Chapter 12 Unfamiliar City
The city didn't announce itself with a welcome. It unfolded instead—gradually, almost deceptively—through widening roads and unfamiliar lights that bled into one another until the horizon no longer resembled anything Skylar could recognize as Estines. The air changed first. It lost the quiet, instinctive tension she had grown used to among wolves and settled into something thinner, less aware, yet no less suffocating.
Skylar hadn't realized when she fell asleep.
One moment, she had been watching the passing lights through the window, her thoughts drifting in and out of clarity. The next, her body had given in to exhaustion, pulling her under without warning.
When she opened her eyes again, the car had stopped. Her mind struggled to catch up, the remnants of sleep clinging stubbornly as she blinked against the dim glow filtering through the taxi window. Neon lights flickered outside—different from Estines, harsher, more chaotic, less controlled.
The door opened before she could fully gather herself.
“Careful,” the man’s voice came, lighter than before, almost conversational. “You looked like you needed rest.”
Skylar turned toward him, her movements still sluggish. Up close, under clearer light, she could finally see him properly; clean, put together, is expression calm, almost easy, as if nothing about this situation required urgency.
Which made the unease that crept along her spine harder to explain.
“Where are we?” she asked quietly, her voice still rough from sleep.
“Close enough,” he replied, stepping back to give her space to get out. “You needed somewhere to stay, didn’t you?”
Skylar hesitated for half a second. Then she stepped out of the car. The ground felt steady beneath her feet, but something about the place wasn’t.
The street was narrow, tucked between taller buildings that leaned too close together. The lights here didn’t glow so much as flicker—reds and purples bleeding across signs she couldn’t fully read, casting uneven shadows along the pavement.
Skylar’s fingers curled instinctively into the fabric of her jacket.
“This way,” the man said, already turning. She followed because she had nowhere else to go.
They passed through a side entrance of a building that seemed quieter than the street outside. The moment the door closed behind them, the noise dulled into a distant hum, replaced by a different kind of silence—one that pressed in rather than faded away.
The hallway stretched ahead, dimly lit, the air carrying a faint, cloying scent she couldn’t place. Skylar slowed slightly.
“Is this… a place to stay?” she asked, her voice cautious now.
The man glanced back at her, smiling faintly. “For now, yes.”
Something in the answer settled wrong. Skylar stopped walking. The man noticed. He turned fully this time, his expression unchanged, but his eyes sharper than before.
“You said you didn’t have money,” he reminded her. Skylar’s grip tightened.
“I said I’d pay you back.”
“And you will,” he said easily. “Just not the way you thought.”
The words landed before she could fully process them.
A sound echoed faintly behind her. The door closed. Skylar turned instinctively, but it was already too late. Two figures had appeared at the end of the hallway, their presence quiet but deliberate, blocking the exit without needing to say a word.
Her heartbeat spiked. “What is this?” she asked, the question coming out tighter than she intended. “No—this isn’t what we agreed—”
The man took a step closer. “We didn’t agree on anything,” he cut in, his tone still calm, which made it worse. “You needed a ride. I gave you one. You needed a place to stay. I brought you somewhere you can earn it.”
The meaning settled in pieces. Her stomach twisted.
“But that’s not mean you can send me to a brothel? This is counted as scam!”
“You don’t really have a choice,” he said. “Take her to Avanzini.”
The two figures behind her moved closer. Skylar turned, panic rising now, her breath uneven as she searched for an opening that wasn’t there. she tried, but a hand caught her arm before she could move.
Her body reacted instantly, struggling, but the weakness from earlier hadn’t left her. Her strength faltered too quickly, her resistance breaking under hands that knew exactly how to handle it.
“Let go—!”
Time blurred after that. Skylar didn’t remember every step, only fragments—the rough pull of unfamiliar hands, the sound of a door locking behind her, the sharp realization settling deeper with each passing second that she had not escaped anything.
She had only changed cages. By the time they left her alone, the room felt smaller than it should have been.
Skylar stood where they had dropped her, her breath still uneven, her hands trembling faintly at her sides. Her legs weakened slightly, and she lowered herself to the edge of the bed without thinking, her gaze unfocused as she tried to piece together what came next.
A soft knock broke through her thoughts. Skylar stiffened instantly. The door opened before she could respond. A woman stepped inside. She moved differently from the others as if she understood exactly how fragile this moment was for Skylar.
“It’s okay,” the woman said gently, closing the door behind her without letting it slam. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
The woman approached, stopping at a distance that didn’t feel threatening, her posture relaxed, her expression soft in a way that didn’t match the place they were in. Up close, she looked much older than Skylar, There was something in her eyes.
“You’re new,” she said quietly.
Skylar swallowed, her throat dry. “…Yes. Someone scammed me and dropped me here.”
The word barely made it out. The woman nodded, as if she had expected that answer.
“I figured. It must be hard for you to understand your position now—where you are now.”
The woman studied her for a moment longer, her gaze lingering in a way that wasn’t invasive, but searching. And for reasons Skylar couldn’t explain, something inside her shifted.
A strange pull, faint and unfamiliar. But close enough to make her chest tighten.
The woman took a small step closer and Skylar didn’t move away.
“If you need anything you can ask me,” she said softly.
Skylar’s brows drew together slightly. She didn’t know this person. Had never seen her before. And yet— There was something about her presence that felt… off. Too familiar for a stranger, like she was someone closed to her before.