to the bed.
I barely even fought them.
The straps were already there on the bed, as if the whole thing was already waiting for me.
And now all that’s left to do is wait for the inevitable to happen.
My mind wanders to dark places. The woman who was downstairs and what became of her. The winner who thought he was going to Utopia and what became of him. The way Baron went from gently stroking my hair to dragging me across the floor by it within the blink of an eye.
What does he want from me?
A brainless pet that watches when he says watch and doesn’t speak unless spoken to?
I can’t be that girl. There were girls at the carnival strong enough to do that, but I am not one of them.
Why didn’t he choose one of them?
Why me?
We both know I’ve been sheltered my entire life.
I thought I was only as sheltered as everyone else, but I was wrong.
I’m not mentally strong enough to watch men be brutally killed in front of me and women violently raped.
I promised myself last night I would be strong. I would be good. I’d do as he said, and I’d try to learn as much as possible. But I honestly don’t know if I’m capable of that.
The door clicks open, pulling me out of my thoughts and freezing every muscle in my body. Except for my heart, which only increases its hammering.
Footsteps across the wooden floor, slow and calculated, signal it’s indeed him. The sound of a lamp switching on illuminates the room slightly, and I turn around just as he turns toward me.
His breathing is heavy, and there is a sheen to his clothing. Like he is wet. Water or blood? I’d like to think it is water, but he already told me what he was going to do after the fight. Of course it is blood. And that knowledge makes him more terrifying than any time we’ve crossed paths previously.
He walks slowly to the