The Golden Tower rose like a cruel needle above the devastated districts. Its marble façade, blackened by smoke, concealed the beating heart of the city's filthiest trade: the sale of blood slaves. This was no ordinary market. It was a spectacle, a hunt disguised as luxury.
Inside, nobles and traffickers drank thick wine and laughed with sharpened teeth. The bids were not just for bodies, but for skills, rare genetics, and lost bloodlines. Each slave was a piece of power.
Arisha moved through the crowd with her hood low. Her eyes were fixed on the inner corridors, where Baco and Kai had been registered as "merchandise."Not by her.Someone had betrayed them."Lessa…" she whispered, heart tightening.
In a frozen marble hall, Baco was chained beside deformed creatures, broken hybrids, and drugged children. Next to him, Kai struggled to stay conscious. The drug they had injected clouded his senses—but not his rage."Will Balt be here?" Baco muttered."Yes. And you won't know if he's an enemy or salvation... until blood is spilled," Kai replied bitterly.
A gong rang.The auction had begun.
Balt appeared on a high balcony. His silhouette—elegant and monstrous—captured every gaze.
FLASHBACK
"You think I'll sit and do nothing, Mikhael? Then you're unfit to lead this."They brought him boiling water, which he threw against the rusted bars. At the slightest movement, he yanked the electric staff and burned one of the dungeon servants. It was enough to shatter the magical barriers."I'm not stupid, Mikhael. I have my own tricks to escape—and to repay this humiliation."
(End of memory)
The crowd didn't know it, but the monster now speaking had broken free of his cage by choice. Then he opened his pearl-like eyes. Though he was a first-generation hybrid—born from the experiment between a pureblood vampire and a human with lycanthrope heritage—his voice sliced the air like an obsidian blade."Tonight, we are not selling bodies, but possible futures. One of them… might shift the balance of this city."A murmur spread.
Behind the curtain, Klaus Mintra Mornia wore a white mask detailed in gold, waiting for the show to begin.
Meanwhile, in a hidden lounge veiled in purple curtains, Mikhael watched in silence. His custom-made chair supported his paralyzed body, surrounded by sensors and guards."Do not interfere," he ordered one of them. "Not yet."But his fingers trembled slightly—as if recognizing the storm about to break.
Klaus reviewed the guest list, then removed his mask. He smiled with the calm of someone watching a chess game unfold exactly as planned.
Arisha made it into the slave corridors with help from an old contact in the dark guilds. She disguised herself as a buyer, displaying a forged scroll bearing the Tyvennor House seal.What she didn't expect was to find Lessa—dressed in black silk, eyes lined with kohl. A decorative piece for the buyers' pleasure."What did you do?" Arisha hissed under her breath."I survived. And I can still help you," the girl replied, never breaking her gaze.
When Baco was led to the platform, something within him shifted. Kai's gaze, though weak, held his. The memory of Balt. The broken promises.And Lessa's voice, rising from the crowd:
"The Son of the Moon does not belong in chains!"
A sudden silence fell.
A hooded figure stirred among the crowd. Its aura was neither human, nor vampiric, nor lupine… it was something else entirely. Its eyes, hidden beneath the shadow of the hood, gleamed for a heartbeat with a golden glow.
"The balance is about to shatter," the figure whispered to itself, a slow smile curling its lips. "At last, the true game begins."
The ceiling groaned open with a sound of torn iron. And then, the moon descended like a verdict, bathing the half-beasts in silver.
Then—chaos.
Kai broke free with an inhuman roar. His beast half surged like a storm, tearing through shackles and pillars. Baco, as if an ancient energy called to him, unleashed the dormant blood within. The ruby on his chest flared briefly—then cracked once more.
Balt descended to the stage. His eyes locked onto Kai."You're alive, then…""Thanks to you," Kai spat. "But not to follow you."
And they clashed.
Amid the crossfire, Arisha dragged Lessa into a hidden passage. But the girl stopped."Not without him.""Baco?""No. Balt."
And then, Arisha understood.Lessa wasn't just an informant.She was her daughter.
The Tower burned.And for the first time, the golden city reeked of ash.