Rose in Chains
by Julie Soto
Contents
Chapter 10
Overview
Briony endures a degrading bath with Reighven, learns Canning is testing an elixir to force Sacral Magic, and witnesses the first victims return shattered. On auction day, Bomardi elites appraise captives; Briony is valued at thirty thousand gold. Reighven collects Cordelia, and Hap Gains publicly disowns Larissa before portaling away with Larissa and Briony.
Summary
Briony, voiceless and starving, focuses on survival in the cell. She confirms a missing fifth woman may have escaped. During a forced bath, Reighven strips and surveils Briony, heightening her fear and detachment. Hope flickers when captives report Sammy and Didion alive, but despair prevails as an auction looms.
Cordelia pushes for resistance; Briony, traumatized by Eden’s death and repeated violations, falters until Cordelia’s grief forces a fragile recommitment. Canning Trow arrives, selects Coral, Jellica, and Larissa to test a hush‑hush elixir intended to extract Sacral Magic without consent. Katrina explains true Sacral power requires free will, while Phoebe warns Canning will counterfeit consent. Coral and Jellica return silent; Larissa does not.
On auction day, Larissa reappears and confides her father’s lifelong coercion and her envy of Briony’s grim but singular fate. Gains escorts Briony upstairs; in a drawing room of Bomardi elites—the Ten—an appraiser removes Briony’s restraints, doses her with suppressor, measures her magic near “five,” and sets her starting price at fifteen thousand, estimating thirty thousand. The elites speculate whether Reighven can afford her.
Back below, captives are dressed in white or black; handlers portal buyers and lots by touching ownership marks. Reighven takes Cordelia and others, implying he will finance Briony by selling multiple captives. Finally, with only Briony and Larissa remaining, Gains rejects Larissa as his daughter. He tightens Briony’s dress to gold, calls her “gold‑blooded,” then seizes both women and portals them away toward the auction.
Who Appears
- Briony RosewoodVoiceless captive; endures Reighven’s bath surveillance; appraised at 30,000 gold; resolves weakly to keep fighting; portaled away by Hap Gains.
- Hap GainsCaptor and seller; oversees grooming; presents Briony for appraisal; disowns Larissa; portals with Larissa and Briony.
- ReighvenGuard and abuser; leers during Briony’s bath; collects Cordelia and others in white, likely to finance purchasing Briony.
- Cordelia HardstarkUrges resistance and confronts Briony’s despair; later taken by Reighven among mostly white‑dressed women.
- Larissa GainsConfides abusive upbringing and envy of Briony; used in Canning’s test; returns shaken; publicly disowned by her father.
- Canning TrowSelects women to test a coercive Sacral elixir; assaults Jellica; facilitates appraisals and early viewings.
- PhoebeRecently sterilized captive; warns Canning’s elixir will manufacture ‘free’ consent.
- KatrinaExplains Sacral Magic requires free will; fears the implications of forced amplification.
- VelicityHelps Briony track the missing woman; nearly taken for Canning’s test; supports coded communication.
- Jellica ReeveChosen by Canning; slapped and humiliated; returns silent and traumatized.
- CoralSelected with Jellica for Canning’s elixir test; returns mute and withdrawn.
- Appraiser (older man with spectacles)Evaluates captives; measures Briony’s high magic; sets her estimate at 30,000 gold.
- Orion HearstAmong the Ten at the viewing; watches Briony calculatingly; earlier supplied suppressor elixir used on her.
- Genevieve TrowMember of the Ten; notes Rosewood blood strength; observes appraisal.
- CohleFirst in line for the Seat; attends the private viewing during appraisals.
- Caspar QuillSixth in line; mocks Reighven’s finances; joins elite spectators.
- Florence KleveElder member of the Ten; present during Briony’s appraisal.
- CarvinSecond in line; confers with other elites at the viewing.
- DidionSeen alive; calls to Briony while being taken for appraisal.