“They who?”
“One of the men. They come sometimes. They look at us. Sometimes they just…” She looked away, unwilling to meet my eyes. “Sometimes they just…visit. But sometimes they make a deal with the Red Snake Man to take one of us.”
“Art,” I murmured. “His name is Art. Red Snake Man seems to give him some semblance of respect.” I started to rub my eyes and then realized I couldn’t with the cuffs. “Are the other girls chained up too?”
“Only the ones who resist.”
“Well, yeah, I guess that would include me. I take it you’re not one?”
“Not anymore.”
“Why don’t you leave? You must have some magic…even a little.”
Cariena held up her hands. She didn’t have handcuffs like me, but snug iron bracelets hugged each wrist, each with a tiny lock. The skin was red and swollen where the iron touched.
“Jesus…so you’re blocked from your magic. But, I mean, can’t you just walk out the door?”
“There’s iron…iron everywhere. The windows, the doors. They’re all bound with iron and spells. And locks. Besides…” Her blue eyes widened slightly. “I don’t know where I would go…not in this world…”
“Home,” I said fiercely. “You’ll go home. I’ll take you there.”
She shook her head, face sad. “There’s no escape from here. Not even for you.”
I eyed her curiously. “Do you know who I am?”
“You are the Thorn Queen. Storm King’s daughter. You are my sovereign.” She gave a deferential nod of respect. “And I know you are a great warrior and magic user. But if the Red Snake Man caught even you, then there’s no hope for any of us. Moria tried to escape, and she died out there.”
“Moria did escape. She didn’t die, and-” I stopped.
Why was my brain such mush? Why was I thinking so slowly? A great warrior and magic user. I didn’t need my hands to get out of here. I had my magic. The iron and steel that stunted Cariena’s magic had hardly any effect on me, and I would have had enough time by now to rebuild my stores of power. I reached into myself and then to the world around, seeking water and air, though not certain what I’d do with them. Blow the headboard apart? Oxidize the handcuffs? The decision turned out not to matter.
Nothing happened.
I felt nothing. I felt…well, human. I felt as I had for years, long before I’d had any clue I could touch any sort of Otherworldly magic. I was cut off. My mind touched only empty space.
“What’s wrong with me?” I asked, true panic starting to unravel in me. “My magic’s gone. The steel shouldn’t affect me…”
“It’s not the steel,” a voice suddenly said. “It’s the nightshade. And I think you’re overdue.”
Art strolled into the room, looking as dashing as ever with his tanned skin and movie-star smile. I had nothing but contempt for him and instinctually tried to break the cuffs. Nightshade…nightshade. Where had I heard that before? Rurik, I realized. He’d advised something called a tincture of nightshade to completely cut off Jasmine from her magic. Was that what I’d been given? He’d said it was the most effective…but that it made those with human blood feel dazed and sick. All of a sudden, I knew this fuzzy hangover feeling didn’t have anything to do with me being banished.
There was no real purpose in discussing nightshade with Art, so I got right to the point. “I’m going to kill you.”
Art laughed that hearty, deep laugh I’d once found endearing. “Forgive me if I’m not scared.” He turned to Cariena. “Go get some more nightshade for Eugenie. And make sure Isanna is dressed and ready to go when Abigail returns.”
Cariena was practically out of the room before he finished speaking. “I can’t believe it,” I said. “It’s really true. When I first started putting together this fairy sex-trade theory, I thought it was as crazy as Roland thought it was. But it’s really true. Where’s this Isanna going? Is Abigail taking her to her new owner?”
He leaned back and crossed his legs. “I suppose you could say that. I like to think of it as her new loving home. The man who bought her is very eager to welcome her.”
“You’re a fucking bastard,” I growled. “Selling them like they’re property.”
“Might as well be. And if it makes you feel better, I don’t sell all of them. Cariena there…hmm, well, she’s not pretty enough to get a good price. Easier to keep her around for house calls.”
“House calls.” I started to feel sick again, and it had nothing to do with the nightshade. “Basically, you’re whoring her out. You sell sex slaves and run a brothel-and yet, all the while, you play hero shaman like you’re doing the world a good deed. Roland couldn’t say enough nice things about you.”
Art straightened up, feet hitting the floor as a flash of anger shone in his eyes. “I am doing the world a good deed-this world. Those girls? They’re nothing. They aren’t human. And you…” He shook his head. “You’re one to talk about image. You play hero shaman too, when in reality you’re off commanding gentry armies. Does Roland know? Does he know what you really are? I’m sure he has to know you’re a half-breed mongrel, but does he really know the extent of it?”
White-hot rage burned within the drug-induced haze of my mind. “I think you forgot the part where I’m going to kill you.”
“And you forgot the part where I said I’m not worried.”
Cariena returned holding a coffee mug. I eyed it warily.
“What are you going to do with me?” I demanded. “You would have killed me already if you could, yet you probably aren’t going to let me go now that I know your dirty secret. Are you going to sell me off too? Keep me for yourself since you don’t like gentry?”
Art shook his head and approached my bed. “Eugenie, you couldn’t pay me enough to keep you around. I’d take one of these idiot girls any day. Turn on the microwave, and they’re so scared that they’ll stay docile for weeks.”
He gestured Cariena to his side and reached down to hold my head in place. I realized what he was going to do and began thrashing. With one hand he tried to keep me still, and with the other he partially held my mouth open.
“Do it,” he said. Obediently, Cariena poured the liquid from the mug into my half-open mouth. As she did, she mouthed, I’m sorry. The stuff tasted horrible, and I gagged on it. I tried to spit it out, but Art promptly covered my mouth until I had to swallow. That bitterness flowed down my throat, and I could feel a new wave of numbness start to sweep over me.
“Yes,” said Art, almost cheerfully. “You’re trouble. I don’t want you. I don’t know any human who would. But fortunately, we got an offer from someone who isn’t.”
I think he was smiling that stupid smile again, but I could never say for sure. The force of the nightshade flooded through me, pulling me into fuzziness, then darkness, and then sleep.
I immediately noticed two things when I came to later. One was that Art was still in the room, though I think he’d just returned and hadn’t been watching me sleep.
The other thing I noticed was that I was uncuffed.
I didn’t waste any time. I promptly leapt out of the bed and charged him. Unfortunately, I didn’t really make it off the bed so well. The nightshade was chugging along in my system, and my limbs barely had the energy to stay upright. I fell off the bed and collapsed into an ungraceful pile on the floor. Cariena was there too, holding a bundle of clothing, and started to come help me. Art shook his head, and she froze.
“Looks like you won’t be killing me today,” he said.
“You fucking bastard,” I said, tossing one arm on the bed and attempting to pull myself up. “How long was I out?”
“Oh, an hour or so. That’s usually the worst part of it for humans. Now that you’re bright-eyed and bushy- tailed, Cariena’s going to help you look respectable.”
I glared at him. I didn’t know who’d stripped me down to this T-shirt and underwear, but if it had been him, he’d die extra slow. The scathing look he gave me suggested, however, that he found as little pleasure in me as I did in him.
“You can’t keep me here,” I warned, managing at last to sit back on the bed. “Someone’s going to come looking for me.”
“Who?” he asked. “You were the idiot who wandered off from your people. None of them saw you taken.
