Chapter 1 | Preparation

Elyria

The clock is ticking. 

Raina will be found out. Her eyes shine a bright blue as the vision consumes her.

She’s a Seer, but no one knows. We’ve worked hard to keep it that way.

But ever since we turned 18, there’s been a silent countdown ticking to when our Auction Day would occur. The stress is causing her to have visions more frequently. 

The Crucible Academy took care of us when no one else would. But our whole lives, they have been prepping us for this moment. Now is how they know if their investment paid off.

If they find out that Raina is a Seer, I don’t know how it would affect her.

The unknown is terrifying.

They could keep her for their own gain. They could sell her for a higher cost.

At the end of the day, they’re full of greed, so my bet is on the latter. But her visions being part of her sales pitch is dangerous. She can’t perform on demand, and her visions are choppy.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

“Come on, Rain,” I murmur nervously.

The door bursts open without any warning. I snap my head towards it, but when I look back at my sister, she’s blinking away the daze she was in from the vision.

Our handlers are two buff men, dressed in black, their hands hovering over their batons. In a gruff voice, one of them commands, “Join the line.”

Their presence demands fear, but they don’t scare me. They’ve never harmed me.

But Raina tenses from their presence, and I wonder if they’ve hurt her.

My hands clench at the thought, wanting to harm anyone who would dare to harm my sister.

She puts on a smile as she walks towards them, her gown billowing at her feet as she looks at their badges and says, “Thank you, Claude, Howman.”

They grunt in response, which I suppose is better than nothing.

As I get in line, I mentally remind myself that I’m safe. Crucible Academy has put too much of an investment into us to let us be harmed on our Auction Day, especially when we’re anticipated to be some of their best sales today.

20 other young women stand in this line, and I know the men are being gathered elsewhere. Some of these girls are my friends, some I’ve never seen before. Often, we’re kept with the same gender and species throughout our schooling. I don’t know what species these other girls are. I see giant wings, scales, horns, and iridescent skin, and I don’t know what to think of that.

We’re the last group, and the room we're in is absolute chaos. Stylists are dressed in blue, assistants in black, hairdressers in brown, and group leaders in white, and they rush past each other in different directions, making sure every girl is perfect.

Each one of us gets led to a small podium to stand and wait for people to get us dressed to the nines.

Raina is on the left side of me, and I’m so grateful to stay close to her because after today, who knows where we’ll be.

Pain rushes through my chest at the thought. She’s my sister, my twin, my other half… how could we just separate and never see each other again?

Raina’s voice breaks through the painful haze my mind is spiraling through, “Take a breath, El, I already know where you’re going, and I will find you. I promise, we’ll see each other again.”

My head whips toward her, making my hair smack my face from my fast movement. How does she know that?

Her vision. I forgot about it with all this commotion.

She knows where I’m going.

“Will we be together?” My voice is airy, rushed, and soft. I don’t want others to hear us, and I can see a group leader and a stylist walking this way.

Her ice blue eyes seem sad as she tells me, “You know that I never see anything about myself.”

Yeah, I do know that. 

Disappointment floods through me as we get surrounded by others. Make-up gets painted onto our faces, our hair curled into blonde-white ringlets that surround our faces, and debates occur over what outfits and accessories we should receive.

My eyes linger towards the girls getting herded into a line and ushered out a door.

Each time the door opens, the announcer’s loud voice echoes into the room. He makes a spiel about each person who’s up there, and sometimes, you hear what someone was sold for.

I try my best to ignore it, not to let it rattle me.

But… that’s difficult, especially when you hear someone get sold for a measly one thousand dollars.

It’s common knowledge that the first people out there are lowballers; typically, they are some type of hybrid that caters to the human side of things. But I never realized that they were sold for so… low.

It feels like I blinked and the large room is practically empty, and my heart feels like it could pump out of my chest. 

A cold hand grips mine, squeezing it softly, and I look to meet my sister’s eyes. 

They’re supposed to reflect my same ice blue gaze, but instead, the whole eye shines with a radiating blue. A curse slips from my lips as I step off my podium, trying to come in front of her to shield her from others.

What I wanted to shield her from instead drew more attention.

One of the women in white rushes towards me, swatting my arm softly as she scolds, “Stay in your place!”

Out of time.

We are out of time.

I should’ve spoken faster.

I should’ve caused a scene.

I should’ve done anything to draw attention to me instead of Raina. Instead, she sees her.

A loud gasp fills the room, and without thinking, I slap a hand over the woman’s mouth.

No one else can know. This won’t be good. Fuck, how do I fix this?

My arms are ripped back and held behind my back. The woman’s face turns a bright red as her head snaps to one of the assistants and commands, “I want both of their announcement notes!”

It’s like the anger is washed from her face as she looks back at my sister and stares at her and asks me, “What is she doing?”

When I don’t immediately offer an answer, her eyes narrow, “Listen to me, I have the ability to make your life good or very bad. Tell me what I want to know.”

I swallow, guilt filling me as I betray my sister, “She’s having a vision.”

Dollar signs appear in the woman’s eyes; it’s like she’s a cartoon character with how much her eyes brighten at this realization. She states, “She’s a Seer.”

I attempt to downplay it, “Of sorts, I suppose, she can’t control it.”

She waves her hand dismissively, as if that detail doesn’t matter. The assistant rushes back with our announcements notes, and the group leader holds the clipboards as Raina’s gaze finally clears. She looks to me, wide-eyed and scared.

Tears fill my eyes knowing I betrayed her.

How will she feel when she finds out?

The group leader writes on one of the clipboards and moves to pass it off, but she pauses, her eyes flickering to me, assessing me as she asks, “I assume you do not have an ability like your sister?”

I shake my head no, “Not that I’m aware of.”

She nods as she passes the clipboard to the assistant and instructs, “Take Ms. Elyria Trainer here to the next group, have her see Lucille first.”

She looks back at my sister, her eyes bright with excitement as she says, “Take Ms. Raina here to André. Make sure he sees her notes; he’ll know exactly what she needs.”

The guard pushes me away, towards the assistant, and then it dawns on me. 

It starts now.

We’re being separated.

I scream as I fight back, “No, wait, Raina!”

I’m forced away and tears streak down my face, but I can hear her voice, “Go, Elyria! It’ll be fine.”

She can’t know that.

We’re being separated.

We’ve never been this far apart before.

My chest feels unbearably tight at the thought of never seeing her again. I fight as hard as I can to get to her again, but I get yanked back so hard it makes painful tears spring into my eyes.

The pain is suffocating. I’m being led to my death. Without her, all there is for me is pain.