Page 10 of A Soul’s Awakening

“He’s the one who controls death?”

“Ha! He doesn’t look all that scary.”

I felt stripped bare beneath their attention, like I’d been dragged into the open for everyone to study, every murmur and stolen glance weighing heavier with each step. My stomach twisted, the churn of fear and anger knotting tight, but beneath it all was a grim resolve. If they wanted a show, I’d make damn sure they got one. I would rather die right here and now than risk my chances with a random stranger offering the highest bid.

Rift wardens cleared our way to the tent, and my chest tightened the moment I stepped inside. It wasn’t just the noise or the smell; it was the wrongness of it all, the way the place pretended to be civilized when it was anything but. Long tables lined the center, where record keepers validated purchases and readied magical contracts. Buyers drifted between cages, murmuring to one another as if they were at a zoo, not a human auction. My hands shook despite my effort to keep them still and my throat burned with anger I didn’t dare let show. The shackled prisoners sat quietly in the shadows of their cages, their eyes dull, their magic leashed by glowing chains like mine.

“In you go.” Leon shoved me into a cage.

I stumbled forward and hit the ground face-first into a bed of hay. The straw scratched against my skin, and the smell of urine and rust made me gag. I pushed myself up, only to hear the sharp clang of the cage door slamming shut behind me, sealing me in like an animal. My heart pounded so hard it hurt. A few minutes later, Jordan was thrown into the cage beside mine. He said nothing, just accepted his fate for what it was. The sound of the locks clicking into place echoed between us, final and suffocating. That was it. We were officially part of the merchandise.

Through the slits of my cage, I caught glimpses of faces moving past. One woman lingered, a clinician by the look of her spotless coat and sterile demeanor. And alive, too, I presumed, since she was carrying a stethoscope around her neck and a badge on her lapel. Her eyes scanned me with the same detached curiosity she might have used on a lab rat. A chubby man with gluttony shining in his eyes accompanied her.

“Death magic. How intriguing.” She adjusted her black-rimmed glasses as she read some paperwork in her hands. “What a fine specimen to experiment on with poisons. Think of everything he could neutralize.”

The man beside her was a head shorter, bald, and licked his lips as he eyed me like I was a piece of delicious candy. “A lab rat?” he scoffed. “He is far too fine to be someone’s lab rat. Look at him … those enchanting blue eyes, soft blonde hair that would feel amazing gliding through fingertips. He even has some meat on him, unlike these other pathetic skeletons.” He shuddered as he glanced over at Jordan. “I bet both men and women throw themselves at him in the living world. How delightful it would be to possess this man’s body and return to the living world for a little fun.” He had the audacity to wink at me.

“W-whatever they’re asking, I’ll double it if you buy me and let me free!” My voice cracked, desperate and raw, but it only earned me an amused laugh from my onlookers. I didn’t have any wealth, but I knew Ren did.

“You could never hope to come close to buying your freedom, sweetheart. Besides,” the woman flapped her hand, “none of us are short on money. It’s power we crave, and you have it in abundance.”

They carried on, pointing and scribbling notes as they stopped in front of a display case filled with magical objects.

Unable to do anything but watch people come and go, I took to planning my daring escape instead. There were rift wardens, sure, and the cage would prove troublesome, but it was what I’d encounter beyond the tent that rattled me. Would I be able to get past the barrier? How long could I hide? If I could just find a way out of here and lose them in the crowd …

“I know what you’re thinking, Theo.” Jordan sighed, his head resting against the metal bars of his cage. “It may look like a tent, but it’s surrounded by some powerful magic reinforcing it. Look over there.” He pointed off to his right.

Horror gripped my chest. Alex was kneeling inside an array near the center of the tent, bound by glowing chains that pulsed with every shallow breath she took. The array painted on the floor beneath her flared brighter each time she whimpered, feeding off her magic like leeches.

“What are they doing to her?” I couldn’t look away. She seemed barely alive, her tangled hair falling over a face I couldn’t fully see. Faint silver lines snaked up her arms.

“I don’t know how it works. I’ve only heard bits and pieces from the rift wardens gossiping.” Jordan shifted as a guard stepped past the cage, boots thudding against the ground with a rhythm that made my stomach go sour. “All I know is they take her away every Sunday before the auction starts, and her magic puts up some kind of barrier around the auction area. The more she struggles against it, the stronger that array seems to get. Those silver lines are evidence of magic contamination.” Jordan held up his arm, similar silver veins racing up to his shoulder. “Hers are much fainter than they used to be. I think she gave up resisting, fearing what they’d do to her if her magic became contaminated enough she was no longer useful. The Syndicate controls her power now.”

“So you’re saying, to escape, we have to … stop whatever’s happening to Alex?”

Jordan scooted over as close as he could get to me in his own cage and lowered his tone. “Still hung up on escaping, huh? It’s not just this tent, but remember there’s magic around the entire underveil. I heard someone did try to escape once. When he tried to use his own magic to burn through the barrier, it retaliated by blowing it right back at him. They said something about the fire melting half his face, magic poisoning him so badly that it eventually caused his death.”

I scratched my chin, thinking of Marin and Alex and Jordan … and everyone else that had to go through his horror of having their magic poisoned.

“Wait, you said poison? My magic can treat poison,” I thought, wondering if I could negate its effects somehow.

Jordan’s eyes brightened for a moment, then dimmed. “It’s a nice idea, but I doubt it’ll work. It’s like this magic has a mind of its own, adapting to inflict the worst possible outcome on the person it consumes.”

I sat down and stared at the floor, folding my legs and crossing my arms. My sister’s words suddenly surfaced in my thoughts. Your kindness will get you killed one day. She wasn’t wrong, because now I wasn’t just thinking about how I could get out of here, but how I could take Jordan and Alex with me and save everyone from this mysterious poisonous magic.

When I looked up, I caught sight of a man lingering near the edge of the tent, cloaked in a hood so deep it swallowed his features. I might’ve called him suspicious, but in this place, everyone was strange in their own way. Plenty of others hid behind hoods and masks, concealing whatever twisted motives had brought them here. But something about him was different and I couldn’t quite place my finger on it. Even through the shadowed fabric, I could feel his gaze fixed on me, sharp and deliberate, like he was peeling away every layer of who I was.

I stood up to see if I could get a better look, but he vanished just as quickly as he appeared. There had to be a way out of here, because I refused to be chopped up into bite-sized pieces as a main course or devoured as some hungry fiend’s midnight snack in the bedroom.

7

I sat in the corner of my cage for what felt like a couple of hours, listening to the muffled voices outside the tent. Through gaps in the canvas, I caught the auctioneer parading one magical object after another. First came a black mirror with the ability to either record or drain memories. Then came a pocket watch that could temporarily stop time, and I had to wonder if that was derived from Marin’s stolen magic. After that came the magical creatures. They were living, breathing tools of magic that could provide certain abilities to their masters, like healing injuries by transferring them to someone else, or forging mental links for spying from miles away.

And then came the human merchandise, which today included only Jordan and me.

Two rift wardens brought us both out at the same time. Jordan refused to go without a fight, his shouts echoing through the tent as a rift warden wrestled him forward, dragging him through the dirt and up toward the stage like a wild animal. I knew it was pointless to resist when they came for me. Cold hands gripped my arms, yanking me to my feet. The sunlight hit me as we exited the tent, the roar of the crowd swelling until it drowned out my thoughts. Every step toward that platform felt heavier than the chains around my wrists.

“On your knees.” A sharp pain shot through my legs as the rift warden kicked the back of them, forcing me down onto the hard, splintered wood. Jordan already knelt, breathing heavily, his face streaked with sweat and fury.