Page 9 of Blood Bought

“No, it’s just a nice one. Ours are thinner and older. Is that the name he gave you? Ren?”

Suddenly, I was feeling a little played and a lot like a fool. “Yes. Is that not his name?”

Elenor nodded yes, but there was something in her eyes that told me there was more. “And the other one, what was his name?”

“Sonny, though now that I think about it... it sounds fake.” I scoffed, pulling the blanket from my shoulders and easing it through the bars. “Take it. If this one is thicker and warmer than yours, take it. I have no interest in gifts from people who can’t be honest with me.”

Her eyes widened, head shaking side to side quickly as she backed away. “No. If Ren gave it to you, I can’t be seen with it. It’s yours. Ren is one of Alaris’ best friends. If he was told not to give his full name, then he wouldn’t. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

Fucking bastards. I tossed it behind me on the bed and tried again to make nice. “I didn’t mean to offend you by offering. I’m sorry.”

Elenor squirmed slightly, her skin looking paler at the anger radiating under my skin. “Do you know what you’ll choose?”

“Between bait and a bloodwhore? I think I’ll take the cell,” I admitted. “It’s been almost a week and he hasn’t even bothered to show his face.”

“He comes down here every day,” she admitted, then turned and looked toward the door like she was scared to be overheard. “I don’t know why.”

I couldn’t deny how surprised I was to hear that, but if anything, it only disappointed me more. I’d hoped he was just too busy to be able to come down here and talk to me himself, but I was wrong. He just didn’t want to. “Right. Do you... y’know —” I pointed to the bite mark on her neck — “for him?”

I didn’t miss the way her eyes darted around and her knees clenched together. “I have. Not often... he’s picky.”

“So I’ve heard,” I muttered. “Why are you even here? What happened?”

“I chose to be here. I was homeless and lost out there my whole life. Kellian found me on the edge of the Wood and brought me here. I chose this,” she touched along her neck. “I’ve never felt anything better.”

“Then why do you look so skittish?” I asked. “Like one wrong move and you’d be dead?”

“Because of you. None of us are claimed, and although he hasn’t claimed you, you’re marked to be his. I don’t know the protocol here, but we don’t cross the claimed. You’re angry. If for one second they assumed I was the cause—” she paused, turning away to leave like she’d already said too much, but she whispered one last thing — “Iwouldbe dead.”

It took precisely all of my self-control not to scream his name until he showed himself, but I managed. “He’s the reason I’m angry, Elenor. Not you. Does that mean he’ll kill himself?”

She glanced back at me over her shoulder. “Why him? Why not Brander?”

“Because Brander might’ve given the order to put me in here, but Alaris is the one choosing to keep it that way,” I reminded her. “Brander doesn’t give a shit what happens to me, but Alaris? My life is supposedly his now. Wouldn’t it make you a little angry if this is what someone decided to do with yours?”

“Perhaps,” she admitted, then turned to leave the room, but I didn’t miss the sudden gasp that she released before it closed again behind her.

Great. My one shot at a friend and I yelled at her.I sank back on the mattress and kicked that blanket to the ground, but I only lasted about three minutes of freezing before I was tugging it up under my chin again. I was halfway through a second read of the book he’d given me already, but honestly, I wasn’t in the mood to read some ancient romance. I wasn’t in the mood for anything but going home.

Sleep overtook me for a while, and when I woke up again, someone else was sitting on the ground outside my cell. I sat up abruptly and wiped the drool from my chin, then cleared my throat as I took in his very Obsidian eyes. “Thanks for skipping the sunglasses. The first two looked like douchebags.”

He snorted. “I’ll make sure to pass that message along. I’m Kellian, by the way. Son of Idris and Nyx.”

Finally, someone honest.“So Wealth, huh? What exactly have I done to earn the presence of an Heir?”

“You scared the help,” he said with a shrug. “We can’t have that. So, I’m here to help ease your mind a little bit. We’re not all monsters, and Alaris isn’t as bad as you think. He just doesn’t want your negative attitude spreading to the others. It’s a food thing.”

I scoffed, rubbing my eyes and hoping I was still dreaming. “So his solution was to make sure my attitude stayed negative? Or did he believe that he’d break my spirit and I’d just go upstairs and open a vein with a smile on my face?”

“I’m not the one to answer that question. Truthfully, he sent me down here to find out if there’s any hope at all for you or if he should move on and wait for Kendall to come of age. Is that what you want?”

“No,” I rushed out. “No, not at all.”

“Then what are you doing? You know what the stakes are and you should’ve learned by now that fighting this only ends one way. Are you really that stubborn that you won’t at least see what the deal is upstairs?”

“No, I—” I didn’t have an answer for him at all, because he was right. My stubbornness might’ve been born of fear, but it was ultimately putting my sister in danger and not getting me out of any whatsoever. It was just making me miserable when there was an alternative being offered. “I’m scared,” I whispered.

“What are you scared of really, Adalind? That you’ll enjoy it?”

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