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There was fire in my heart. I could feel it roaring as I sat on the cold cement floor in the corner of my glass cage. Over my face was the same dulled, dead mask the rest of the women who surrounded me wore.

My eyes were open, but I wasn’t really seeing anything. Just a blur of dim, muted colors. Red from the light above my cage, white from the fluorescents of the tired women in the cage across from me, gray from the narrow hallway between us, and black from the short tresses that fell to my chin .

I was breathing, but my mind was deadened. The golden shackles on my severely bruised wrists prevented me from letting the fire boil my blood enough to burn down this farming facility run by the Cidris hunters.

I blinked slowly as I curled myself farther in the corner to hide my naked body as much as possible from the wandering men, looking for some Elizian blood to magically heal their wounds.

It’d been two months, and still the only person who had ever farmed me was the one person who put me here.

Fletcher Darkly. As soon as my cage turned white, indicating I was replenished and ready to be drained once more, Fletcher would storm through the hall, drop coins into my machine, and smash that red button that would put my body through the most agony I’d ever experienced.

I didn’t know if he ever looked at me while my blood was being leeched from me because I had yet to acknowledge his existence since he had put me in this hell.

But I would watch him walk away with the bottle of my blood.

Even in my rage, I noticed how he still made my mouth dry, curled my toes in desire, and caused my weak heart to patter.

He still had that sway in his broad shoulders.

I hated that my body responded to simply a glimpse of him.

To still be attracted to him even though he was a traitor, a dismal and evil Cidris, always stirred the bile in my stomach.

But I forced myself to watch him walk away if only to desensitize myself.

To retrain my brain so my body would stop heating at the thought of him.

But this was the price I had to pay for being naive and trusting in someone who would smile and lie to my face. I had learned my lesson.

Luckily, today I didn’t have to see him.

Today, I could blankly stare into the distance.

I could count my heartbeats as I thought about all the ways my mother had been right—right to keep me in our tower.

She knew I was vulnerable and would be hunted for my magic.

She knew Fletcher couldn’t be trusted—knew he was a Cidris.

I should have heeded her warning about him, but I thought I knew better—knew Fletcher better, and I had ignored her.

Such an idiot! Now how would she find me?

God, I wished she’d find me. I no longer cared if she was experimenting with my blood, if she drained me of it in her dark closet.

Anything was better than this. Especially if she was trying to help me control my magic. I just wanted to go home .

Trusting Fletcher Darkly was the single biggest mistake of my life. Had anything he had told me been true?

The sound of a tiny latch clicking on the ceiling signaled the opening of a small door no bigger than my fist. I shifted my gaze to three small ocaberries dropping into my cage.

Their dark, matte skin was ringed with glowing cobalt hues, and they were filled with sweet relief for this pounding headache that plagued me from blood loss.

Everyone got two. But I sometimes got three. Like today. And when the pieces of bread would come, I noticed, I would sometimes get extra of that too.

It never mattered though. I looked at the three berries and swiveled my bottom on the rough concrete ground until I faced them.

Ignoring the saliva that filled my mouth with need at their incessantly sweet scent, I lifted my foot and smashed, kicking the remnants away.

Holding my breath, I waved my hand to disperse the luminous spores that burst from them.

I refused to replenish my magic just to be drained again.

I was in hell either way. At least this hell didn’t include Fletcher as often.

The longer I was drained, the less often I had to see him.

The less I ate, the more likely I’d die .

“Would you just eat your berries?” Quinn ordered from the cage beside mine, her voice muffled by the glass between us. “Please. You’re scaring me.”

“No,” I answered flatly. My eyes roamed to the slender woman in the cage across from mine. Fletcher’s other victim.

She has Darkly written all over her . Quinn had said it the first day I had woken up here.

And watching her over the last two months, I still couldn’t identify what exactly was “Darkly” about her.

Was it her thinness? The way she kept her big eyes closed around the clock?

What about the plump lips that matched mine?

Or was it the way her back was always curved much like mine did?

Was it the crying she did at night? Perhaps it wasn’t tears over the pain, perhaps it was tears over Fletcher.

I wasn’t sure how long she had been here, but if she was crying over Fletcher still, then I saw no hope in sight for me.

What was it about me that had allowed Fletcher to swindle me? To swindle her? We had to have something in common.

A group of three Cidris dressed in all black stormed through the hallway. They looked to all the women, each picking one to collect blood from .

Two picked women on the opposite side of the hall, but the last chose one from my side. The coins rained into the machine, and down came the man’s fist on the red button. Screams burst into the air, rattling the thin glass dividing each of us.

I didn’t flinch at the sound anymore. I kept my eyes on the woman across from me. But, it still rattled my chest and pierced a piece of my soul every time.

When it was over, the woman collapsed to the ground and her cage was bathed in red light.

The three men compared their bottles filled to the brim with Elizian blood before their eyes roamed the cages and landed on me. The three of them gathered outside the glass like I was a creature to be gawked at. The front glass was soundproof, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to read their lips.

I curled myself in a ball in the corner of the cage, using my crossed ankles to cover myself and peek over my arms at my spectators.

I think one of them said something about me being a beauty. About how of all the women, they would fuck me the most if they got to choose. One fantasized about me at night. About drinking my blood. One was upset that I was always red, wondering who the hell always got to me first .

My stomach rolled in disgust. With nowhere to hide, all I could do was tear my eyes away from their lips and bury my head in my arms.

The next hour, the same group of guys came through the hallway, and we watched them open a cage and drag a gaunt woman to her feet.

“Another one is leaving,” Quinn mumbled. “They have to be killing these women. That girl is haggard.”

The woman was just that. Her body was skin and bones. Emaciated. Her mind was mush, and her mouth was slanted downward, probably emanating low, tired grumbles. The holes across her body were surrounded by angry red skin—holes where her blood was extracted. She looked shredded—used.

“I don’t know. Do you really think that eventually we just run out of useful blood?”

“Keep her or bring in new, lively blood? I think this one is getting put out of her misery.” Quinn huffed. “I hope they choose me next. I’ve been here longer.”

I took a deep breath as the men took her out of her cage by the arms, legs dragging behind her.

“Come on. Let’s get up.”

As soon as the woman’s legs hit the hallway carpeting, all of us women stood in solidarity, even if our bodies fought us to stay sitting. On shaky knees, we all flattened our hands over our hearts and watched the woman leave the cages.

The men slammed their hands on our front glasses to get us to stop, but we remained unwavering. When the woman was out of sight and the door to the hallways closed, we all collapsed to the floor and resumed our dull gazes into nothing.

The headache ravaged me for the next two days while I nibbled on half a berry and took only a sip of water that dribbled down the wall once a day.

Then, my red light flickered to white. I rolled my eyes, laboriously standing for the first time in two days. My muscles ached and my head throbbed. I knew I wouldn’t be able to give Fletcher much blood. I was hardly restored to full health.

I counted to ten, staring straight ahead at the woman caged across the hall from me. She was curled up, sleeping on the ground.

On cue, the door to the hallway burst open, and I didn’t have to look to know it was Fletcher. With his presence, he brought an air of superiority with him. I kept my eyes above his head as I planted myself in the middle of the cage, ready for farming.

As he was dropping coins in my cage, I didn’t expect the door to open again.

From my peripheral, two Cidris strode in with a limp person in one of their arms. My eyes darted to them, curious.

It was the youngest girl I had seen. Her teal dress went to her ankles and her hair was bright as the sun.

Her freckles were familiar and so was the point of her chin.

As they passed my cage, I got a better look, and every part of me reeled in horror when I recognized the eleven-year-old.

“Topine!”

She was the young girl who had found me on the outskirts of the crystal mining fields after running away from the Cidris toward Elizy. She had saved my life by giving me water and food.

I ran to the glass and banged my fist on the cage, now no more than a foot away from Fletcher’s heated gaze. But I kept my eyes up even though the top of his dark, wavy hair was in view. “Topine!” I screamed, knowing she’d never hear me. Tears ran down my cheeks.

This was not right. She was sweet, innocent, young . For her to be locked in a cage for men to gawk at her naked made bile stir in my stomach. She shouldn’t be here. The Cidris had gone too fucking far!

On the third time I called her name, I saw the top of Fletcher’s head rotate over his shoulder to see what I was looking at. And he, too, watched briefly as they threw her in a cage, stripped her of her clothes with scissors, and slammed the cage shut.

“Topine…”

My heart broke. And a flash of needing comfort gripped me, tempting me to look at Fletcher.

The only person who could do something about this madness.

But, I knew what his face would look like.

He’d probably be smiling at my distress, laughing at how ridiculous I was for trying to call her name.

His cinnamon eyes would be latched on my breasts, dipping down my body to my core.

So I didn’t bother to spare him even a glimpse.

Then, the machine turned on, warming up to take my blood.

Between the headache and the horror of seeing little Topine being thrown in a cage like a rag doll, I felt as if I had already been drained. Fletcher wanted more of me, but I had nothing left to give him. He’d already obliterated every part of my body, my magic, and my blood .

The pressure forced me to the center of the cage, lifted my limbs, and raised my chin up high to get every possible surface area of skin exposed.

Then, the pressure dropped before rising, sucking blood droplets out of my skin through the holes that were already drilled into me from the very first time Fletcher had farmed me.

It never got easier. The pain never lessened. It was always excruciating as the blood was sucked from my body then moved to the edges of the cage where it drained into a bottle for Fletcher to drink.

I collapsed to the ground when it was over, heaving for breath with the stabilization of pressure.

I was too tired to open my eyes, so I left them closed, resting my head wherever it felt like.

I did not want even a glimpse of Fletcher’s magic surfacing on my palm.

I didn’t want to see that purple orb I harbored somewhere in my body.

I hoped my magic would drag it down and burn it alive.

The blood-deprived headache didn’t even give me a second to breathe. It smacked me across the temple, sending my body rolling to the left. It forced my eyes open, the ruby red florescence stabbing my eyes.

And by the time my vision focused, Fletcher was gone, and Topine’s eyes were open .

“Topine,” I breathed, crawling to the edge of the cage to get as close to her as possible.

Her cage was bright white, shining down on her like the angel she was. Her violet eyes were wide, tears gathering on her lower lids as she hugged her thin, naked body.

I pressed my hands against the glass. It caught her attention.

And when our eyes connected, she pressed her hands on the glass too as her mouth formed the name Etta , the name she knew me as.

The name of my favorite book character. The name that Fletcher had suggested I use after telling me I was the princess of Elizy.

Whether he had been telling the truth or not, I didn’t know.

Nor did it matter. I was doomed to be in this cage for the rest of my life anyway.

I was about to mouth to her that it was going to be okay but stopped myself. It wasn’t. She wasn’t going to be okay. And I wasn’t prepared to lie to her.

So we just stared at each other. Both of us made our way to our knees at the front of our cages, holding each other’s gaze silently.

Not more than twenty minutes later, a man came through and chose her to farm. I kept my eyes to myself, as all women here did, to give her the privacy she deserved .

The man blurred past me and out the door as I turned to look at Topine crumpled on the floor and spotted from neck to toe in red dots. Her once bleach-blonde hair was now a russet orange in dry, frizzy strands.

I watched her crawl into the corner of the cage, close her eyes, and weep.

It wasn’t until hours later when the food slat clicked open and three ocaberries and pieces of bread fell to me did I tear my eyes away from her.

I nibbled on half of a single berry to temper the headache enough so that I’d be more present for Topine’s sake.

In case she needed some comfort from me.

I’d need some energy to stay awake for her, so I forced myself to take minute bites of bread.

When it hit the bottom of my empty stomach, a grumble of a thank you replied.

By the time I swallowed my third bite, four men came through the hall. I paid them no attention until they all stopped at my cage. Here came the gawking again. I scooted to the corner, thinking they’d leave soon, but they didn’t. Instead, I watched as they began prying open my cage.

I was leaving.