The Tyrant Devil's Dark Temptation

Maureen Laurent

Ice water slapped my face.

"Wake up, whores!"

The scream came with the next bucket. I lurched upright on the freezing stone floor, chains clinking, scrambling into line before the whip found my back again. Twenty naked, shivering girls pressed shoulder-to-shoulder in the dark. The stench of piss, blood, and terror coated the air.

I wasn't born for this.

Once, I had silk sheets and a father who called me "little star." Once, I had a mother's hand on my cheek and a fiancé who swore he'd die for me.

Now I had welts that never healed and a collar burned into my throat that said PROPERTY OF THE NORTHERN DOMINION.

The overseer-a scarred wolf with a missing ear-strode down the row, boot splashing through the puddles. His gaze snagged on the blind girl two bodies to my left. Pale as bone, nineteen at most, trembling so hard her chains rattled like bells.

"You-crawling on the floor like a worm. What the fuck are you doing?"

Her voice cracked. "I-I dropped my bread, sir... I'm sorry, I'm hungry-"

"Hungry?" He laughed, low and ugly. "You'll learn hunger here, bitch."

He spat in her face. The glob slid down her cheek while the guards howled with laughter.

I wanted to look away. I didn't. You learn fast: look weak and they make it worse.

"Line up for prayer," the overseer barked. "And say it like you mean it, or I'll skin the lot of you."

We dropped to our knees in unison, foreheads pressed to the wet stone. The words were carved into every slave's tongue the first night.

"Oh hail Alpha Devil Vuk, firstborn of Lucifer and Selene, flame-crowned king of the North.

May your enemies bleed.

May your seed be endless.

May your wrath be eternal.

We are nothing. You are all."

My lips moved, but no sound came. I couldn't breathe the words anymore. Not when every syllable tasted like damnation.

A boot kicked my ribs. "Louder, fresh meat."

I choked the prayer out with the rest, voice raw, tasting iron and shame.

The heavy iron doors at the end of the hall groaned open.

Silence fell so fast it hurt.

"Move."

Guards herded us like cattle, chains dragging, bare feet slapping wet stone. Cold air became steam and perfume as we were shoved into the bathing chamber. Copper tubs. Boiling water. Bristled brushes that scraped skin from bone.

They stripped the last of our dignity with the dirt.

I kept my eyes down, scrubbing blood and filth from my breasts, my thighs, the welts across my back that would never heal here. The transparent gray silk they threw at us afterward clung to every curve, hiding nothing. Wet fabric stuck to my nipples, my hips, the small curls between my legs. We looked like offerings.

The blind girl slipped.

Her pale body hit the tiles hard, chains clattering. A guard laughed and kicked her ribs. She whimpered, trying to crawl away.

Something in me moved