Page 9 of A Soul’s Awakening

“The cages here are electrified with magic,” Jordan explained. “Just like those chains, if you try to fight against it, it’ll respond not just by draining your magic, but scrambling it so it’s unusable. Not to mention, I don’t think they’ll just let us ride the elevator up to the lobby so we can casually walk out the front door.”

“There has to be something we can do.” I rested my elbow in my hand, scratching my hair then rubbing my chin. The thought suddenly came to me.

“Lyric!” I exclaimed. “Lyric can help us!” The little fairy could track me, at least relaying a message to Ivy and the others about what was going on. Golden vines illuminated across my arms as I tried to summon her, but my call was left unanswered.

“Are you trying to summon someone?” Jordan asked.

“That won’t work,” Marin confirmed. “The Syndicate monitors the veil around this city. If they don’t want the magic to come through, then it won’t. That includes summoning magic.”

“Damn it,” I muttered. That meant Jacob couldn’t transport here either, and I had to count on him to pull through with a miracle. Ivy had successfully called him back before I was taken. He knew about Leon and the bookshelf portal. He’d find a way through. He had to. “It’s okay. Someone was with me when they took me. He’ll think of something and come for us.”

“Be careful about making promises you can’t deliver.” Jordan crossed his arms. “So what’s this big plan of yours, huh? I want in.”

“My plan?” I turned around and plopped down on the flattened mattress pad on the floor, a spring digging into my back. “This place sounds like it’s too difficult to escape from. There’s too much security; one way in and one way out. So, I guess my plan is to conserve my energy and take a nap. That way I’ll be prepared to fight those rift wardens during auction day when I’m let out of here.”

Without my jacket, the cold sank straight through the thin mattress pad, biting into my back until it felt like the chill was in my bones. I closed my eyes, pulling my arms in close and trying to trap what little warmth I could. The past few months had been exhausting, and even though my body ached for rest, the shiver in my chest wouldn’t let me forget what awaited me in the coming days.

I felt a presence nearby, and I opened my eyes to see Alex kneeling beside me, holding out the jacket I had given her.

“It’s okay. I’m fine. You need it more than I do.”

She shook her head then lay down next to me, draping the jacket over both of us. At first she had kept her distance, her back to mine as we drifted off. As the cold became more unbearable, we subtly inched closer for warmth. Caspian’s magic stirred inside me, as if it was pleased with the thoughtfulness of her action. The jacket was barely big enough to cover our shoulders, but it was enough to take the edge off.

As tired as I was, thoughts of Ren plagued my mind. He was the main reason I’d refused to sleep in the first place, because I couldn’t stop thinking about him every time I closed my eyes. The way his voice had faltered before we were separated and the look in his eyes of half defiance, half fear had me worried whether he really did have a plan when he left. Every time I’d drift off, I’d replay that moment in my head. No matter how many times I told myself he could take care of himself, the thought of him out there, alone, gnawed at me like a wound that wouldn’t close. He needed me. And now here I was, trapped and wishing he was here to get me out of my mess.

Since things weren’t looking good for me, all I had left was the hope that he had his own plan to make it out alive … even if it meant leaving me behind.

6

The sound of rusty metal squeaking woke me up from my sleep.

“Wake up, princess.” A man I hadn’t seen before stepped into the cell and grabbed my arm, yanking me up from the thin mattress with a force that sent pain shooting through my shoulder. Alex was already gone, and I was alone in the cell.

“What the hell, man?” Caspian’s power surged through me, raw and electric, fusing with my own desperate instinct to protect myself. The rift warden yelped as a burst of necrotic energy erupted from my hands, searing across the space between us and throwing him backward into the wall with a crack that echoed through the basement.

“What are you waiting for? Go!” Jordan exclaimed. “Don’t worry about us!”

I hesitated, but I only made it about five feet before Leon stepped in front of me, calm and unhurried, a cruel glint in his eyes. He held out his hand, shimmering magic escaping the black ring on his finger as chains wrapped around my upper body. I felt my magic snuffed out in an instant, unable to heed my command when I tried to call it forth.

My knees buckled, the fight in me depleted as the chains smothered every spark of strength I had left.

“Idiot,” he scoffed at his fellow rift warden. “He might not look like much, but his magic really packs a punch. Why wasn’t his magic neutralized before you let him out?”

“You’re so cruel.” Jordan’s voice deflated, along with any hope he might have had of me escaping.

“Don’t worry. You’re coming too. Seems like you could use some fresh air. You absolutely stink.” Leon opened his gate and secured an extra set of chains around his torso.

“W-what?” Jordan gasped, panic flaring in his words as he was shoved forward. “You’re selling me off?”

“We’re just renting you out for the night.” Leon shrugged his shoulders. “Boss man is a sucker for anything that generates cash, it seems. Turns out there are tons of sick fuckers out there who would pay good money to have some fun torturing you to death over and over again without the consequences of actually killing you.”

Leon led ‌both of us down the basement hallway. He didn’t stop at the elevators, but kept going until the carefully constructed hallway turned into an abandoned subway tunnel with rusty, warped tracks. Water dripped somewhere ahead, the sound reverberating through the corridor and amplifying the surrounding stillness.

The dusty subway platform was littered with crumpled paper and broken tiles. Leon led us up a flight of stairs. The sunlight wasn’t all that bright, but being kept in the dark for so long, it momentarily blinded me. A field opened up before me, and at first glance, I thought I was walking through a public park with stone pathways, fields of grass, and a few food stalls scattered about. But the longer I looked, the uglier it became. I was back at the market, and off in the close distance, a raised platform dominated the center, iron-framed and draped in black banners that fluttered lazily in the breeze. Behind it was a white tent, heavily guarded and blocked off to the public. A crowd swarmed the path around the stage, voices overlapping in a chaotic hum of excitement and speculation.

“Is that him?”

“Who’s the frail guy?”