Earlier that day…

  Paige was bored.

  This was the longest she’d been stuck in one spot since she’d left home for the first time when she was a child. Despite her first class being Commoner, she acted more like her Street Rat friends, and preferred hanging out with them. They taught her to climb buildings and run rooftops. They taught her where to find crystals in a pinch, though she never really needed to worry about that. They taught her how to live, where her mother had only wanted Paige to take over the family business.

  And now her mother was dead.

  Happy thoughts, happy thoughts. She thought to herself, as she thunked her head against the wall of the Guild detainment room. It was actually well furnished for a jail, though she’d only seen those from the outside when visiting friends who’d been caught. Those same friends who ended up with silver necklaces and jobs in brothels or worse.

  “It’ll be okay, Paige.” Zaion said with confidence. Paige didn’t know where it came from, but she’d learned a long time ago to trust her skill Detect Emotion. It wasn’t hard to get, but training it had been painful. Older boys and girls always used it as an excuse to bully smaller children. Getting it didn’t always stop the bullying.

  “Sure.” Paige said, not really feeling like keeping up an act. Acting took too much effort sometimes, even at Tier 2.

  “Dani is doing her best to get us out of this.” Zaion said, nodding in Elayne’s direction, “And Elayne will not let something happen to you.

  The warrior woman was asleep, and while Paige appreciated how she looked, she highly doubted her skill. She figured the older woman probably got her high rank by trying over and over again rather than any intelligence. At least she’s hot. Gives me someone to look at while stuck in here.

  Despite what her mother had thought, Paige had never been paid for sex. The skills she’d gotten for it had all been earned from nights out drinking and friends who when they were both bored. The enchanted tattoo she’d gotten when she was fifteen had prevented any unfortunate children, thankfully.

  “Even if Dani cannot get us out legally, I imagine you’ve a number of skills to escape should you choose.” Zaion smiled that knowing smile he had when he thought he knew something he didn’t think other people knew. The smug ass. It was worse because he was often right.

  “All those skills won’t work in jail. The cells shut skills and traits off.” Paige said with a sigh. “And getting away would would require us to get out of the city before the guards closed it off.”

  The elf’s smile fell. Paige resisted the urge to roll her eyes and and fought tears that started to form. She pulled her legs up close to her and buried her face to make it less obvious. Don’t let them see you cry. Don’t let them see you break.

  “We will find a way out of this.” Zaion said, with less confidence this time.

  The room was quiet for a long time as the day wore on. Food was brought and taken away and eventually two big warrior types showed up with Maximillian, the Guildmaster’s assistant. He looked between all three of us and rubbed at the back of his neck, trying to avoid direct eye contact. “It’s time for the transfer. We can’t, legally, hold you here any longer.”

  Elayne stood up, startling everyone since she’d still seemed asleep till a moment ago, and held her hands out towards Maximillian. “Let’s get this over with.”

  He blinked and looked down and then over at the two burly warriors who were waiting for his orders. Maximilian cleared his throat. “I… don’t think that’ll be necessary, do you?”

  Paige caught something in Elayne’s posture that set off a warning, but she couldn’t figure out why. Elayne just put her arms down to her sides and asked, “Is our gear going to be with the transport, or held here?”

  “Here.” Maximilian said. “They’ll be held for you until you come to claim them or word of your demise has been verified.”

  “Alright. Lead the way.” Elayne said, motioning for Paige and Zaion to follow.

  Paige followed after Elayne with Zaion coming up behind. No one in the group had anything to take with, their gear and weapons having been collected days ago. The only person who even remotely had a chance of defending themselves was Zaion, but Paige wasn’t going to put money on him doing much.

  Outside the guild was a wagon much like the one they’d rode to Davestown. The thought made Paige want to vomit from the bile rising in her throat. If she never saw that arrogant prick again, she’d consider herself blessed. Despite it all, she got into the wagon and took her seat across from Elayne.

  Around the wagon, the two warriors were joined by four more men wearing the armor of the city guard. Maximilian was talking with one of them, ignoring the small crowd that was keeping a few meters back. Paige couldn’t hear what was being said, but he looked pissed.

  “What’s going on?” Paige leaned in towards Elayne.

  Elayne shook her head. “Be ready.”

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  “What?” Paige asked, but no matter how much she wanted an answer, Elayne was keeping quiet. Zaion just shrugged when Paige looked at him.

  One of the warriors from the guild got into the wagon with us and things started moving. Maximilian was missing, Paige had lost sight of him somewhere, and the rest of the guards were looking bored. Nothing to show anything could go wrong.

  And it continued like that. First ten minutes, then twenty past before Paige finally started to relax. She’d been expecting something crazy to happen between the guild and the jail, since it had been made very clear that inside the jail, Dani had enough influence to pull strings. Even if Paige had wound up in a collar, if it was Dani maybe it wouldn’t be so bad…

  Then there was a loud crunch of wood impacting something hard. The whole wagon seemed to pitch, sending Paige flying towards Elayne as the everything started spinning. Despite the high tier Acrobatics skill, she lost her balance and couldn’t figure out what was going on for a full minute.

  By the time she’d righted herself, the sounds of battle had already started.

  Getting out of the ruined wagon, she stumbled and looked around to get her bearings. The warrior in the wagon with her stumbled out past her, drawing a sword. Paige flinched back as it intercepted something flying at her. The man moved between Paige and the source of the danger as the young rogue was trying to figure out just what was happening.

  There was the shattered front of a carriage mixed with the remnants of the wagon, a couple of people caught in positions that made it clear they were dead and not just wounded. Two guards were engaged with six men in ragged clothes wielding small blades, and being overwhelmed. There were more people in ragged clothes holding torches despite the relatively early hour. Except, those torches went into over turned wagons full of something that went up in a blaze of glory.

  It was the same at either end of the street, with the only clear passage through an alley. Or going through one of the buildings if they weren’t locked. With this much noise, they almost certainly would be by now.

  Then Elayne had one of the attackers by the throat. They started to stab their knife into the woman’s biceps, but she squeezed and Paige got to see the man’s eyes bulge out before an audible crack sounded and he went limp like a doll.

  A guard went down near Paige and two of the men started towards her. She backed up towards the shattered remains of the wagon, catching sight of two silver collars around their necks. Her blood went cold. There’s no way…

  The thought fled as two spikes of crimson liquid rammed through their chests. The guard that had died was quickly shriveling into a husk as the almost solid red masses lifted the two men and flung them to the side. Zaion limped out of the wagon and over to Paige. “We need to get clear of the wagon.” He said, and kept moving.

  Paige reached down and grabbed knives from both of the assailants, looking up and down the street. She saw as Elayne grabbed a man who had been on top of a guard and ripped his arm clean off before proceeding to grab it by the wrist and lay into the arm’s owner with it. Her opinion of the woman changed drastically at that sight.

  Following along with Zaion, Paige saw the attackers beginning to organize, fanning out so that Paige and Zaion couldn’t just rush past them. Multiple guards were already dead or dying, and while Zaion was firing off bullets of blood, they weren’t as effective as Paige would like. “They’re trying to get us in the alley, Zaion.”

  “Suggestion?” He asked, trying to keep his eyes on the assailaints.

  Paige looked towards where Elayne was fighting, the one guild warrior helping to protect a couple of guards that were visibly injured but alive. Elayne caught her eye and motioned with her head for the alley. Not having any better plan, Paige grabbed Zaion by the elbow and started moving for the alleyway.

  The slaves, because that’s what Paige knew they were now, followed at a safe distance, but Zaion was able to keep them back with small shots from whatever moisture he’d gotten from the dead and dying. It wasn’t sustainable, though, and Paige knew they needed to either get to the jail, the guild, or the Rosecrest manor. But she didn’t know how far from any of them she was.

  A blow caught her in the back of her head and she fell forward. She was able to slow her fall by grabbing onto the wall, but she couldn’t stop Zaion from getting hit next. “We’re leaving!”

  Hands reached down to grab her and she twisted and shoved a knife into the man’s arm. He reeled back with a shouted cry of pain, but two more sets of hands latched onto her arms and she was dragged deeper into the alley. She kicked out at them. She screamed and bit at them.

  But they kept going.

  Several turns and across two streets she was taken, flailing and trying to get free. Then she was thrown to the ground and a knee was planted in her back and her arms restrained to her sides. Even then, she kept trying to escape… until…

  “It’s going to be so much fun breaking the fight out of you.” A familiar voice could be heard above her. She was yanked up by her hair and came face to face with Jason Davids. His sneer of contempt plain, despite the relative darkness of the alley.

  There was then a distinct ‘click’. His hand moved from Paige’s neck to begin to caress her face and she could almost feel her skin crawling from his touch. “Stand there, stop resisting.”

  Paige’s body locked up and she stopped fighting. She couldn’t move anymore, and a cold fear started to claw up from inside her. No. She thought, and even as she thought that her hands reached up for her neck.

  There she felt the cold metal of one of the slave collars.

  Jason looked from Paige to the rest of the group. “Collect the collars. Kill the nonessentials.”

  Knives were bransished, and in seconds only Paige, Jason, and two others were still standing. There were seven collars collected into a bag before Jason motioned forward, “Paige. Follow me to my carriage.” His grin looked like a feline that had just found a wounded bird. “I have a lot of plans for you.”

  Trying as hard as she could to resist, Paige couldn’t help but follow the arrogant prick. A cold sweat was starting to form as she tried to think of some way out of this. If I actually get into the carriage… I’m as good as dead. Even with all her will, it only slowed her steps.

  They came out the other side of the alley.

  The two men tossed their ragged cloaks into a sack on the drivers seat of the carriage. It was all Paige got to see before Jason ordered her into the carriage. She tried to stop herself, her hands ripping themselves free of any hold she got despite what she wanted. As soon as she was seated, she tried to bolt out the door on the otherside.

  “Stop.” Jason ordered, and Paige stopped.

  “Sit.” Paige sat.

  Jason sat down next to her, hand resting on her thigh. “Now, give me a kiss.”

  Paige’s body went rigid, her face screwing up in disgust. Symbols on the collar started to glow faintly as a pained cry escaped through gritted teeth. Jason grinned with sadistic glee as the carriage started moving.