Page 32 of Bartered by the Shadow Prince (Bargain with the Shadow Prince #3)

Blackspire

ELOISE

T wo days come and go. I slump against the wall of my cell, my head throbbing with the need for nourishment and water, my blood like sandpaper in my veins.

Where is Damien? It feels like there’s a nail being hammered into my skull just above my right eye.

I press the heel of my palm to it and try to block it out.

He’s coming. He’ll be here soon.

“Stand up,” the guard orders. He’s back again with his stupid cart and his stupid orders. The smell of the blood and food would make my mouth water if I had any saliva left, but that is long gone.

“Stand up and walk to the door,” the guard orders again.

“No,” I rasp, although the word is barely audible. My vocal cords are too dry and my fangs too distended to speak clearly.

“Fucking pain in the ass,” the guard mumbles, and then he opens my door.

In my mind, I picture myself racing across the cell and snapping his neck, before finding my way out of here.

But I can hardly move. The last time I fed on Damien was four days ago.

The last time I had any food or drink at all was the night before I was captured.

That means it’s been almost three days since I’ve had any sustenance at all.

If I were human, I’d be flirting with death from dehydration right now.

I’m not human, and I’m not dying, but I am desiccating. I can feel my flesh drying on my bones.

No matter how much I want to attack my guard, I can’t.

He walks into my cell and pulls me to my feet. I can’t stand on my own and he has to assist me to the door, but he makes a sound like he’s clearly unhappy about it. “It seems you’ve gotten your wish, shade. Adril has asked to see you. Time to get that stench off you.”

I’m no shade , I think, but I’m too exhausted to say it aloud. He half carries me to the end of the hall, then shoves me through a door toward a dark-haired woman in a red dress. “She’s all yours.”

She grabs me by the shoulders and tsks. “You can’t expect me to have her ready by tonight. I’m not a miracle worker!”

“She’s due for presentation at the Blackspire ball tonight. You can tell Adril yourself if you can’t make her ready.”

“Devil’s spawn,” she curses.

My eyes roll back in my head. I black out for a moment, and the next thing I know, another man is carrying me, an elf but a big one.

“This way. Hurry,” the woman says.

He carries me to a room and lowers me to the floor beside a tub. “What is your name?” the woman asks.

“Eloise,” I croak.

“What? Gods, you haven’t eaten in days.” She disappears and returns with a small goblet. “Here. It’s clean. It won’t hurt you.”

I look down into the vessel, the contents obscured in its dark belly.

She holds up her arm and points toward a cut. “It’s my blood, okay? It’s fresh. I’ve had no chance to spell it to injure you. Besides, it’s my head if I don’t get you cleaned up and into a dress in—” she checks the clock “—three hours.”

I drink the blood. I’ve never had elf blood before. Honestly, it tastes like absolute garbage, but I feel better almost immediately. Better, but also still ravenously hungry.

“More,” I say, handing her back the goblet.

She takes it and points her chin toward a copper tub filled with steaming water. “Take off your clothes and wash up. There’ll be plenty where you’re going tonight.”

As much as I’d prefer to be defiant, the lure of a bath after everything is too much to deny. I stand and strip out of my clothes. I’m aware she’s watching me like some kind of perv. I’m too tired to care. I sink into the bath, almost moaning at the feeling of the warm water against my muscles.

She comes to the side of the tub and pulls over a chair. “I am Ferida, lady’s maid to the guests of Blackspire. I must tell you, this is the first time I’ve been asked to tend to a prisoner.”

“This is the first time I’ve been a prisoner.”

“What exactly did you do to end up in the bowels of Blackspire?”

“Nothing. I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong.” Then a name pops into my head from a conversation I had with Cassius what feels like a lifetime ago. “Blackspire? That’s where we are? I thought maybe they’d taken me to Dhegal prison.”

She snorts. “Dhegal? Oh no, girl. You don’t want to go there.

That’s where they send prisoners they hope will die but they can’t outright kill for political reasons.

Dhegal is for true criminals. No, if you’re here, it’s because he doesn’t deem you dangerous.

You are a lucky one, then. He must plan to use you for something, which means he’ll want you alive and well.

Usually, prisoners here are well-fed, though.

I’m surprised by your physical state. I have half a mind to report your guard. ”

“I was told you infuse the food with light here to keep shades mortal. I’m a vampire, not a shade. If I eat or drink food infused with light, it could kill me.”

“A vampire? I haven’t heard of your kind before.” She studies me, probably wondering if I’m telling the truth. Her eyes flick toward the back of the tub. “Does explain your tattoo, though. I’ve never seen one on a shade.”

“I’m the only one. I’m not from here.”

“What does the symbol represent?”

“My tattoo? It’s a…key.” In fact, it could be interpreted as a key or a dragon, depending on how you look at it, but given that a war was fought over a dragon and her egg in this world, I think it’s safer to say it’s a key.

“A key? That’s a strange thing to have drawn into your skin.”

I shrug. “I think a key represents freedom.”

She snorts. “Well, at least you have that, then, even if you won’t be free any time soon.”

A chill travels through me at her words. I look down into the water, at my nails digging into my thighs.

Ferida clears her throat. “You should tell your guard. It’s his job to keep you alive. Adril becomes angry when his pets die unexpectedly.”

“A pet?” I turn to her, outraged by the descriptor. “That’s what I am meant to be?”

She recoils. “If you’re lucky. If I had my choice between that cell they pulled you out of and a place in Adril’s bed, I’d choose the bed.”

My stomach turns. Please Damien, find me.

The woman rises in a huff. “Finish up. We need time to do your hair.”

Only when I’m clean and dressed, with my hair braided down my back, am I escorted from Ferida’s dressing room.

I feel ridiculous. I’m in another elf fashion, which means my dress is too tight and way too shiny, although the amethyst color they’ve put me in thankfully works with my complexion.

As I’m led up multiple flights of stairs, I have no idea where I’m going, except that it’s some sort of special event.

A guard locks a gold collar around my neck.

Humiliating but easy enough to break out of, if there were anywhere to go.

No doors line the hall or stairway we ascend.

I don’t know where I am, let alone how to exit the building.

And the guards have sticks that glow with sunlight, weapons that could hurt me, if not kill me. It’s too risky to try anything.

Damien is coming for me. I need to trust in that and keep myself safe until then.

By the time we reach the top of the staircase, the muscles in my thighs burn. They shouldn’t. Not since I’ve enjoyed the strength of a vampire. But I’m malnourished and sleep-deprived. Physically, I’m weak.

A guard shoves me through a door into a…

ballroom. It takes me a minute to regain my bearings.

I’ve walked into a world where some giant’s bath has overflowed and the enormous soap bubbles still cling to the floor.

The tables are all supported by a central pedestal of stacked, translucent spheres.

People sit on delicate orbs the size of chairs that look like they might pop at the merest tap of a pin.

The extraordinarily bright lights above my head are chandeliers of candles, each flame individually encased in a bubble.

And weirdly, tiny ones snow down from the ceiling in a way that must be magic.

It’s all very surreal, like I’ve tumbled down the rabbit hole and drunk the vial to grow small.

“I’ll take her from here.” Adril appears beside me, his icy gaze skating down his pointed nose toward me.

He’s dressed in what I assume is elven finery.

Fur-lined silk and a crown constructed of antlers and jewels.

The guard hands him the end of the golden chain that is now fastened to the collar around my neck.

He gestures toward a dais near the front of the room, where his throne awaits. “Join me.”

Reluctantly, I follow him. Close behind him, so that I don’t have to suffer the indignity of being dragged by the neck.

He lowers himself onto the enormous throne, his back ramrod straight.

His seat is constructed of gold and horns from beasts I do not even know the names of and cushioned in white silk. There’s no chair for me.

“Do you expect me to stand behind you?” I say, unable to keep the snark out of my voice.

His eyes crinkle at the edges. “I prefer you stay where I can see you. You may sit on my lap.”

“Not on your life,” I say through my teeth.

He frowns. “Then sit on the floor near my feet like the dog you are.”

I remain standing in front of him. Our gazes lock. “Why did you bring me here?”

He sits up straighter on his throne and looks past me, like I’m not even there.

I hear footsteps approach, and then a lightning bolt of pain enters through the backs of my legs and travels through me. “Ahhh!” I scream, collapsing onto my knees in front of Adril. He gives the guard who just assaulted me a nod and shallow smile. The man retreats into the corner again.

Adril’s gaze falls on me as I struggle to get my legs to work again. It feels like I’ve been burned. The pain is relentless, and tears stream down my face as I hoist my bottom onto the small dais near Adril’s feet.

“I am not my daughter, vampire. I will not suffer your insolence. You will submit to me and do as I command, or you will be made to do it. Do you understand?”

When I don’t answer immediately, the guard approaches again. “I understand,” I say softly, quickly.

The guard stops and returns to his post. I stare out across the ballroom, watching the dark elves twirl across the dance floor in front of floor to ceiling windows that reveal the strange forest and moonless night beyond.

I’m distracted from the otherwise surreal moment when something moves at the center of one of the tables.

Inside a dome that matches the other bubbly décor is a small rabbit-like creature.

It’s lying on its side, squirming as if it’s in pain.

“You display live animals on the tables?”

“Elves enjoy bringing nature indoors,” the king says in an indulgent tone, like I’m a child and he’s explaining why the sky is blue.

“Are the animals freed at the end of the night?”

“No. They exist for our entertainment. That is all.” He narrows his eyes on me. “You will learn in time, my pet, that elves are the superior species. We are the masters of this world. Anything else here, anyone else here, exists for our pleasure.”

Gross. It’s one thing to watch a community of starving shades eat every part of an animal that died quickly to feed them. Knowing that these creatures are dying simply for the elves’ entertainment absolutely sickens me, as does the overt superiority complex.

“Why am I here, Adril?”

“You will call me master. You have not earned the right to use my name.”

Jesus Christ, this guy… I desperately want to turn around, give him the finger, and tell him the only thing I will ever call him is bastard, but I use what little strength I have to quash those impulses.

I need to know as much as I can about the terms of his agreement with Brahm so that when Damien rescues me, I can share everything.

“Why am I here, master?” I choke out.

Above me, he makes that wicked smile. It pleases him that I’ve obeyed.

I swallow bile. “You and Damien refused to swear fealty to my daughter Nevina or pay her the tax you owe her, so the tax was taken from you. Brahm bartered you to me. He could have sent me anyone, you understand, but you, the only one of your kind, are a far more interesting treat. You are mine now.”

I am Damien’s , I remind myself silently, and I am my own .

“I sense your defiance,” he says. “You long to be with your mate.”

I say nothing.

“Truth be known, I wanted it this way,” he whispers. “Damien is a risk to me and a risk to my daughter. But shades like him have one fatal weakness. They will do anything for their mates. With you in my control, he will bend suitably to my will.”

I have to clench my teeth to stop myself from telling him where he can shove his will.

My head snaps back when he grabs my chain and yanks. A deep instinct for self-preservation has me baring my fangs and growling up into his cruel face. He grins that wicked grin that covers me in gooseflesh. Adril is truly the boogeyman, and I am at his mercy.

“There she is. There’s the fire I bartered so handsomely for.

” He releases my chain and snaps his fingers.

A servant, in a pink striped dress with wild hair that twists straight up, runs to his side and curtsies.

“Bring a plate for my pet. She needs to keep up her strength.” He runs a hand over my head, trailing his multijointed fingers along the base of my neck.

I cringe at the feel of his hands on me. My muscles twitch with the urge to run. But I know better. Running could get me killed. I’m not strong enough to make it out of here alone. Damien will rescue me. I have to trust in that.

When the food is delivered along with a goblet of blood, I eat and drink, trusting it isn’t poisoned with sunlight.

Adril knows I’m a vampire and clearly doesn’t want me dead.

What he does want from me is something I’d rather not think about.

I trust Damien is coming, but if he isn’t here soon and Adril tries to touch me again, I’ll kill him.

I will rip his elven heart straight out of his bony chest.