A/N: Going forward, chapters will be divided into parts. The general length of updates will stay the same, I just won't change the ending of each update a little bit from what I had planned so it can be labeled it's own short chapter better. Book 2 has the same amount of updates as this one, but fewer chapters total.

* * *

The chaos of the room faded as my eyes focused on the necklace. The snide remarks and petty comments made by the lavishly dressed men and women around me were of no concern, not when the gravity of the situation was weighing down on me.

I knew I would have faced consequences for Mia and Julia's lie, but not this. Whether Zev knew my origins or not, he had literally pushed me into a death sentence. All it would take would be them asking a few simple questions that I couldn't answer for them to realize I wasn't from here.

The shock must have been why I couldn't help but swing my wide, fear-filled eyes towards him when I managed to drag them away from the damning evidence the man in green was retrieving.

The man, who I hadn't realized I had expected so much from, was staring down at me with a blank face. He appeared nonchalant, but his pleasure must have been too great to disguise in full. The flash of mirth and the twitch of a smirk on his lips only made the sense of disappointment I felt grow.

It wasn't long before the other four men made their way to Zev's side. Jaxon sauntered up to his side and rested an arm on his shoulder as he smirked at me. He must have known. Cassius and Ezra on the other hand, might not have. It appeared as though Axel was unaware as well as he joined while eating a strawberry, but he didn't appear affected by the turn of events like the other two. No, he seemed to be looking on with interest, looking forward to how things would unfold.

Cassius was good at hiding it, but the jump of a vein in his temple and the set of his jaw was enough to indicate his anger and displeasure. The heated glare he sent Zev only served to make it clear.

While Cassius was angered by the surprise framing, Ezra seemed visibly distraught and fearful. The colour had drained from his face and he looked at me with panicked, wide eyes. Regret shone the brightest in the green depths just behind fear.

I couldn't help but give him a small, sad smile. He knew things were going to turn out well for me. I knew it too. Everyone around us did.

The noise in the large ballroom died down as the sound of heeled feet approaching sounded. The sharp sound resonated off the walls. The room seemed to be holding a collective breath as the owner of footsteps approached.

"My Queen," the green-suited man said, drawing my attention. He stood, bowed at the waist as he presented the necklace with two hands to the dark-haired woman I had spotted earlier. "It is indeed your lost necklace."

The woman cut her emerald eyes in my direction. They were as cold and hard as the jewel. Scanning me from head to toe, her expression that twisted slightly in distaste told me that I was a bit... lacking, in her eyes.

She flicked two fingers at the offered necklace, pushing it away. "It has been ruined. Have it harvested for materials," she flippantly said as her eyes leisurely shifted from me to the five men who stood behind me.

I choked back a gasp when the blacks of her pupils shifted into slits like those of reptiles. Her eyes narrowed on Cassius.

He stepped forward, his smooth movement didn't reflect the strain that could be seen in his jaw when looked at closely. He lifted a hand and placed it over his heart as he dipped his head in the Queen's direction. "My apologies, My Queen," he said, his deep voice as smooth as silk. His lips quirked in a slight smirk that was foreign on his typically cold, hard features. It felt surreal to witness it. My jaw couldn't help but drop, even with everything that was happening. "It seemed I've been providing my wife with the wrong jewels."

Silence rang loud in the seconds that followed Cassius's attempt to lighten the seriousness of the situation.

The Queen didn't react like how Cassius was hoping. She rose he chin up. "Arradona is a Queendom that condemns criminals. They sully the name of our great nation. They must be dealt with accordingly to discourage others from following suit." She cut her jewelled gaze to me. "A criminal must pay for their crime." She pushed her shoulders back and raised her neck high, addressing the crowd surrounding us. "You all bear witness tonight as I strip Nea Riar of her title, of her husbands, and banish her from the lands of Arradona for her crime of theft against royalty."

Her voice echoed in the silence of the room. Everyone was listening to the Queen's decree with bated breaths.

Almost everyone.

"What-"

I looked back to see Cassius stopping Ezra with a hand on his arm. His hard eyes warned him, pinning him in place.

The Queen shifted her eyes from me to the men behind me. I didn't like the glint that entered her eyes. "As further punishment," she continued, her eyes locking on mine. Her lips twitched with a hint of a smirk. "Ms. Riar's former husband, Lord Ezra Larsen, will be whipped with fifty lashes as she bears witness. He will then be banished to the Deadlands."

Collective gasps resonated throughout the room as whispered conversations erupted all around. Even Zev and Jaxon, whose eyes smiled with satisfaction at my downfall, had grown deathly pale.

Hearing the consequences that Ezra would face, hit me harder than hearing of my own punishment. My sentence was nothing compared to his. Mine gave me what I wanted; a divorce and an escape. After the accusations made against me, I was happier facing the unknowns in this world than be at the mercy of men with anger-filled eyes.

My mind couldn't keep up with what it was hearing. Maybe I was mishearing her words? After all, who would punish a man who had no involvement harsher than the one falsely convicted of a crime?

"Wait, but he didn't do anything."

The words were out of my mouth before I realized I was saying them. The fear and panic from hearing Ezra's punishment destroyed any reservations I had about talking back to the Queen.

It also made it clear how much I had come to love Ezra. I survived in a world where everyone had to fend for themselves. If you wanted to survive, you had to put yourself first, yet here I was more concerned about the wellbeing of a man who couldn't look me in the eye yesterday because he fell for a lie.

The Queen had been mid-turn, about to turn and leave, but she paused and looked down her long nose at me. She sniffed. "I like to believe that I am a fair and just ruler," she said as she glanced around the room, taking a moment to think.

When she came to a decision, her eyes set on me again. "Therefore, I present you with two options. One is the one I just mentioned where you will be forced to watch your husband suffer for your crimes. Option two shows mercy on your innocent husband. I will leave Lord Ezra unscathed if you choose to take on his punishment of being whipped and banished to the Deadlands. I'll let you decide." She finished her words off with a sly smile, knowing what my answer would be. She didn't want to show mercy on Ezra. She expected me to minimize my suffering and to sacrifice him.

I brought myself up to my knees before rising to my feet.

She thought wrong.

I knew the answer before she had finished speaking.

I swallowed hard past the lump forming in the back of my throat. I didn't want to do this, but I needed to. Even though Ezra may not have fallen in love with me like I foolishly hoped, I had fallen for him. I wasn't aware of how stupidly and deeply I had until I imagined him suffering in a way I was well acquainted with.

I knew what it was like, I knew I could handle it. This would be the way I would repay Ezra for everything he had done for me. Like Ezra had once said, everything had a price.

I was about to pay the one for falling in love.

But who knew, maybe I could survive this like everything else life had thrown my way. Maybe I could build a life for myself in these so-called Deadlands.

I suppressed a snort. Who was I kidding? It wouldn't be part of a punishment if I could build a life there. I knew it was a death sentence. The name was a good enough giveaway.

I didn't know if I wanted to cry or laugh.

It seemed like he won in the end. They had driven me to the point where I was willing to throw my life away.

They did what he couldn't truly do. They broke me.

Who would have known it would have been through the one person I thought was fixing me; healing me.

I cleared my throat and fisted my shaking hand in the layers of the fabric of my dress. "Two. I pick option two."

Like a bad audience soundtrack, gasps of surprise sounded around the room once more. It would have been comical if I hadn't just taken an ax to the thread my fate was precariously dangling by.

The Queen's eyes widened in surprise. She quirked a brow at me. "Are you sure, Ms. Riar?" She asked.

I licked my lips as fear shook my limbs. I didn't know what the Deadlands were, but I knew they would be my end. Even a cat only had so many lives before they run out and I had a feeling I was running on borrowed time.

I nodded. "Yes-"

"No!"

I flinched at the barked word.

I looked towards Ezra to find Axel and Cassius holding him back. He was breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling at a rapid pace. He went to open his mouth to voice his objections, but Cassius had gripped him by the hair and forcefully turned his face towards Axel, forcing his eyes to meet the swirling, molten silver irises that stole control.

"Then it had been decided." The Queen faced the crowd to deliver the final verdict. "For the crime of theft against a royal, Nea Riar will be stripped of her status and husbands and will face fifty lashes of a leather whip before being banished to the Deadlands."

In sharp contrast to the shock and outcry that had spread when Ezra's fate was announced, the crowd erupted in murmurs of excitement and cheer.

"Death to the thief!" Shouted an older man.

"I love when these things get interesting," a heavyset woman whispered to her leashed husband that was half her age.

"That means we still have a chance!" Squealed a woman in a red dress to her friend in purple.

My heart sunk. A glance at the five unmoving forms of my former husbands confirmed what I should have already known. I had no allies here.

The loud rapping of a staff broke through the chatter and noise. "The Queen's decree has been made," loudly announced the green-suited man.

As his words tapered off, women in black uniforms appeared from seemingly nowhere. It was like they emerged from the shadows beneath our feet. They wore skin-tight suits that hugged their bodies and had black fabrics wrapped around their heads and draped around their bodies. Their faces were hidden, only the eyes visible through a strategically placed slit in the fabrics.

When two appeared by me and seized my arms, my first reaction was to struggle. One of the women quickly put a stop to that. I stopped with a cry when she twisted my wrist back painfully.

Through watery eyes, I watched as a woman with pastel blue hair approached from the crowd. She wore a simple black slip under layers of see-through robes that wrapped around her body. The thin fabric that swam around her feet gave the appearance that she was gliding over the floor. She came to a stop by the Queen's side.

Without warning, the woman holding me dragged me forward and forced me to my knees before the woman. Pain erupted at the hard impact of my knees against the marble floor.

The Queen turned to Cassius who still had a firm hold of Ezra's lax body as Axel kept him under his spell. Every so often he jerked in their hold like he was fighting against the compulsion.

Zev and Jaxon no longer had a hint of sadistic pleasure visible in their body. They were still lacking colour from earlier, but some had returned. Zev had his icy eyes pinned on me. The intensity of his focus was enough to burn. Jaxon stood beside him with his arms crossed. His lips were set in a thin line and his eyes had darkened.

"This is the Royal Bondsmith. She will break your contract. Step forward," the Queen instructed them.

They didn't move immediately. They paused for a moment. Just one. It was broken when Cassius looked towards Axel and gave a barely noticeable nod. When Axel returned it, Cassius carefully maneuvered Ezra and moved to stand behind the women holding me down with hands on my shoulders. Axel followed along, keeping eye contact with Ezra. Zev and Jaxon weren't too far behind, though their movements were stiff and strained.

Once they stood behind me, the Bondsmith pulled a dagger and a chalice from within the folds of her robes. It had me furrowing my brows in confusion. The only thing that was vaguely visible through the layers of see-through fabric was the black slip. So, where had those come from?

The Bondsmith step around me and walked up to Cassius. "Place your hand palm up over the chalice." Cassius followed her directions without worry for the dagger she raised as he got into position. Without explaining, she cut a clean line across his palm. A bubbling crimson line followed after the edge of the blade.

Reaching into the folds of her robes once more, she pulled out a small bundle of herbs that had been tied together with twine. Pressing it into the cut, she spoke words of a foreign tongue as she folded his fingers over the bundle and dug them into the inflicted wound. Blood dripped from his fisted palm and into the chalice. Once she was done with her chant, she moved onto Ezra without another word and repeated the steps.

She repeated the process until they were all left nursing their already healing hands while the Bondsmith came to stand before me with the cup in her hands.

She lifted it towards me. "Hand."

Before I even had a chance to move a trembling finger, my hand was already being forced over the chalice by the same woman who had twisted my wrist.

The Bondsmith didn't hesitate as she slid the blade of her dagger across my palm. I hissed at the sting of pain it left in its wake. It only grew worse when she ground the bundle of herbs into the cut and pushed did in deeper with my own fingers.

I only loosened my aching, clenched jaw once she released my fisted hand. She retreated a few steps back to the Queen's side before turning to face me again.

I had just opened my hand and dropped the herb bundle to the floor when the Bondsmith waved her fingers over the chalice and set the mixture of blood on fire. The flames were the same colour as the pastel blue hair that flowed from her head. As the flames burned the blood in the fancy cup, my wrist started burning as well.

Looking down, I noticed the skin surrounding the maroon circles on my wrist was growing red and irritated. I wanted to scratch at the growing discomfort, but the woman had my arm held firmly in place.

The flames in the chalice started growing higher. As they rose, so did the pain in my wrist. It got to the point where I couldn't help but jerk in the hold of the two women just to try to alleviate it even a little.

But I didn't need to try to struggle for long because soon the flames in the chalice went out and the pain vanished.

So did the maroon circles that had just been decorating my inner wrist like a tattoo.

"The contract has been burned."

The Queen smiled at her. "Thank you, Janet."

The Bondsmith, Janet, gave a small curtsy to the queen before turning and disappearing back into the crowd again. She headed towards a woman with orange hair that seemed to be waiting for her.

I looked down at my wrist as the sting of the pain lingered. The skin was now void of any markings except for the red splotches of irritation that covered where the tattoo once was.

"Now," the Queen spoke, drawing my focus back to her. "You will be administered fifty lashes before being dropped off within the Deadlands boundaries. Kane," she called, look over to the side.

My eyes followed her and landed on a large man. He easily towered over those he passed as he walked towards us. I was positive he even towered over Cassius and Zev. His sheer size was alarming, but that wasn't what sent a wash of fear down my spine.

No, it was the braided leather whip he held in his hands.