3: 3

The basement was dim, damp, and reeking of mold.

Huge rats swarmed through the standing filth.

Zoey clutched my sleeve, timid, her voice thick with tears. "Miss, I'm terrified of rats. How are we supposed to stay in a place like this?"

*Max Delgado really is heartless.*

I patted the back of Zoey's hand gently and turned to the rats running wild across the floor. "All of you, line up in a row. Don't frighten the girl!"

The rats gave one collective shudder and pressed themselves obediently against the wall in a neat line.

Zoey stared, dumbstruck.

"Miss, they understand you!"

That wasn't it.

These little creatures hadn't gained sentience yet. They couldn't understand human speech.

They were afraid because they could feel the pressure.

The pressure of the ancient ancestor of all beasts.

I settled into the one dry patch in the corner and closed my eyes to rest.

Zoey followed and pulled a cold, hard bread roll from inside her clothes, holding it out to me.

"Miss, this morning I was afraid you wouldn't get enough to eat at the Delgado house, so I tucked away a roll. Have a little to tide you over."

I looked up at her, and something in my throat ached.

Of everyone in the human world, Zoey had been the kindest to me.

Max Delgado had treated me this way for Tabitha's sake, and everyone understood the engagement was finished. They all fawned upward and trampled down.

Only Zoey had stayed steady at my side.

I pushed the roll back to her.

"Don't worry. I only go hungry. Hunger won't kill me."

"Zoey, keep it and eat it yourself."

"There are still three days until Tabitha and Max's engagement. You have to hold on and watch how I deal with these ungrateful wretches."

Zoey didn't understand what I meant, but she smiled anyway. "Mm. I believe you'll manage it, Miss."

The words had barely left her mouth when a slender hand landed across her face.

Zoey lost her footing, and the roll rolled off into the foul water.

Tabitha leaned into Max's arms, kicking at the roll with obvious satisfaction.

"Look at the state of you, and still thinking about dealing with us?"

Max let out a cold, mocking laugh. "I'm actually curious how you plan to deal with us."

At that, Tabitha bent down and tore the filthy, stinking roll in half.

"Since His Highness is so curious, we can't let you starve to death."

"Here. Eat up, so you'll have the strength to deal with us."

With that, Tabitha seized my chin and tried to force the reeking roll into my mouth.

Zoey lunged at her in panic.

But Max drove his foot hard into her stomach.

Zoey doubled over, writhing in pain.

He felt not the slightest pity.

He fisted a hand in her hair and sneered. "You little wretch, still trying to save your idiot mistress even now?"

"You think you don't have to eat?!"

Max exchanged a glance with Tabitha, and together they shoved the rotten rolls into my mouth and Zoey's.

The dose of bone-softening drug had been heavy. I didn't even have the strength to fight back.

I could only let that sickening stench spread across my tongue.

I couldn't help gagging.

The primordial wilds might be barren, but there had at least been birds and beasts and dried fruit.

I had never once eaten anything so filthy.

For the first time I knew humiliation, and fury filled my chest to the brim.

Eyes rimmed red, I lifted my head and stared at Max and Tabitha, and said, one word at a time. "At the engagement party three days from now, I will give the two of you a gift you'll never forget for the rest of your lives!"

4: 4

"Whatever happens three days from now can wait three days."

"Today, first, I'm settling the score for you hitting me!"

Tabitha laughed, the sound thick with triumph.

She lifted a hand, and the servant behind her, swallowing his revulsion, snatched up a rat.

The stupid things were too terrified to even run.

Gripping the rat by the scruff, the servant asked her, "Miss Hughes, what now?"

Tabitha's lips curled, cruel and sly, and she pointed at my mouth.

"Stuff it in."

"Doesn't my dear sister have an endless appetite? Let's give her a real feast today."

A shudder went through me.

The Taotie are true gods. Even starved to the edge, we would never touch anything as foul as a rat.

To me this was worse than death.

I clenched my jaw and bit out, "Tabitha, this is your last chance to stop."

"Or don't blame me later for showing no mercy."

She threw back her head and laughed.

"Carina, you've been spineless your whole life, and now, of all times, you grow a backbone."

"I'd love to see just how merciless you can be without the Hughes family shielding you!"

"Hurry up, stuff the rat in her mouth. One's not enough, catch more. Keep feeding her until she's willing to kneel, knock her head to the floor, and beg forgiveness!"

Seeing that Max did nothing to stop it, the servant hesitated no longer.

He clamped down on my jaw and forced the frantic, struggling rat into my mouth.

One, two, three...

I went from revulsion to fury, and finally to an eerie calm.

Naturally, that didn't satisfy Tabitha.

"Carina, you've got nerve."

"Since you care so little about yourself, then I'll try a different approach."

She turned, found a wooden rod in the corner, and pinned down Zoey's hand.

"Which hand did you hit me with yesterday?"

Zoey and I understood at once what she meant.

Zoey trembled all over, and for the first time, I was afraid too.

I couldn't die, but Zoey was only mortal. With the Hughes family's power, they could beat a person to death and no one would dare say a word.

My fear only delighted Tabitha more. She sneered, "Now I remember. You hit me with both hands."

"Then let's cripple both of them."

I knew how hard Tabitha had schemed to shove me aside and marry Max herself. She would never let a golden chance like this to humiliate me slip by.

So I pinned my last hope on Max.

Praying he had a shred of conscience left.

"Max, let Zoey go. I promise I'll never hold your wrongs against you."

"And your Delgado family won't be visited by utter ruin."

Max's head snapped toward me.

I'd thought that even if he didn't understand, he'd at least feel some wariness.

Instead he laughed out loud, the way you'd laugh at a lunatic.

"Carina, have you gone mad with panic?"

"Since when do you spout nonsense like this?"

"Utter ruin? What, do you think you're some goddess descended from heaven?"

My face was dark, without a trace of joking in it.

"A god?"

"No god could compare to me."

"She's insane!"

Max spat the words, out of patience, then pressed, "Tabby, get it done, and let's go rest once it's over."

"I don't ever want to see this lunatic again."

With Max's word given, Tabitha hesitated no more.

The rod came down, and Zoey crumpled in front of me.

But that foolish girl, broken with pain as she was, still forced out her last breath to beg, "Young Master Delgado, Miss Hughes, I've already paid the price."

"Please, I'm begging you, stop tormenting my mistress."

Tabitha tossed the rod aside, impatient. "Relax, I won't let you die."

"Max and I are still waiting to see that big gift your dear mistress promised us."

The two of them disappeared up out of the dungeon, and Zoey dragged a faint smile onto her face to comfort me. "Miss, it's over now."

I patted her back gently, spacing out each word. "Mm. It's over. Sleep a while."

"Get your strength back, so you can watch with your own eyes as they're damned beyond saving."

Three days passed in a blink.

Deafening music drifted in from outside, along with the crowd's congratulations to Tabitha.

The drug in my body had mostly worn off; my strength was back to seven parts of ten.

When I hoisted Zoey onto my back, the bodyguard posted at the door struck the iron gate with his stun baton, annoyed. "What do you think you're doing? Get back in the corner and lie down!"

I didn't even glance at him. I stared straight toward where the sound was coming from and let two cold words fall.

"Delivering a gift."