Chapter 1
The day the Carter family's death sentence was commuted to exile, Winifred Carter threw my indenture contract right in my face. "Get back to your town and stop being an eyesore here."
She turned away, but secretly slipped two hairpins of the finest quality into my hands.
I didn't look back as I climbed onto the cart that would take me home.
As we passed the marketplace, I saw Benjamin Carter, once the untouchable heir, now bloodied and dragged behind a horse.
I felt the two icy hairpins pressed against my chest, gritted my teeth, and jumped off the cart.
*****
I left the driver's shouts behind me.
The road home was cut off.
My freedom was lost.
I knew it. But I couldn't bother with all that now.
The crowd at the marketplace was packed so tightly that one couldn't squeeze a dime through.
The air reeked of sour, rotten veggies, the sweet, coppery scent of blood, and the sweaty excitement of the spectators.
I was like a fish swimming upstream, desperately pushing my way forward.
"Move. Please, let me through." My voice was so soft that it was like a mosquito buzzing.
No one even looked at me.
A burly guy shoved me aside with an annoyed grunt.
I stumbled and hit the stone pavement, my elbow cracking hard. Pain shot right through me.
But I couldn't bother with the pain.
I finally spotted him through the gaps between people's legs.
It was Benjamin Carter, the heir of the Carter family.
During Christmas, the young general rode through the city on a white horse with a golden saddle, one smile from him, and every girl in Jinburge was left swooning.
Now, his wrists were tied up with a rough hemp rope.
The other end was fastened to the tail of a mangy horse.
With every step the horse took, Benjamin got dragged right along behind it.
The once-luxurious silk clothes he wore were ripped beyond recognition, smeared with blood, mud, and filth. Their original color was lost in the mess.
The face that used to haunt the dreams of every noble girl in Jinburge was now pressed into the dirt, his hair tangled and matted with grass and blood.
Behind him, from one end of the street to the other, stretched a long, deep red trail.
The crowd roared.
They jeered and hollered.
"Go faster. So this is all the Carter heir amounts to."
"Hit him. Let him see how hard life is for us."
A bunch of half-grown kids grabbed stones and clumps of mud from the ground and pelted him with them.
The stones hit his back with a muffled thud, one after another.
He didn't move a muscle, lying there like a lifeless rag doll.
It felt like a massive fist was crushing my heart, the pain so intense that I could barely breathe.
I scrambled up, like I'd lost my mind, and dove straight back into the crowd.
This time, I pushed forward with every ounce of strength I had.
I barreled through person after person, finally making it all the way to the front.
The soldiers escorting him saw me charge forward and instantly raised their batons. "Get out of the way, you reckless wretch."
The baton's tip was icy cold, nearly pressed against my throat.
I bowed at once. "Please, officer, spare me."
I threw caution to the wind and lunged straight at the horse, trying to block its path.
The horse spooked, rearing up on its hind legs, and its front hooves crashed down with a terrifying force.
A massive impact knocked me off my feet and slammed me into the ground.
The world spun around me.
All around, I could hear the soldiers cursing and the crowd bursting into laughter.
I struggled to lift my head and saw Benjamin get tossed over by the sudden bump.
He lay on his back in the muddy water.
His face was battered and bloody.
Meanwhile, his eyes, once bright as stars, were half-open now, like dead water, with no light left in them.
His lips barely moved.
I leaned in, straining to hear, and finally caught his voice, which was so faint, barely more than a whisper. "Kill me."
In that instant, my tears burst forth, overflowing uncontrollably.