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My eyes shot open.Thank the goddess.I would normally be ashamed for Lord to see me like this with my head hung over the toilet and sweat plastering my black curls to my forehead, but I was in absolutely no condition to argue with that.

Lord was the one who had inflicted these wounds, yes, but he was always a provider to me when I needed it, too. He kept me at his mercy; I was smart enough to know that.

But I wasn’t strong enough to fight it, especially not now.

I sagged in relief.

Lord stepped forward, pausing at the bathroom door to take in what he saw. “Here,” he said, extending his hand and hauling me from the floor. “You need to eat, or you’ll get too weak.”

I let him help me back to my cot. He set me down gently, careful not to touch any of the open wounds on my back.

Once I was fully seated back in my bed, he turned to dig into a paper bag he brought with him. “This will help your back heal,” he said, pulling out a glass container.

It wasn’t rare for Lord to bring me food, especially after a rough training day. But healing ointment? “Why would you bring me this?”

He exhaled loudly, showing me a small sliver of the stress that I suspected ran in his veins at all times. Protecting the entire city from vampyres had weighed on him over the years. Hisonce jet-black hair now had tendrils of white laced throughout, his fierce eyes now accompanied by fine lines etched into the surrounding skin. “Like I said, child, I need you to be prepared for anything. I raised you to be a fighter.”

I didn’t object when he opened the container and knelt beside me, the dirty floor getting dust all over his pristine black pants as he strategically applied the ointment to the ripped skin of my back. I hissed and flinched away at first, but Lord’s touch grew softer.

These were the moments—those soft, caring times in between brutal fights and slaughtering vampyres—that Rummy would never understand. Lorddidcare for me, even if it did not always appear that way on the outside. The way his fingers barely contacted my poor skin, the way he pretended not to notice my sigh of pain.

It was our version of love, our unsaid message that we were family, we would take care of each other.

After a few seconds, the stinging pain in my back turned to a dull ache.

Relief flooded my senses as the healing herbs and tonics seeped into my skin. It was easy to forget what my body felt like without the pain until the nonstop agony finally subsided.

“Thank you,” I whispered through my cracked lips. I took a pain-free breath for the first time since before my punishment.

“You don’t need to thank me,” Lord replied. His voice held no malice or anger. This wasn’t a visit from the assassin master, it was a visit from the man who took in a child when she needed help. “I’m here to talk to you.”

I peered at him over my shoulder. “About what?”

He finished rubbing the ointment across my back, then returned it to the paper bag, tossing it onto the cot.

“Eat,” he ordered.

I obeyed, digging into the bag and pulling out a loaf of bread and an apple. I immediately ripped the bread open with my teeth.

Lord pulled the chair from the corner closer to my cot. “What do you remember about The Golden City?” he asked as he sat down casually.

The Golden City.I quickly recalled everything I had been told about the place. It was a hidden society, one that only the strongest fae could get into. Angels used to live there too, but that was before they became nearly extinct.

The ones that were too good for this life, the ones that were strong and wealthy and smart, they all made it to The Golden City. Of course, you couldn’t just walk right up to it and ask to be let in. It was completely secret, from what it took to enter to what happened once you were inside.

All I knew was that for people like me, for people like the citizens of Midgrave, it was too far out of reach. We were raised here, with crumbling buildings and starving children. We did not possess the skills required to make it into The Golden City. They lived like the goddess herself while the rest of us suffered.

We would never be good enough. We would never be likethem.

“It’s an elite society,” I replied, swallowing another bite of bread with a shrug. “Only the strongest fae can get in, only the absolute best.”

“That’s correct,” Lord said. “Do you know what’s so special about The Golden City?”

I pursed my lips. “No homeless children. No sick mothers. No unsolved crimes. They’re all perfect, apparently. Better than us, that’s for damn sure.” The words felt bitter rolling off my tongue. I had never met anyone who lived in The Golden City, but I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to live with such ridiculous luxuries while fae like us barely survived.

“They are untouchable,” Lord continued, nodding his head. “Because they possess special gifts. They wield magic freely, pulling power from the archangels.”

I paused my chewing. “Magic? How is that possible?”