Chapter 4 - A Brutal Trade
Waking up was a complete disappointment.
How dare she still be alive when her son was gone?
The coldness of the chains bit into Idalia's skin, heavy around her wrists and her ankles. The brisk steel floor was hard against her exposed body. She peeled her eyelids open and the blinding white lights burned her sight.
"We begin the bidding at a million Mayak!" The silhouette of the man on the stage, a good distance from her, declared to the room before him.
He appeared like a hazy blur, but his voice proved that he was the man who had attacked her.
Her hand clutched the emptiness at her belly, feeling the absence of her shawl. Tears fogged her eyes, and her lips trembled with a name that never made it out.
Arik.
Chains clanked in the air, then an angry woman's voice cut through the space.
"I will not stay missing for long! Do you think my mother will not find me?! She will tear this place down and tell the whole world what Echelon truly is. No VIPs, no elites, just abnormally in human skin—"
Her words were cut short by the hand that swiped across her cheek with force. She hit the floor with a thud, and from where Idalia lay, she could see the woman's face.
The fresh bleeding claw marks, and the unconsciousness that made her eyes go blank.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have dessert!" The man on the stage declared, and the room echoed with laughter.
Not humans.
Not werewolves either.
What were they?
Idalia should be afraid, but she was too filled with grief to be. Too numb with it to move.
Arik.
A woman moved to the man on the stage and whispered something to him. He nodded. The woman stepped aside and nodded in Idalia's direction, but her attention was focused on someone behind her. A rough hand pulled Idalia up, and before she knew it, she was seated on the stage.
The white lights burned even brighter.
Before her, all she could see was darkness. But she knew they were there.
The not humans, not werewolves, and not anything she knew.
They filled the room, and they could see her.
Arik.
"This," the man began, "is a very special one. Ladies and gentlemen, this good is scentless." Then his voice dropped to a whisper. "Imagine the possibilities, all you could do and get away with—-"
"2 million mayak!"
"2 million, do we see 5?" He began the bidding, and the room responded with different excited voices, outbidding each other.
"5 million!"
"5 million, do we see 6?"
"10 million!"
They kept outbidding each other, their voices drowning in the back of Idalia's mind into nothing. The tears ran down her cheeks.
Ari—
Her mind paused, and she jerked her head in a direction. Squinting her eyes to see past the million white lights directed to the stage.
She had heard a baby.
Arik!
Her heart raced, the lights burning her eyes as she kept on searching. She rushed up to her feet, but a rough hand pushed her back to sit on the floor while the bidding continued.
"A hundred billion!"
"A hundred billion!" The excitement in the announcer's voice was plain for all to see. "A hundred billion going once?"
The room fell into silence; other bidders were clearly defeated.
"Going twice?" The man raised his hammer.
"Go—"
"Your heart, Mr Sebastian." A cold voice possessed the room, and it sent a chill down Idalia's spine. "And the hearts of everyone here."
She knew that voice.
"Excuse you?" The announcer said, taking a step forward.
"You heard me."
Murmurs began to erupt within the bidders.
"Security!" Mr Sebastian shouted.
But a cold chuckle filled the room. "They are occupied."
Chaos erupted.
None that Idalia could see.
But she could hear the screams, hear the way bodies were dropping to the ground and felt the splashes of blood on her body when the attack got too close.
She could hear Arik's voice again. But this time around, she was certain it was all in her head. She had lost her son. Tears spilled down her cheeks, and she waited for whatever was killing everyone else to come and kill her.
But Mr Sabestine dragged her along with him as he tried to make his escape. But something stood in his way in every direction he turned, so that he was never able to make it past the stage.
He tossed her to the floor, and she fell like a rag doll.
"Shadow Heir."
She watched a pair of black boots join the ones on the stage, as Mr Sabestian's shoes took slow steps back.
"I despise that title."
"Oh, your Highness, I'm so sorry—" Mr Sabestine suddenly stopped moving, his voice coming out with a strain. "Please, don't do this. Please let me go."
But the Silver Hunter hadn't moved any closer to him.
"You don't want to kill me."
"Are you certain of that?"
Fear surged into his voice without restraint. "Please! I'll tell you about the rest, everything! Please spare me. I'm just a small fish. I'll do anything you ask. I'll be loyal." His words were quick.
In a flash, the Silver Hunter stood in front of him.
"You are useless to me, Arobyn."
Mr Sebastian went still, then he fell forward. The only obstacle between her and the Silver Hunter, gone.
She watched the boots come closer, till they stopped a step before her.
"Look at me."
It was an order.
She did.
His cold green eyes, behind frameless glasses, bored down at her. He looked human, but for his bloodied claws that held a heart at his last beat.
He tossed it to the floor, and from within his black jacket that hung loosely on his shoulders, he pulled out her hope.
Idalia sat up slowly, thinking she had gone mad and was now imagining things. It wasn't until she felt the warmth of her son in her arms that she realised that this was real.
Her hands tightened around Arik, and she shut her eyes in tears. Then she felt a piece of clothing being hung around her shoulders.
Only then did she remember that she was naked.
By the time she opened her eyes next, every trace of kindness was gone from the Silver Hunter. He looked at her and Arik with disdain and clear hatred.
Then he turned away from them, and a man ran to him. "Your Highness."
"Take them away." He said to the man who nodded immediately.
Then he left and never turned back.