30. AURELIA

Chapter thirty

AURELIA

M y eyelids lifted, finding nothing but darkness. Where was I? I reached up, my fingers grazing my head, attempting to cool down the pounding, just to find my arm couldn't move past my shoulder. A rattle ricocheted past my barriers, pain stinging into my wrists.

Cold chains had locked me in, the metal sinking into my skin. My eyes were still flickering open, adjusting to the dim light. The rusted silver chains attached to my wrists wrapped and molded into the bars behind me. I jerked my hand away from the wall, and they clinked and dug deeper into my wrists, making the flesh burn. They wouldn't budge.

My ankles had the same aching feeling. They were also bound and sculpted into the bars behind me. My eyes wandered the space that I found myself in.

I was in a cage, like an animal.

It was large and meant for humans.

Or Scalebornes.

"Belle?!" I called out desperately.

I waited.

No response.

"BELLE?! CAN YOU HEAR ME?!" I felt defeated. Where was she? Was she in a cage like mine? Was she dead, asleep, or gone? Not being able to feel her presence made me feel nauseous.

Looking to my left there was a dog-looking creature beside me. Its pouting cries vibrated my cage, the metal whimpering under my touch. Its eyes hung low, almost yellowed. There were dark red bruises embedded beneath its black thin fur. It had a tail slithering behind it, clanking the bars in its cell, the tapered tip filled with interlocking plates resembling scales.

I tried to think back to my books to know what the creature was, but my mind was moving slowly, slipping through my mental grasp.

The alloy cage to my left contained a larger figure.

It was another girl. She was tattered and dirty and looked as though she had been here for a while. Her body was crouched, slumped in between the barriers, not able to stretch out her longer legs. Her skin was sliced, blood crusted around the edges. A rugged sack was draped over her body, reaching her ankles, replacing whatever she was wearing prior to being taken. Her feet were bare, her toes dangling outside of the cage, nails broken and crusted with gold, filled with soot.

Leaning back in her cage, her eyes drooping closed, her lime green hair ratted and ruffled. How long had she been in the cage?

Her nails were a shimmery black with edges that looked rough and broken as they were gently placed in her lap. However, it caught my eye that the remains of her nails were not matching the green tint of her hair. They were darkened to a black, small white dots lined them, scattered like familiar patterns. I had never seen nails the opposite color from one's hair before. Then again, I hardly was able to leave my tower and explore the world.

I could feel my eyes widen as I noticed the black and blue marks that were spread over her body, discoloration of the skin peeking through. Her face was swollen unnaturally in certain areas on her cheeks or over her eyes, also marked with blotches that looked like ink spills. However, what stood out to me the most were all of the deep cuts along her hands, wrists, and arms. I found it odd the pigment of gold found around her bruises and cuts, showing through her skin.

Some of the cuts were scarred over, whereas others were newly wounded, with golden and fleshy lines.

Her eyes opened and made contact with my own, her consciousness alerting her that she was being watched.

I had to cover my mouth with the gasp that was released from my mouth.

Her eyes were… gold. She had golden eyes.

I opened my mouth to say something when words got blasted into my ears.

"Shhh. Don't say anything. They'll hear you and come back." She spoke to me in my mind. I didn't know that Scalebornes could speak to one another. Her golden eyes were pleading, and worry lines stuck on her face. She shifted her head slightly, her movements slow and without energy.

"Who are they?" I asked back, feeling frantic. I wanted to escape. The scars that were sliced along her skin must've been used to take her golden blood. Her features were sickly pale, bags sat untouched and unnoticed under her eyes, and her veins started to slowly show through her ill skin. Dirt and bruises caked over her body, showing that she hadn't been taken care of in a long time. "How long have you been in here?"

Her head hung low, scared to answer my questions. Her eyes sparkled as she looked from side to side, nervous to speak. It was surreal seeing another pair of gold eyes for myself.

"They are traders. They sell our blood for their living, along with other creatures that they entrap." Her voice cracked. "I don't know anymore. Weeks? Months?" There was something holding her back from looking me in my eyes. They found entertainment everywhere else, but were unable to meet my own.

Was I going to be here just as long? If not longer?

A cold, wet droplet of emotion traced a path down my face, confirming the unsettling rumors. I found myself living out my worst nightmare, the very fear that haunted my childhood.

"Shh. Someone is coming." My muscles tensed up, clinging to every sound that echoed in the small concrete room.

"What do we do?"

"Close your eyes!"

Following her instructions, I shut my eyes. The tension and fear still zipped through my body, the knots within my muscles refusing to settle.

With my eyes closed, I tried to speak to her in my mind. "Are they going to hurt us?" I asked, feeling the fear infused within her veins.

No response.

She couldn't tell me that I was going to be okay. I respected her for this, but it made me even more nauseous, my body shaking so rapidly that it rattled the cage ever so slightly with the movements.

Footsteps clomped their way toward our cages. Goosebumps lined my arms, making my hair stick straight up. I held my breath, not wanting to make a single sound.

The footsteps approached and stopped at what sounded like the front of my cage. The rest of the creatures in the room unleashed animalistic noises in response to the humans before us. Screeching, hissing, banging erupted in the small room, the loud sounds reverberating in my very soul. The fear continued to plunge further into my chest.

"Scale slum, wake up." There was a jolt through the cage, a boot sharply kicking it, shaking my body alongside the bars. I glanced through the small slits of my eyes, finding a large man with a pegged leg, long, untamed navy-colored hair, and a black pirate hat with feathers poking out perched on his head. His scraggly blue beard matched his long hair, and his eyes pierced mine with a black tint. His face was wrinkled, and he smirked with the tip of his lips rising up, revealing a few missing teeth.

He crouched down in front of my face. I wanted to recoil to the back of my cage, but couldn't move any further. He had the stench of a five-day-old fish. The sparse teeth he possessed had decayed to a shade of black.

His long, dark blue nails draped around the small bars of the front of my cage. He grimaced, bringing his eyes closer to mine. They sunk in deep, seeming darker than I thought they were.

"You know how much you are going to bring me?" His chest rose and sunk down, the jewels on his ears gleamed in the reflection on the metal cages. Shaking my head, I refused to say a word. The urge to vomit was overwhelming me from the smell of rotten fish. "I am going to be able to buy a brand new boat. I am going to buy whatever I want." He grasped the cage tighter, making me flinch in fear, not knowing his next moves. The midnight-blue fingernails jutted out like mini sharp daggers. "She is running out. She won't be worth anything to me here soon. It was an answer from the gatekeeper of Ezu 1 ." In fear, I glanced over to the girl at my side. She remained motionless, her eyes closed, as if in disbelief. Her skin almost looked iridescent in the dim lights.

Voices were echoing in the cemented walls. They sounded as if they were heading in our direction. I heard the same boot footsteps clomping down the hall. Who else was coming?

The man that reeked of fish stood up from crouching before me, each of his hips and knees popping as he stabilized himself with his pegged leg. "Open up her cage. We're going to have a live sale today." He turned to the side, revealing three other men behind him. They also had scraggly beards and long hair. One of them had hair the color of a deep purple. He had an eye patch and wore black trousers with a white frilly top. The other two men had hair the color of the moon and scars that lined their cheeks.

They scowled as they made eye contact with me. I was their fresh meat. They only saw me as their way out of their miserable lives.

One of the men with sharp teeth jutting out of his mouth and bony fingers knelt by my cage and pulled out a lengthy silver key from his jacket pocket. I looked at him closely to find he had a very lazy eye, speckled with black peppers. One eye watched his hand as he fumbled with the key, opening my cage door, and the other eye stared directly at me.

I gulped.

The cage door creaked open, making me feel exposed to their reach. His hand reached in to grab my chin, and I scrambled to reach the back of the cage, finding myself stuck and stiff.

Gray and broken nails scratched along my chin, tilting it up. "Lovely gal. Ain't she?" He turned to look at the other men for approval. His large tongue hung out, sliming over his lips and teeth at the view of me. He erupted in a thick, scratchy laugh, making me grip the metal chains linking my wrists and feet.

A thought popped into my head. I lifted my hand barely before me and released a ray of fire that reached the man with moonlit hair. The scent of scorched skin and keratin rose up to my nostrils. He yelped, thrashing his hands against his face as he tried to get himself away from my cage. He hit his head against the bar, but I knew that was the least of his pain.

He continued to scream, his hands covering his face, hiding the damage that laid beneath. I prayed to the gatekeeper of Ezu that it did more damage and that he wouldn't dare touch me again. I couldn't help but smirk a tiny bit.

Rushing past the others, I continued to hear his wretched screams of pain. It must've been funny to the other men as they chuckled, realizing my abilities. Maybe it was a bad idea, but I didn't care.

The first man stopped laughing and got close to my cage again. I stared him down. His head snaked as he got closer. "Ya can't do that witchcraft stuff if ya knocked out." Something sharp collided with my head, blurring my surroundings before darkness engulfed me.

1. Ezu (Eh-ooh): Heaven