Chapter 1

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When the horrors came, I became the team's good-luck charm.

All because I'd awakened a charm talent. I only had to stand where I was, and the horrors would shrink back and keep their distance.

Everyone thought of me as the team's mascot, the lucky star that kept them safe.

Until the squads merged, and an S-rank captain arrived, a woman.

She resented the way I spent the team's survival points on fine clothes and good food.

More than that, she kept shouting that a world overrun by horrors had no room to feed dead weight, and she came at me from every angle.

When the horrors swarmed by the hundreds, everyone was busy calling on their own abilities.

While they fought to buy the squad one thread of survival, I sat off to the side eating a little strawberry cake I'd redeemed with points.

The captain smashed the cake into my face, dragged me by the hair, and shoved me to the very edge of the defensive circle.

"Those points cost lives, and they're not yours to throw away! Every point you've burned on this team, you're going to pay it all back!"

I was thrown down into bloody water, filth all over me, and I couldn't help but beg through my tears.

"Violet Perry, I'll die out there. My ability isn't for attacking, and the surge is almost here. If I can't recover enough strength, all of us are going to—"

"Shut up. That's just your excuse because you're a coward clinging to life. Dead weight deserves to die!"

Before I could finish, a boot slammed into me and kicked me clear out of the protective circle.

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I screamed, and the next second I hit hard, landing in a heap of blood and filth.

The rotten, foul water soaked through my dress, and a jagged rock tore open my hand.

Everything swam in front of my eyes, and on instinct I snatched up the half a cake still on the ground.

Every time I used my ability, it drained a huge amount of mental energy, and I needed enough sugar to replace it.

But the next second, a heavy Martin boot came down on the cake and ground it flat.

"Still eating, are you? I've had it with the sight of you for a long time. You're a woman, same as Violet, and you're nothing like her. A world of horrors doesn't need a soft little parasite like you."

Ralph Dickerson, standing beside her, hauled me up by the collar, and the fabric cinching tight around my throat left me struggling to breathe.

"Take a good look, you hear me? This is a dungeon full of horrors, where people die at the drop of a hat. It isn't your ivory tower!"

I looked at that pack of horrors. They were creeping closer and closer to the barrier.

Cedric had told me my ability could charm the horrors.

As long as I stayed in a good mood and kept my mental energy full, the horrors wouldn't hurt any of us.

This was the last dungeon now. Get through it, and everyone could clear the run and claim the final reward.

But right now I was covered head to toe in rotting flesh and blood, and the dress on my body was torn.

The horrors caught the smell of fresh blood on me, and in an instant they went wild.

Their shrieks were sharp enough to pierce a person's eardrums.

I couldn't stop shaking. "Violet... I really can't face these things head-on. Captain Harding told you, my ability is a support charm, it can only hold the horrors for a short while—"

"And I have to be completely clean, with my strength full, before I can even call up the ability—"

"Right now I'm covered in blood and filth. There's no way I can use the charm at all!"

I screamed it in despair, tears welling up in my eyes.

But that only enraged Violet's vice-captain, Ralph. He slapped me across the face, and I tasted the warm, coppery sweetness rising in my throat.

"Enough. Quit using Cedric as your shield. I've seen plenty of cheap little women like you."

"Charming the horrors, my ass. More like seducing men."

"You've got a bit of a pretty face, so you cling to men and live off them like a parasite."

"We claw through the dirt with these horrors day after day, and you're too precious to get a little dirty? Where'd you get this princess act? The points our members buy with their lives aren't there so a coward like you can live in comfort!"

"Today I'm going to make you understand that the brothers' points don't come free! Look, these horrors showed up right on time. Go kill a few and earn some points back for me and the boys!"

Violet stepped forward with a smile, but there was something twisted and cold in it.

She kicked me straight into that mass of horrors.

Their eyes locked onto me at once, and in despair I closed my eyes.