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I froze.The boy was corrupted? Damnit!Heart-sick, I forced my fists to unclench.

Dealing with corrupted was an ugly part of life that no one wanted to deal with — and in a child?! It was horrific.

In Dragon's Peak, there would be a tearful goodbye before the corrupted person voluntarily left the village to survive for as long as they could in the wilds. But they never lasted long …

A child, though?! How did the boy get corrupted in the first place? It hurt to even consider.

The woman let out a plaintive wail, and I glanced once more at the cage now almost out of sight. Surely there was a better way than putting the child in a cage and dragging away his mother?

I opened my mouth to ask, but a club slamming into my back stole the breath from my lungs.

"Stop talking. We're here!" Holden spat as I staggered forward. Wrenching my eyes from the tragedy, I followed his gaze and couldn't help but gape.

Unlike the rest of the stronghold, which looked crowded and borderline impoverished, ahead lay what looked like a small palace. A dozen guards and a large wrought-iron gate separated it from the rest of the city, and behind those gates, lush gardens and marble statues stood before Lady Valtru's white palatial home.

I gritted my teeth. Any hint of admiration I'd felt for her was quickly dissolving. Leaders who hid behind safe fences and guards while children were being torn from their mother's arms and carted away in a public spectacle were the absolute worst sorts!

We stopped outside the gates, the guards exchanging words as we watched.

A sharp hand gripped my arm, and I turned to see Korym examining my face, eyes narrowing at my black eye and busted lip.

"I wish you hadn't been so troublesome, boy." He shook his head wryly. "She likes them pretty."

My stomach clenched.

"We'll just have to tell her we've been training him, Sir," said the shorter of my guards. "The staff says she only likes them pretty so she can rough them up. If we say he's broken in and ready for her use …"

Broken in …

I tried to ignore the panic rising inside me and focused on gathering intel. I couldn't stop anything if I didn't know what was happening.

"Let me guess," I said, trying to sound nonchalant. "She gets a new slave, and you get the intel Lady Frexin wants?"

"Close." Korym's lips curled into an icy smile as he tugged on my arm. I had no choice but to stagger after him.

"She's looking for a new member to add to her harem," he admitted. "She thinks herself to be somethingof a queen, in the vein of the last Mage Queen who brought on The Fall. And even though you have no power anymore, Lady Frexin thinks Lady Valtru will want you. Unfortunately for you, though, I hear her lovers don't live long."

Kaiya let out a shocked gasp, and I turned to look at her. I'd had no idea she was so close …

She was staring at me with a distraught expression, as though she somehow blamed herself.

I shook my head and tried to offer her a small smile. Frexin noticing our connection wasn't her fault. If Lady Valtru had intel that Frexin wanted, I'd been doomed from the start.

"Come now. It won't be that bad," Korym said as we left the beautiful courtyard and entered Lady Valtru's home. "You'll get to live in this beautiful home for the rest of your days!"

My gut burned as an elegant man in green livery directed us down an extravagantly adorned hallway. It was lined with large paintings, some of which looked like the ones from my village …

Holy hells!Theywerepaintings from my village! The frame on one of them had a chip in it — a chip made by me as a child, running through the counsel halls.

A knot twisted in my throat. Was Frexin really giving me to Lady Valtru like she had these paintings — property traded without a care?

And if she sawmeas property, what did that mean for Gram, Mirrim, and the others?

I clenched my fists.

They were depending on me.I couldn't let them down.

But how was I supposed to get out of this place?