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B RIONY SPENT THE NEXT DAY drinking water through her closed jaw and figuring out inventive ways to get softer fruit between her teeth. She still didn’t have a voice, but that seemed inconsequential when she hadn’t eaten in two days.

After Briony had been returned, they had taken Phoebe to be sterilized. She came back and curled up in a corner, sobbing through the night. Orion’s elixir was given to everyone as a precaution, in case the reason for Briony’s resistance to the collar was widespread.

No one checked on them that day, and some of the women had started to wonder if they would just let them wither and die in there. Briony couldn’t keep her mind off Eden, who had been killed. But she started to look around the room, wondering …

Just before everyone began lying down for bed, Briony approached Velicity. She tried to use gestures to ask her a question, counting to five on her hand, asking, Where is the fifth woman?

Velicity nodded. “They told us she died. You didn’t see them kill her?”

Briony shook her head. And Orion Hearst had said nothing about the raven-haired woman with the black eye when he’d listed off the casualties of her stupid decisions. Velicity’s brows furrowed as she stared out over the room.

“The last I saw her, she was climbing out the window.” She paused. “Maybe she fell.”

Velicity and Briony shared a look. Maybe she didn’t.

Reaching out with long fingers, Velicity plucked a grape from the bowl and popped it into her mouth with a grin, calling back to the words that Briony had spelled for them with those very grapes.

Briony agreed, silently. More reasons to believe they were not alone.

The next morning, they bathed the women again. When it was Briony’s turn, they took her alone and removed her chains. And then Gains left her with Reighven in the bathroom.

He didn’t give her a choice to keep her dress on this time.

“Take it off or I’ll take it off for you. And trust me, Rosewood, I’ll enjoy it.”

Briony turned to face the tub. If she relaxed her eyes, she could imagine she was at the Biltmore Palace. Perhaps these stone walls were sandstone, perhaps the running water was the trickling of the streams throughout the entire palace, perhaps she was in her private suite.

She reached up for the straps at her shoulders and let them slide down her arms.

Perhaps Sofia would be in soon to tell her how long she had until dinner.

Briony stepped into the tub, imagining ornate taps and not a water ring in sight. The water burned her skin, and she focused on that.

Perhaps she could sink under and pretend she was a siren, like she had as a child—

“Don’t take all day.”

And with a rubber snap of her mind, she was in the Trow dungeon, with the first man to see her naked body.

Briony sank into the water, and as Reighven approached the tub and stared down at her in the water, she wondered if maybe this wasn’t truly her skin. This wasn’t truly her body. Maybe she was in her tub at the Biltmore after all.

“You need me to lather you up, love?”

She ignored him, reaching for the soap and cleaning herself as fast as possible.

When it was time to get out, he gestured to the towel he’d left near the door. Briony pulled herself from the water and forced her legs to carry her across the room.

There was a tent in his trousers by the time she’d dried off. She kept her eyes on the floor as she dressed.

When she was rechained and returned to the cell, Briony wanted to be alone, but she couldn’t. As much as she wanted to take a break from these fifty women, she needed to stay stoic for them.

It became harder to find hope when she sat chained and muzzled, knowing exactly where she would end up.

A while later, a group of five came back from the baths with twittering energy. As soon as the door closed behind them, one of them burst out—

“We saw Sammy and Didion. They’re still alive.”

Briony felt something flutter in her chest before it fell back to sleep again. Her prevailing emotion was fatigue. It was hard to rejoice at a mere sighting of a familiar face—not when the life before them was one of servitude and magical draining, with no way out of this that anyone could see.

They learned that the auction was scheduled for the following evening, but about half of the women still found the energy for hope, including Cordelia.

“All right, we have to do something,” Cordelia said. “We can try strength in numbers again. There’s usually only two of them that come in at a time for us, so maybe it’s fifty on two. Then we find the men and it’s maybe double that.” Cordelia glanced at her. “Briony?”

Briony felt fifty pairs of eyes turn on her. For some reason, Larissa Gains’s gaze was the one she held.

Her blond hair was limp and oily, and she constantly picked at her nails, as if checking a manicure she’d just received. She stared back at Briony, lifting a brow.

Briony looked down and shrugged. She didn’t know if Cordelia’s plan was wise or worth trying. She was so tired.

Cordelia gaped at her. “Nothing? Just—” She imitated Briony’s shrug with disbelieving eyes. “You’re giving up?”

Briony pressed her lips together, still biting back words even without a voice. Cordelia hadn’t watched Eden die. Cordelia hadn’t had Reighven’s eyes on her naked body or felt his hand reaching between her legs. Cordelia hadn’t looked into Mallow’s eyes as she told her it was over.

The only purpose they would have in this new world was to make a Bomardi’s magic stronger. Briony would cease to be an Eversun, cease to be a Rosewood, and cease to be a human. She was starting to understand that, even if Cordelia wasn’t ready.

“You can’t give up on us,” Cordelia hissed.

“You worked for four years to keep Evermore safe—to keep faith when battles were lost … and now you give up? The prophecy wasn’t true—so what?

” Her throat swallowed thickly, and her eyes were unforgiving.

“Rory’s dead,” she said, voice cracking. “So what? You’re not.”

Phoebe stood up. “All right, Cordelia. Let her rest a moment.”

“No!” Cordelia threw off Phoebe’s arm and their chains clinked together. “I want to know why she won’t fight anymore. Because we all lost people, and I can’t lose her—” Cordelia broke off in a choking gasp. Tears filled her eyes.

Briony came to her feet and dragged Cordelia into her chest, unable to hold her properly with the chains. Briony whispered soundless promises to fight, to find her, to build it back. Cordelia sobbed against her shoulder.

The first door opened with a bang , and they sprang apart. The women scurried into corners like rats in the light as the second door opened.

And Canning Trow stepped inside with a smirk on his wide face, eyes surveying the room.

Briony stepped back in surprise. To see someone they’d gone to school with, gloating at them … It brought back too many memories. It reminded her that just days ago, Toven Hearst and Finn Raquin had torn through her bedroom, hunting her.

“Ladies,” he said jovially. “So many familiar faces.” His gaze cast over the room, finally stopping at Briony.

“Miss Rosewood, always a pleasure.” He held a paper in his hands and looked down to consult it.

“Ah. Of course not.” His eyes flicked up to her again, sighing dramatically.

“It would have been too good to be true.”

Briony eyed the paper warily as Canning took a deep breath.

“Let’s have Velicity step forward, Coral step forward, and …” His brows ticked up and his eyes cast over the room, searching. “Larissa Gains,” he said gleefully. “Step forward.”

“For what?” Larissa said, and his eyes finally found her in the corner she’d claimed.

“I have a new elixir to test out,” Canning said, rocking on his toes like a child on winter solstice.

“It’s all a bit hush-hush for now, but I think it will be incredibly lucrative in this climate, to help …

initiate Sacral Magic. They said I get my pick of anyone on this list, or else I’d owe someone five thousand gold. ”

Briony’s heart thumped. It was something sexual then. He had a list of the non-virgins.

“So, step forward,” he said darkly.

Velicity and a woman with short red hair obeyed. Larissa stayed put. Canning looked them over and consulted his list, clicking his tongue. Briony glanced at the open door behind him; she could just make out Reighven’s profile though the crack in the door.

“Mm, Velicity, step back. Let’s see … Oh, Jellica Reeve!” His eyes searched the room until they landed on a tall blond woman whom Briony recognized from school. She had been a few years older. “Jellica, dear, it’s been ages.” He grinned at her, baring his teeth. “Step forward, step forward.”

Jellica moved on shaking legs. She had been beautiful at school as well, with large blue eyes and full lips. She stood in front of Canning with her chin tilted up.

Canning leaned in and whispered, “Do you remember when I kissed you in year five, and you slapped me across the face?” He laughed, his wide face grinning at her.

She didn’t respond, just held her head high.

Faster than a bolt of lightning, Canning’s palm shot out and slapped her, knocking her head to the side.

Briony jumped as others gasped. Velicity stepped forward before stopping cold.

Jellica slowly turned her face back to him, staring him down.

“I’ll take these two,” he said, gesturing to Coral and Jellica. “And we’ll bring Larissa along in case anyone prefers a Bomardi girl.” He winked at Larissa. “You know quite a few tricks, if I remember.”

Larissa glared daggers at him, and it wasn’t until Reighven tugged her forward with magic that she fell into line behind the others.

The doors locked behind them.

Cordelia turned to Katrina and asked quietly, “What did he mean? What’s Sacral Magic?”