A Scold’s Bridle caged my head.

But Alexi wasn’t finished with me yet. In fact, he’d only just begun.

I stood just on the other side of the curtains that shielded me from the room where I’d served Alexi’s party not so long ago. I wore a long silvery-white evening gown that hung off my shoulders and draped low at the back. My arms were bound behind me with leather restraints at both elbows and wrists, forcing me to stand up straight, making my breasts jut out against the delicate silk, the nipples visible beneath it. The shoes I wore were one size too small. I wondered if that was intentional. My skin still stung from the hot wax I’d endured to tear every hair—apart from that on my head—from my body.

But none of that mattered.

It all paled in anticipation of what was to come as the last of the women before me walked up onto the stage and were auctioned off.

Because I was next.

And I wore the Scold’s Bridle—a medieval device used to punish gossips, used to humiliate them. Heavy metal imprisoned my head, leaving my eyes to see, my nose to breathe. Inside my mouth, the bridle depressed my tongue, making it impossible to swallow, to speak. To scream. To beg for help from a gathering of people who would only revel in my agony.

“Walk.” The man who stood guard commanded me. I startled and glanced up at him. He didn’t meet my gaze, though. Instead, he kept his just beyond mine, only nudging me forward when my legs wouldn’t move.

The murmurs of anticipation ceased as I set one platform shoe into the spotlight, then the other. I stopped. My guard leaned down close.

“Walk.”

When I met his gaze, they conveyed a silent warning. And so I walked. Specks of silver dropped from my shoulders as I entered the room where Alexi waited for me at the center of the stage, where a sea of masked faces gave audible sounds of approval as I came fully into view.

My humiliation, it excited them.

“Ah…my pièce de résistance.”

Every single person in the place brought their hands together in fervent applause, the sound deafening as it bounced off the marble floors. I looked at them, and terror gripped me at what I knew Alexi had in store. I would have screamed if I could. I would have run. But there was no way out, not for me, not this time. This time, I was finished. And all I could do was stand trembling and mute as I faced my fate.

I didn’t hear what he said. I couldn’t listen as bile rose up my throat and threatened to choke me when Alexi named an amount, and the first hand rose high, followed quickly by a second and a third and a fourth. It kept going, Alexi calling out numbers, bidders bidding. I struggled to wrap my brain around the fact that I would soon be raped.

The room began to spin, all the arms rising as each man or woman outbid the last blurring before my eyes, Alexi’s voice lost amid the shouts from the guests. A final number was called out, and when it was, time seemed to stop. Everyone turned to the man standing. The one who’d just placed the final bid. I glanced at Alexi, who studied the masked stranger, his expression one of pure hatred. I didn’t understand. Wasn’t this what he wanted? Wasn’t this how he wanted to punish me? Forcing this violence upon me?

“Sold.”

I stumbled when he said the word, losing sight of the room as I almost passed out. Alexi caught me as the lights went down on the stage. He faced me, and once I was steady on my feet, he wrapped his hand around the back of the bridle to grip the lock and force my head backward.

The guests began to rise from their seats as the stage lights went down.

“I like you like this, Kat. Maybe I should have had you wear it when you played at the club.”

I didn’t miss that he spoke in the past tense. When I made a sound and tried to break away, he tugged harder. It was a moment before he released me. Two women appeared to lead me away, a guard following close behind. Their hands were gentler than Alexi’s as they walked me into a round room bare of furnishings, draped heavily with rich crimson curtains, large tiles covering the floor in a black-and-white pattern. A man stood guard as the women snipped the straps of the dress. I watched it pool around my ankles before stepping out of the remains. One of the women took it away, and the other led me to the very center of the room, where they wrapped a leather cuff around one ankle and bound me to a ring in the floor. One of the women sprinkled a handful of rice at my feet. I found it strange, not comprehending at first.

“Kneel,” she said.

Then I understood.

The women each held one of my arms to steady me as I knelt on the hard grains. They dug into my skin, and I knew they’d be agony soon.

I glanced over my shoulder at the guard who dismissed the women. He waited beside the door until, a moment later, it opened. Alexi entered, the grin on his face more terrifying than any mask he could have worn. He circled me once, stopping just in front of me, the bulge in his pants inches from my face.

“Good news. Your knight in shining armor has paid your debt. Or should I say priest in shining…cassock?”

I glared at him.

He laughed at his ridiculous joke and rubbed his length through his pants. Just as he reached for the zipper, the door opened and a masked man entered.