CHAPTER 109
Aria’s POV
The next morning found me standing in front of the pack house, waiting. The crisp air of dawn hung around me, and I shivered, though it wasn’t from the cold.
Today would be the beginning of something-something I had to face, no matter how much dread sat heavy in my chest. I had left Edward with one of the maids I trusted in the pack house. I couldn’t take him along, not to where we were going. There were too many questions, too many ghosts that needed to be confronted without distraction.
A gentle hand brushed my shoulder, and I turned to find Denderick standing beside me, his eyes warm and reassuring. The sunlight caught his blonde hair in such a way that it shimmered like gold, and for a fleeting moment, I thought about how lucky I was to be mated to someone so strikingly handsome. But it wasn’t just his looks. It was the strength behind his kindness that always steadied me, especially when I felt on the verge of unraveling.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
I nodded, my throat tightening as I tried to suppress the anxiety rising within me. “Yes, I’m ready.”
We walked together towards the carriage waiting for us. The horses stood still, their breath forming small clouds in the chilly morning air. As we climbed inside, the seats creaked under us, and I settled into silence. Denderick leaned forward and gave quiet directions to the carriage driver, and soon we were off, the carriage jolting slightly as it moved along the uneven road.
I stared out the window, watching the trees blur past, but my mind was far from the present. I wondered what I would find when we got there. What secrets would the slave house hold? Would I find answers, or would the past remain in darkness?
I knew I had to face this. I owed it to myself to know the truth.
After what felt like an eternity, the carriage finally slowed. I peered through the window, and there it was-the slave house. My stomach twisted in fear.
The building was squat and ugly, with peeling gray paint and a sagging roof that looked like it could collapse at any moment. A wide yard stretched out before it, filled with groups of men-buyers and sellers, their faces filled with greedy determination. And there, lined up like cattle, stood the slaves. They were mostly young men and women, shackled at the wrists, their faces filled with fear and exhaustion.
The scene was painfully familiar.
Denderick climbed down from the carriage first, then turned to help me down. His strong hands steadied me as I stepped onto the dirt path, and together, we walked towards the slave house.
My heart pounded in my chest. This was the place where Denderick had found me about a year ago, the place where my life had taken an irreversible turn.
As we neared the platform, the sound of raised voices and haggling filled the air. Several men stood around, shouting prices as they bargained for the slaves. I recognized the fear on the faces of the slaves, their wide, terrified eyes darting from one man to the next as they waited to see who would buy them, who would decide their fate. My chest tightened at the sight-I had been where they stood now. I knew that fear intimately.
On the platform, a man stood with a group of slaves lined up behind him, each one wearing the same vacant, hopeless expression. The man was pudgy, with a stained shirt and trousers that looked like they hadn’t been washed in weeks. His limp blonde hair hung over his forehead in greasy strands, and when I saw him, my heart skipped a beat.
It was him.
The man who had sold me into slavery. The man who had stood on this very platform years ago and auctioned me off like an animal.
My blood ran cold as memories I had tried to bury flooded back, unwanted. I could still hear his voice, the way he’d described me to potential buyers, the way he’d smiled as he took their money. I could still feel the chains around my wrists, as I was sold into a life I had never asked for.
I froze in place, staring at him, the world around me fading into a blur. It was as if I had stepped back in time, reliving that horrible day all over again.
“Come on, ladies and gentlemen!” the man’s voice boomed across the platform, snapping me back to the present. “These fine young men and women won’t be here for long! Get them while you can! Strong backs, good workers!”
I could see the way he looked at the slaves, the way he saw them as nothing more than goods to be traded, just like he had seen me. The bile rose in my throat.
One of the buyers stepped forward, eyeing a young girl who couldn’t have been more than fifteen. She trembled under his gaze, her shoulders hunched as if she were trying to disappear. He reached out and grabbed her arm, inspecting her like livestock.
“I’ll give you fifteen hundred.” the buyer said, his voice gruff and impatient.
The auctioneer-him-shook his head, a greedy grin spreading across his face. “Fifteen hundred? This one’s strong. Look at her! She’s worth at least two thousand gold coins!”
“Fifteen hundred is my final offer.”
The auctioneer sighed dramatically, as if it were the greatest inconvenience in the world, then nodded. “Fine. Fifteen hundred it is.”
The girl was handed over, her expression blank but her hands shaking as the buyer shackled her and led her away. My heart ached for her, for all of them. I had once been that girl-helpless, afraid, and at the mercy of men like this.
I turned to Denderick, my voice trembling with anger. “How can they still do this? After everything that’s happened?”
He placed a gentle hand on my arm. “The world hasn’t changed as much as we’d like to believe, Aria. But we’re here now. We can make a difference.”
Before I could respond, the auctioneer’s voice rang out again, louder this time. “And next, we have a fine young man! Strong as an ox! Who’s going to take him home?”
I didn’t look. I couldn’t. My gaze remained fixed on the man who had sold me into this life, the man who had ripped me from everything I had known. And now, here he was, continuing his twisted trade.
He didn’t recognize me yet, but that would soon change. Because I wasn’t going to let him walk away from this.
Not this time.