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The glass and water distort his voice, but I can still hear it.

The Bullfrog is staking his claim on me.

The other grotesque Bullfrogs shift in their seats – some even getting up to give the enraged Bullfrog some distance. It’s disturbing to watch the cruelest and most sadistic sub-species of Toad retreat from an example of their kind even more cruel and sadistic than they are.

The additional space leaves nothing between the scarred Bullfrog and the three Aurelians who sit behind him. I’m only observing the room though the glass viewscreen, but I can feel the tension even as I bob up and down in the water. At any second, I sense that things could turn violent. The question is – what happens if they do?

The one Bullfrog against three Aurelians would be a quick massacre – but if the rest of the room side with the angered creature and turn on the Aurelians, those three towering, marble-skinned warriors would be cut to pieces.

The worst part? I can’t even use the distraction to my advantage. I can’t even look for a way out. I’m frozen in place, treading water mindlessly.

Through the glass, Tessa stares at me with dull horror in her light brown eyes. She knows that there’s something wrong – some additional drama heating up the auction – but her own situation is so dire she couldn’t do anything to help me even if she wanted to.

I’m on my own.

Through the glass, I watch as the leader of the Aurelians smiles. His dead, cold grin never reaches his slate-grey eyes, though.

He scares me. I don’t know what kind of man could bear to work with Toads – even more so in the grisly trade of unwilling human flesh. To do what he does, he must be as cold as ice inside. Irredeemable.

“Very well, Bullfrog,” Marcel sneers. “We’ll take back our bid.”

The Bullfrog grunts in approval, turning and sitting down heavily back on his seat. He raises his hand again, reiterating his bid, and the glistening creature rubs the long scar I’d given him with my blaster as he does so.

Those big, bulbous eyes turn to me, and he stares at me coldly.

As I tread water, I feel the chill of them. In fact, my stomach drops as the magnitude of what just happened becomes real inside my mind.

The Aurelians retracted their bid. That foul, sadistic alien creature is going to buy me.

For a second, I wonder if I could force my head underwater – holding myself down until my lungs fill with water and I drown.Anythingto keep me from that creature’s touch.

But then, I see Marcel’s lips move again.

“I wasn’t finished.”

The Bullfrog turns sharply in his seat, jowls jiggling in outrage.

“We’ll take back that bid,” Marcel purrs, his eyes as cold as ice, “because it didn’t do her justice. We’lltriplethe bid.”

The Bullfrog can’t contain himself. Jowls undulating, the massive creature reaches for the long hilt of his own Orb-Axe.

I stare through the window, transfixed. That Bullfrog would be going up against three Aurelian warriors – the most lethal species in the universe.

Kill him!I silently plead to those three gorgeous, towering aliens.Oh, Gods! Please kill him!

I keep pleading, and that turns into prayer – only, I don’t know if I’m praying to the Gods above, or to the gods-made-flesh I’m staring at through the viewing window.

All I do know is that while that scarred, twisted Bullfrog is alive, I’m in danger.

I watch through the window as the Bullfrog activates his Orb-Axe. With a resonant hum, twin axe-blades materialize as if from nothingness – crackling blue-black energy, humming as it shudders and shifts.

I watch, transfixed. The Orb-Axe defies the laws of reality – in fact, it’s as if reality ceases to exist in the space where those blades materialized. It’s like a gaping maw into another dimension – a loophole in physics that should not have the audacity to exist.

I’m terrified just watching the blade from here – but the three Aurelians stay seated – as if the towering Bullfrog, bulging muscles wrapped in glistening fat, isn’t standing there. It’s as if the sight of him wielding one of the deadliest weapons in existence right in front of them means nothing.

“Crad!”

Suddenly, a voice booms so loudly from the top of the stairs behind them that I hear it, even through the glass viewing screen.