Chapter Fifteen- The Girl Behind The Door

Seren’s Pov

I wanted to speak to her.

Caelum said no, and Rysen followed suit, but with a gentler tone. He gave me that look he always does whenever he feels he needs to protect me but I've already made up my mind. I told them both that I'd had enough of waiting outside doors for nineteen years.

They didn't argue.

I walked through the damp stone and rusty iron smell of the cells underneath the east wing. Though they were brand new to me, I walked slowly along them. My hand dragged along the wall as my other gripped my stomach without asking. Two guards stood either side of me. Caelum walked ahead of me and Rysen behind, making the passage feel tight with just the three of us.

She was sitting on the small cot with her legs pulled up to her chest. She looked younger in the light of the cell. I'd guessed her to be seventeen in the cottage, but she looked even younger. Her dark braids had come undone and her apron still hung on her. It was splattered with something that looked like chamomile. She jumped slightly when the door opened and froze when she saw me.

"Leave us."

"Ser-"

"Please."

He met my gaze for a long time before nodding. They left me, but stayed just close enough to hear. I sat down opposite her on the stool. My back ached and I didn't want to loom over her.

"What's your name?"

She looked shocked. "Pia."Pia. I'm Seren."I know who you are. Everyone does."

"So you know I'm not here to shout at you."

"I should be. I really should. I took the silver, I stood there in that cottage and listened behind the curtain and brought it to that man in the black coat as if it meant nothing. I didn't think."

I watched as she shrunk in on herself and felt a strange feeling in my chest. I wasn't forgiving her, but I felt like I could understand. I knew exactly how she looked.

"How much did he pay you?"

She blinked. "What?"

"The man in the coat."

"Eleven silver." She let out a wet, ugly laugh. "My mother has been ill since spring. The healer can't help her and the medicine is from the south. It's expensive. He said it was just a little news. Just what the Luna said. Just what the old lady said. He said no one would get hurt."

Eleven silver. For my body, my fear and my little miracle. I wanted to hate her but I couldn't.

"I'm angry. I'm angrier than I ever have been in my life. Some of it is aimed at you."

She nodded, tears flowing freely.

"But most of it is aimed at him. Whoever taught him that he could charge a sick woman's daughter and call it a favour. So I need you to tell me everything. Every single word he said. What he looked like. What he wore. And then I will decide what happens to you."

Pia wiped her face with her sleeve and looked down at the floor.

"He wasn't from Redmoor."

I felt the atmosphere shift behind me. The two Alphas were being very careful.

"What?"

"He had the black coat and crest but it didn't fit. The sleeves were too long. Like it belonged to someone bigger. And his fingers were inked. Right here." She touched two fingers to her own hand. "Like a clerk."

A cold feeling churned in my stomach.

"What else?"

"He paid me with a leather pouch. It had something stamped on it. I didn't know what it was at the time. There were three little marks. Like a weighing scale with one side lower." She demonstrated with her hands. "But I noticed because it was so pretty. It was gold thread."

I recognised the marking.

I'd only seen it once, and it was upside down. On the corner of one of Davan's folders that he had hidden under his bed. I'd taken three steps towards it before realising what I was looking at. The weighing scale. The imbalance. The seal of the Hollis Transfer Office. Where contracts are written and stamped for people being sold and bought. And one man had worked there for twenty years to make sure everything was clean.

"Marcus."

I heard Caelum behind me let out a curse.

---

"He was there. He read out the anomaly clause. He watched your reaction."

"Because he wrote it."

I was curled up in the chair again. Someone had covered my knees with a blanket. I hadn't realised I was shaking until Caelum shoved a mug of tea into my hands. I held it but didn't drink.

"Just think." He wasn't pacing. He stood at the window, unmoving. It scared me more than Rysen's pacing. "Marcus writes the contract. He highlights the marker. Davan's lawyer warns him but he still sells you cheap. Marcus knows exactly how much you're worth. The council have their suspicions and Ashgrove is too careful to write it down..."

"But Marcus isn't. He's paid."

"By who?"

"By whoever is buying the most valuable thing he knows. He sold it to Davan's side first, cheap. But he's sold it to Redmoor. He's sold pieces of his secret to everyone with money. And he's been in the room the whole time watching what we do with it."

Rysen stopped pacing and faced me. His face was awful. Calm.

"Tonight."

"Tonight." I placed the tea down. My hands were steady now. "And I want to be there."

"Seren."

"I was valued. He wrote my value down and sold me like animals. I'm not hiding in this house whilst you two go looking for him. I'm going to stand in front of him and tell him exactly how much I cost."

They didn't argue. They looked at each other with one of their silent twin looks. I could feel the thread between us. I wasn't scared. I felt almost proud.

"The babies."

"They're inside the most dangerous creature in this house." I placed my hand on my stomach. I felt a small, fierce thump. "They'll be fine. They're mine too."

---

We didn't make it to the gate.

We were walking through the courtyard with our torches when we heard shouting. A guard ran towards us from the outer wall. His boots clattered against the stone and his face was pale.

"Alphas! There's a man at the gate!"

"Who?"

"He says he's a clerk. He's hurt bad sir. He fell at the threshold. He just keeps saying the same thing. He's begging us to let him in. He'll tell you everything about the transfer, about Thorne and everything."

Rysen gripped my wrist.

"Name." I knew the answer. I knew the answer the second I heard his voice.

"Marcus sir."

A weak, ragged voice called from behind the wall. It was the voice I'd heard once in a cold meeting room.

"Please Seren. Please. I'm the only one who can stop what's coming."