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“We won’t make the same mistake twice,” her voice says through the door. “Those idiot trollkin couldn’t be trusted. The buyer will come and collect you personally this time.”
“The buyer?” I repeat, rather stupidly, because it’s now perfectly obvious to me what I missed all along.
No one kidnapped me from my bed.
I was sold—probably to pay off my parents’ debts. By coming home, all I’ve done is put myself back in a cage.
A terrible rage comes over me. I scream and bash the door with my fist. I will not be locked up, not again, to be sent across the ocean in a barrel. I hit the door, over and over, until my screams come out hoarse.
Nobody comes.
Lo’zar,I think. Tears roll down my face in hot waves. My pulse is going so fast I feel like I might tip over and pass out.Please. Come back. Please help me!
* * *
Lo’zar
Lo’zar.It’s Rimi’s voice, but it’s faded. Muffled. It cuts out, and then returns again....Help me!
Rimi?!I stand up in the carriage, surprising the driver and the horses. I call out as loud as I can into our shared mental world.Rimi! What’s wrong?!
Help!is all I hear back. I can feel that she’s desperate, gasping for air.
I grab the carriage driver by the shoulder, and frantically I gesture back the way we came, because I have to return to the house behind the hedges. Rimi is in trouble. When she walked up to that front door, I knew something was wrong. Leaving her there flew in the face of every instinct I have. I should have listened to myself.
The carriage driver doesn’t want to obey me, and I don’t have the words to demand it, so I slide off one of my rings. I took that one when I spotted it through a window, and the jewel reminded me of a crescent moon. I push it in his face and point back the way we came.
The man hastily snatches the ring, shoves it in his pocket, and wheels the horses around until we’re riding back toward where I never should’ve left Rimi in the first place. We gallop and gallop down the pebble road, until the house appears in my vision again.
Rimi!I call out.
Lo’zar?!
The moment we reach the front drive I’m vaulting out of the carriage. I hold up my hand to the driver, telling him to wait, and he drops the reins. He won’t go anywhere, not while I still have more rings on my fingers.
Where are you?I ask her, heading towards the front doors. I yank off the necklace, ready to wreak havoc, and bowl them open. A woman in an apron screams when she sees me, a huge, angry troll charging into her living room.
I’m in the cellar!Rimi cries desperately.
What’s a cellar?
Go to the back of the house! My parents, they—She breaks off, and I can feel the terror in her heart.
I’ll find you.I rampage down the hallways, knocking over tiny human furniture that gets in my way. Where is the back of the house? The woman behind me is still screaming, and I nearly bowl over two more humans as I enter what looks like a big, fancy kitchen, the air smelling of rich food.
There’s a door,Rimi whispers.A small wooden door.I look around for it, while the humans yell and flee. There.
I race over and try the handle, but it appears to be bolted. Instead, I yank as hard as I can and the door simply comes off its hinges. I throw it to one side.
There, huddling in the darkness, is my Rimi.
I pick her up in one swoop. Her face is red with tears and her eyes wide and wild.
I’m here, I say, crushing her to my chest. She grabs my tunic and sobs into it.I’m here.
They... They...She gasps with the crushing power of her misery.I wasn’t taken, Lo’zar. They sold me.
A violent, searing fury rips through me. Her family sold their only child? I should kill them.
