Page 1 of Their Property
Prologue
KYRIE
FOUR YEARS EARLIER
Ipaced the barren room, dragging my hand along the blank concrete walls. At first, I had been looking for cracks in the walls. Maybe a hidden door with a secret passage like in the books I read as a little girl.
But nothing was on the other side except for solid concrete. He made sure of that. He also made sure no one would be able to rescue me up here.
I stopped my pacing to lean my forehead against a patch of sunlight that hit the wall from one of the windows, too high for me to see out of.
“How could I have been so fucking stupid?” I whispered, not for the first time since being locked in here a week ago.
I pictured my father’s disapproving frown in my head and hit the wall with the side of my fist. He’d chastise me for sayingfuckfirst, because that was improper language, unbecoming of a governor’s daughter, andthenlecture me about sneaking off unchaperoned with a boy I barely knew.
A boy I thought I was in love with. Who’d said awful, cruel things to me once I was in his clutches, and then imprisoned me in this room.
“You’ll stay here until you’re my wife,” Malcolm had said, his grin smug as his eyes raked over me. “And then you’ll be moved to our room where you’ll be…broken in.”
I was blinded by his charm, his flirtations. His wit and arrestingly handsome face. Father said we were likely to get married at a later date, so what was the harm in spending more time with him? When Malcolm Blake, heir to the Blakeworth territory, asked me to sneak away so he could show me a surprise, I said yes without a second thought.
In hindsight, I realized what I wanted most of all was to get out from under my father’s thumb. And that led me straight into a trap.
My eyelids fluttered closed as I rocked my forehead against that patch of sunlight on the wall.Stupid, naive idiot. Even if I do make it back home, Dad won’t ever let me step outside without a guard detail again.
A flutter of wings had me blinking my eyes open. Hovering in the window, covered in glossy black feathers, was a raven. The bird was big enough to block the sunlight, and stared at me with dark, ominous eyes.
The raven cawed once before flying off, and my feet seemed to drag toward the window of their own volition. I wanted to follow that bird to freedom, to feel the sky and fresh air again.
I wondered if it was the same raven that came to me in my dreams. That caw soothed my nerves somehow. It was almost as comforting as a human voice telling me to wait, that help would come.
The sound of clanking metal across the room dashed that hope just as quickly as it arose. I turned to the door, my body already stiff as the series of locks clanked and slid. When it opened, a maid with a plain face and a simple dress walked in, her eyes downcast respectfully. My relief that it wasn’thimwas short-lived.
“Hello, Miss Vance. Mr. Blake would like you to attend the contractor’s mixer in the gardens with him this afternoon,” she said to the floor. “I’m here to help you prepare.”
I blinked, momentarily confused. “He’s…letting me out?”
“You are his fiancée. You are expected to make public appearances with him.” This woman was so prim, so matter-of-fact, that I wanted to scream at her. Hisfiancée?Could she not see that I was his fucking prisoner?
“Ma’am, um.” I wrapped my fingers around each other, my pulse quickening. “I’m not sure if you’re aware of the situation, but he’s keeping me against my will. I’ve been trapped in here for at least a week. Please, I’m begging you—”
“We need to get you washed and dressed, Miss Vance,” she cut me off curtly as she opened the door wider and stepped aside. “Please follow me. If you try to run, youwillbe caught and reprimanded.”
Her callousness hurt me almost as much as Malcolm’s. I stared at her with my jaw hanging open. “How can you actually be loyal to him? To his family? When they treat people of your status so poorly? In my father’s territory, you’d be making a livable wage, and no one would treat you like you’re beneath them!”
The maid sneered at me, her first sign of emotion since walking in. “Don’t act like you know me or my situation, rich girl.”
I startled at the vitriol in her voice like she’d slapped me.
“You’ve been trapped here a week? Poor little thing,” she mocked. “My family is indentured to the Blake family for three generations. If I help you, or even step a foot out of line, my son will be sent away to a labor camp. My daughter? Trafficked and used like an animal. And they’ll add three more generations to my family’s servitude.” The woman took slow, measured steps closer to me as she spoke. “You? At least you’ll lie back on a feathertop mattress, clad in silk and jewels, while onlyoneman—your future husband—rapes you.”
A choked gasp left my throat. The full weight of my reality hit me right then with the force of a collapsing building. No one in this territory was going to help me. I was never going to escape.
“Follow me now.” The maid turned back to face the door. “The mixer starts in a few hours, and we need to prepare you to be seen by the public.”
In a state of shock and numbness, I followed after her.
The next fewhours passed by in a blur. I’d been washed, scrubbed, waxed, and tweezed by a team of maids, then manipulated like a doll into an expensive, floor-length gown. They put colored contact lenses in my eyes, some unnatural color like bright turquoise. They caked makeup on my face and put on fake lashes that were at least two inches long with feathers in them, which turned my thoughts to the raven hovering at my window. Would he see me out there, dressed like a ridiculous bird?
