This particular auction would be held anonymously, through a secret magical system; distance didn’t matter. He would oversee the event from the city, and no one would be the wiser.He had wrapped things up with his people just as he parked his car in the employee parking lot of the Bell Tower, and had been in non-stop meetings ever since.Tyler Esteil had been very busy in his double life, and was doubly tired.With the distractions that seemed to keep mounting up, he was even more so. But the experienced servant, prisoner, and underworld business tycoon, was not overwhelmed by it. He embraced it.The tremors in his hands from seeing Emily Jergens, not once, but twice; the weight on his shoulders from foreseeing the consequences, the repercussions that were sure to come from Ashley Belarnt’s overprotective father – more distractions – were all signs he had experienced before, many times.When he entered a new abandoned mine,

Tyler knew what was coming.Vincent intended to burn him.He had seen the young Lord do it many times to many people.A wicked grin had taken the place of the snarl the young Lord had had three seconds earlier.Tyler had no chance to think.He struck out at Vincent, hitting his Master full in the face, breaking his nose with one swipe of his arm.Vincent had not seen it coming.Vincent reeled backward, and the guards hit Tyler with every magic spell they had.But they were bodyguards. Their training was with weaponry, which Tyler had rendered useless. Tyler Esteil was the Master of Miran House, and even back then, he had dealt with mages and spellcasters of various skill and dark intentions.The Master of Miran House was fortified against much more powerful magic than the ordinary guards could ever hope to possess.However, Tyler had suddenly remembered something he had forgotten in his despair – this was th

No one knew his face, but everyone knew his base – the auction house.No one knew his name.And to be fair, no one knew whether or not it was even a ‘he’, but ‘Master’ was the word they used to refer to the one who had brought sanity to a mad world.Some resisted the Master, of course.But such people and groups disappeared one by one until all noise died down. Some of them changed their views, others simply were suddenly not seen or heard from anymore.Every time an auction was held, five percent of the profits were shared among registered residents of Karisa.Every time an uprising or fight occurred, depending on the extent of the damage, funds were deducted from the amounts to be shared among the residents.It was a system unheard of anywhere in Ashrone.After the hospital came the school, after the school came the electricity, and after the electricity came the

Finally, Ashley sat heavily on one of the dining chairs.“Bring him back,” she mumbled, after a brief moment of silence, her gaze on the plush carpet of the large dining room where the family ate meals, when her father was at home for meal time.Today was not one of those days. Meal time was long past, but it had been the room her father had entered as she had railed at him from the staircase once he entered their home.“What?”“Get him back to Belarnt Group, Father, or I will make things very difficult for you,” Ashley replied in a calm tone. Much calmer than anything she had deployed since the beginning of their battle.“What…?” Lord Belarnt responded slowly, his thick, neatly trimmed eyebrow rising, punctuation his sentence.Ashley Belarnt wiped her tearstained face and sat with her back straight, her eyes locked with her father’s.“Return Tyler Varsen to me. Bring

Baroness Natasha Periladay shook her hair, inhaling deeply, then she opened the bathroom door, a sweet smile on her lips.She was outside Salvena.She had taken a business trip with an acquaintance on Friday, and they had ended up spending the large part of the evening after their business was concluded together.She had talked. He had listened.He had asked whether she wanted to go somewhere where they could enjoy music and watch people dance the night away.She had agreed.Fifteen minutes after they had been seated, she had hit the dance floor with someone who had asked.Ten minutes later, he was the one dancing with her.She had whispered something in his ear and his fair skin had turned such a color that she wanted to see if it went lower than his face and neck.At two a.m. she had found out.And now, there he was, asleep, his green eyes hidden from her as she reclined on the bed, right beside