Page 18 of Auctioned Mate

She glared at me and tugged on my arm, pulling me a few rooms down to a dark door. Was there a reason this one wasn’t painted crimson like the others? She grabbed the knob and jiggled it.

“Damn it,” she groaned. “Can you help, please?”

“Help with what specifically?”

She waved both hands frantically. “Do your weird magic shit to unlock the door.”

“My weird magic—”

The door clicked, swinging open easily as a voice rang in my head.We really don’t have time to waste. Get out of there!

Thanks to Izdor, accessing the room was but a mere stage trick. I launched inside with Macy, ready for action, wings already breaking the skin of my upper back. A giant metal safe sat in one corner on a trolley. Lining the wall was a series of locked miniature boxes that resembled the mail cases shown to me by Galanthia. They were called apartments, or something of the sort, and mail was often shoved through the back to be collected from the front later.

“Lock boxes,” Macy whispered. “Wow, that’s a whole lot of dough.”

My puzzled expression prompted another wave of her hands. This time, dismissive in nature.

She pointed to the trolley. “Can you carry that safe?”

“By heavens, for what earthly reason?”

“We need the cash.”

I shook my head. “Of all the things we could have delayed our escape for, you want it to be formoney? You can’t be serious. Izdor, this woman cannotbe serious!”

Macy grumbled as she inspected the velvet bags on a table. The contents were more than sufficient by the sound of her triumphant gasp. She grabbed a few of the bags, no bigger than the size of a pint glass, and tossed one to me. Coins rattled inside.

I gaped at the thing. “You must be joking.”

“Now isn’t the time for jokes.”

Juriah, you need to run, Galanthia urged.The guards won’t be distracted for much longer.

Shouts resounded in the distance—they must have come from the beginning of the hallway maze where my journey with this woman began. I took her by the wrist and darted out the door, racing past the room that had once housed us, following my intuition and the voice inside my head guiding—the voice of Izdor.

One right and two lefts later spat us out at a dead end. Or what seemed to be a dead end. Magic clung to the air, simmering against the concrete wall in front of us. Ah, it was a simple mirage, in which I was well versed. With a wave of my hand, I reduced the barrier to wisps of smoke, revealing a tattered green door with a bolt lock. Another wave deteriorated the lock.

I’m nearly outside, I told my companions.We’re about to—

Macy dug her nails into my bicep. Had it not been for the terror which skirted from her fingers to my heart, I wouldn’t have noticed the slight sting of her grip. Her breathing took on a new rhythm, one of pure panic as I turned to check on her. Just to the right of us was another hallway, one I hadn’t noticed when we’d approached, one hidden not by magic, but by optical illusion.

In my haste to reach the exit, I hadn’t checked for such things. I kicked myself double, and then triple when the man named Rick stepped out from the shadows with his arms crossed. Portentous energy rippled along his shoulders and dripped down his arms, energizing his aura with his intent.

He was aiming to stop us at all costs. Poor Macy was frozen like a sacrificial lamb on a slab. Nothing could have avoided her fate in this instance. Nor mine. Our escape would unfold with certainty, but not without challenges. Rick was just another obstacle to overcome, another foe.

I gritted my teeth.So, why the hell hadn’t I seen him coming?

Fluorescent eyes roamed from Macy to me, and then back to Macy. A smile turned up the corners of his mouth, creating a sinister smile that reminded me of a mad scientist from an old horror film Izdor had me watch.Tsk-tsk, that sound resonated in his throat, it seemed.

“You give yourself away every time,” he said. His eyes landed on me, turning back to their original pale blue. “Hand over the girl and there won’t be much trouble, jackass.”

Fury sped through my veins, a nauseating reaction that had been held back for far too long. Since I had arrived at this horrid establishment, my senses had been going wild. Intuitively, I knew something was wrong—and I had been right about that. Now that I had witnessed with my physical and spiritual eyes what was happening here, I meant to stop it.

At all costs.

Fierce passion wrought my wings from their nesting place in my upper back. Grayish white feathers unfurled in a flash, sprouting proudly to frame my body, pointed back like a cat’s ears as I bowed my head forward in a defensive stance. The air thickened as I hovered hauntingly over Rick with my canines enlarged, sharpened, ready to sink into malicious flesh.

My ears picked up on a distinct noise from behind me—Macy, yes, she was still with me! I had to make sure she made it out of here in one piece. To get her to safety meant to hold true to my pledge which had been to rescue her from this den of horror.

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