Her life was over. Jaida stood by the huge picture window of the hotel’s penthouse suite and looked out. Below her the city of Severnas Three lay sprawled out like a glittering jewel against the turquoise backdrop of the ocean. Severnas never slept; the city was famous for it. The pleasure capital of the galaxy. At one time, when she’d been Lady Jaida Anais Lianl, youngest daughter of the house of Lianl, she’d have reveled in its gaiety. But she wasn’t Lady Lianl anymore; she had no right to the name. She looked down at her rough, callused hands. She hadn’t been a lady for a long time. Now she was just a dockworker with a bounty on her head. She’d been here an hour already, thrown through the door by Seth’s guards and told to “prepare herself.” At least they hadn’t taken it upon themselves to make sure she was presentable for the prince, but then she was the prince’s whore. She always had been.
