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!"
