Page 407 of Coal Hearts

For all my urges and all my inhuman tendencies, I wasn’t down with this.

This wasn’t sexy or fun.

This was fucking...barbaric.

Other Masters chuckled and chatted amongst themselves.

Charles tried to strike up a conversation with me, but I turned my back and walked away.

I couldn’t.

Fuck, I could barely stop myself from shooting all these motherfuckers. Let alone indulge in blood sport convo before the big hunt.

Staff in frilly pinafores handed out flasks of liquor. Trays of dainty snacks and cakes were offered.

If the Masters wore tweed and hounds circled our feet, it truly would be a medieval hunt.

Instead of muskets and swords, the Masters mingled in modern dress and patrolled with paintball guns. Everything about it was a farce, a mockery but still so fucking...wrong.

“Ah!” Victor stepped onto the open drawbridge. The sun gilded him in sunshine like a demented god. “Here are my sweetlings now, and don’t they look so fine.”

“They’ll look better covered in my paint!” A Master cackled.

“Do you mean paint or cum?” Another winked.

“Both!”

Laughter broke out.

Sweat rolled down my spine.

My eyes raked down the line of slaves, searching, searching...

Ily.

I froze as our gazes locked.

She stood next to Peter with Rachel on the other side of him. Dressed in hideous underwear that didn’t match her gorgeous rich honey skin, the target lines painted on her chest made me see fucking red.

The treasure hunt had almost gotten her raped and me murdered.

That’d been tame compared to this.

A quick little game of hide-and-seek in thunder and lightning, compared to a full day of ‘shoot the mostly-naked slave’.

Peter limped strangely, his eyes overly wide, his chest dripping with sweat. Part of his target mark had run, streaking down his lean belly.

I waited for the sickening rush of jealousy.

The unquenchable desire to grab Ily and lock her by my side.

But whatever emotions existed within me were mysteriously absent. Buried beneath rapidly growing terror that no matter what happened here today...nothing would be the same afterward.

Counting silently, Victor darted his finger in the air, doing a head count of his jewels. When he reached thirty, he clasped his hands and grinned. “It seems we are all assembled! Who wants to hear what’s in store?”

Every Master apart from me shoved up their hand like a teacher’s pet.

Victor chuckled. “So eager.” Shooting me a questioning look, he said, “The rules are simple. You will have an hour before sundown to hunt. When you hear the gong, you must return.” He swept his stare over everyone, jewels included. “Everyone, do I make myself clear?”