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The leader snorted. “You done staring at him?”

Ryneth hissed. The blond didn’t reply, but the leader smiled.

“Defiant. Buyers like that.” He shouldered the blond aside and fisted the front of Ryneth’s collar, yanking him close. His face dipped to Ryneth’s throat as he breathed him in. “Mm. You smell good, little one.”

The sound brushed Ryneth’s ear, and he ground his jaw and turned his face away with a snarl.

The leader chuckled. “Still got pride. Yeah, you’ll sell well.”

They shoved Ryneth’s bound hands hard against the metal frame, laughing when the impact knocked the air from his lungs.

“Put him in a cage. Tag him later.”

They shoved him into a low metal cube and slammed the bars shut. The lock clicked. Laughter faded as the men walked away, boots echoing across the floor. Ryneth pressed his forehead to the bars. Exhaustion took him there.

Time slipped. His ribs throbbed. His mouth tasted of blood. When he blinked awake again, he was still in the cage, the bars cold against his cheek.

Lysa was in the next cage. Her lip was split. “You okay?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “You?”

“They took Karo somewhere else.”

He lowered his forehead to the bars. “I’m sorry.”

Her fingers reached through the gap. He touched them lightly. Lights snapped on overhead. A low hum filled the air. Screens descended from the ceiling, each one lighting with rows of painted eyes behind stylized masks.

“Look alive, stock.” A guard grinned. “The voters logged in early.”

Another guard tapped the cage bars with his baton. “They want a show.”

“Lot six,” a voice crackled overhead. “Prepare demonstration.”

Two guards dragged a young man from a nearby cage. One guard yanked him upright and gestured at the screens. “See that? Each eye up there’s a client. And right now, they’re deciding what you’re worth.”

Ryneth looked up at the holo screens. At the anonymous gazes that stared right back at them.

Maybe this was what they had feared. What they’d stood at the wall for, while telling themselves they were protecting Helion from raiders and rebels, never imagining the real horror would look like this.

The baton cracking across the man’s thigh made the screens brighten.

+180

+240

+310

“Legs first.” A guard laughed. “See that spike? That’s them paying to watch you fall.”

The final hit caught the young man’s shoulder and sent him crashing to his knees. He let out a long, pitiful wail.

The guard leaned closer. “You see that? They pay, you perform.”

He shoved the man flat on the concrete.

A tone chimed overhead. “SOLD,” the voice announced.

Two guards dragged the man away. He didn’t resist when a collar snapped closed around his throat as they hauled him out of sight.