A Perfect Muse Read online

  Running from a broken heart sends her home, but home ends up a thousand worlds away, and she ends up at the mercy of the master of the shattered world.

  Keva has been having the worst day. She has found out her boyfriend was cheating, gone home to her father’s house, and been teleported across the stars. It has been trying.

  She wakes up trapped in her house with no idea why, and the stars and space station she can see from the house were not there yesterday.

  Azzul won the manor house and all contents in a card game and dispatched drones to bring it to him. It was not supposed to be occupied. The living being in the house should be dead. That puzzle alone has his attention, and watching the human woman walk around the home and grounds convinces him of one thing. She is art personified... and she belongs to him.

  The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  A Perfect Muse

  Copyright © 2021 by Viola Grace

  ISBN: 978-1-990635-01-4

  ©Cover art by Angela Waters

  ©Illustrations by XJSIII

  All rights reserved. With the exception of review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the express permission of the publisher.

  Published by Viola Grace

  Look for me online at violagrace.com.

  A Perfect Muse

  Distant Fairy Tales, Book 1

  By

  Viola Grace

  Chapter One

  Knossos Morningwell looked at the hand of cards and the dice throw that had just cost him everything.

  Azzul shook his head as he exposed his winning hand. “I am afraid that I win, and you lose, Morningwell. I will send drones to transport your collateral.”

  Knossos pressed his head to the table. “How am I going to explain this to my daughter?”

  One of the other players snorted. “Well, as you have already lost your ship, you aren’t going to be able to get home, so I don’t foresee it being a problem.”

  Azzul sighed. “When you are ready, I will return you home on a freighter, or you can find a new occupation on board someone else’s trading vessel. You are a good trader, just a terrible gambler.”

  Knossos covered his face with his hands. “What the hell am I going to do?”

  Azzul got up, flexed his wings, and pulled the man up and out of his chair, dragging him through the halls and away from the table. “You have been an interesting companion, Knossos, but your sobbing is unpleasant. I will give you base-level accommodations here, and you will come up with a plan for your new direction in a matter of three days. That is the amount of time it will take for me to get your home transported into quarantine.”

  Knossos begged, “Is there a way for me to contact my daughter?”

  “Not until you earn the funds for it. You know how pricey the use of the relays is.” Azzul sighed. “I will offer you a discount. Bring me fifteen hundred, and you will be able to make your call.”

  Knossos paused and then nodded. Azzul brought him to the office and had his assistant set him up with basic accommodations and rations.

  It was a shame. Knossos had been a good trader. It was a pity that the temptation of the possibility of winning big had taken over.

  Azzul ordered his assistant to work on the transport of the house and contents. It was going to be fun for him to examine. He hadn’t seen many human dwellings, and the Morningwell house was said to be ancient and elegant for their species.

  He loved old things that were new to him. He was looking forward to going through the building as soon as it could be decontaminated and all creatures and tag-alongs destroyed. There was no sense wrecking his carefully arranged eco systems.

  He hummed and waited for notice that the drones were on the way. He did so enjoy a new acquisition.

  * * * *

  Keva sniffled as she pulled a second bag of marshmallows off the shelf at the grocery. Her cart was packed full of her favourite beverages, foods, snacks, and comfort items.

  Getting dumped sucked. She shuffled to the chocolate syrup and grabbed two bottles. She sniffled, and locals stared at her with trepidation.

  She looked at one concerned woman and said, “I am not contagious. I am just a loser.” She burst into sobs and pushed the cart to the checkout.

  Ten minutes and three concerned glares later, she was on her way to her family home. Her dad didn’t know she was coming, but he was off-world, so she was just looking forward to curling up in her bed, sleeping for a week, and getting herself back under control.

  Three years. She had given Trevor three fucking years before she had caught him with Eldon from accounting. He just had to say that he didn’t want her. She would have headed off for a new relationship herself, but no. He wanted it all. Both of them. He wanted sausage and taco. She sniffled. She wouldn’t have cared if she had just known. Eldon knew. He had kept the secret as well. Asshole.

  She pulled up at the dark house and parked in the alcove that was always open for her car. She unloaded the groceries via the kitchen access next to the alcove, and twenty minutes later, everything was tucked away, and she had pulled out the first bottle of wine. It was the first of six. She had plans for her week.

  Keva put on her comfy pyjamas, grabbed some chips and the bottle of wine, and climbed the stairs to her bedroom, curling up on her bed.

  She hoped that her dad was doing well on his trade mission. Her life had gone to shit. At least she always had her home to crawl back to.

  She watched romances then switched to violent action movies and fell asleep as someone was being run over with a car.

  If she had been sober, she would have noticed that the house was surrounded by drones and the energy web was charged before the entire house and a good portion of the grounds was thrown across the cosmos to settle on a chunk of stone with its own atmosphere, and a dome of power covered the entire structure. Atmospheric filters were keeping oxygen in her environment and letting her dreams of revenge and mourning run free.

  Keva got up, and everything felt wrong. Her body felt light, her mouth was dry, and the television was off. She must have turned it off.

  She wandered over to the bathroom and tried to wash her face. There was no water. She groaned and looked at the tap accusingly. The pump must have blown the breaker or something.

  Keva headed down to the main floor, and the place was eerie. None of the electrical humming was in her ears. The fridge was silent. “Shit!” She ran to the breaker box and tried to activate the breakers. Nothing. No power at all.

  “Dad! Did you forget to pay for the fucking power?”

  She raced to the front window and pulled open the curtains, trying to get light in.

  She was on the third window when she paused and turned to the view out the front, and she sat down heavily. The starlit sky was one thing, but the space station in the distance was quite another. She wasn’t on Hemmer, she wasn’t at home, and she had no water or power.

  She was going to die.

  Keva covered her mouth and sobbed for a moment before she saw the drones with the lenses pointed at the house. She tried to remember how to write common when she ran to the office and got paper and a marker to make a sign.

  She ran to the front door and stepped out calmly, holding the sign up as she walked toward the lens at the end of her drive. She carried the sign and stood with the message displayed. The wording was simple. HELP.

  * * * *

  “Master Azzul, there is movement at the new acquisition.”

  Azzul looked up from his study of the architectural drawings of his new home. “Yes, Tellian?”

  “Master, there is a living creature at the house.”

  He waved his hand. “I am sure there are many. They will be taken care of in the extermination phase.”

  “Master, she is holding a sign.”

  Azzul looked up. “She?”

  “She. It is a human female.”

  Azzul stood up, flaring his wings. “Show me.”

  Tellian led him to the monitor station, and there was a human female standing and holding a sign.

  “So, that is what their females look like, hm?” He zoomed in and noted a single layer of clothing and yellow hair that did not resemble Knossos’s brown locks. “I wonder if she was Knossos’s lover. Though he said the house was not occupied.”

  “Ask her what she needs.”

  Tellian looked at him for a moment and then nodded, putting on a headset and speaking in Hemmer. “What do you require?”

  There was a moment while they waited for the message to come through the camera, and then, she thudded to her knees, flipping through the page and then writing before she paused and asked in a bright chime of a voice. “Water and power? Please.”

  Tellian chuckled. “She does look pretty on her knees.”

  Azzul looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Does she? She looks like she is putting wear and tear on my new building.”

  Tellian cleared his throat. “What do you want me to do, Master Azzul?”

  Azzul ruffled his wings. “Have the bots hook up a power system that is compatible and get her a water tank. We will begin running a tab for her, and when the decontamination is complete, she can find a way to work it off.” He looked at the long golden hair and nodded. “The brothels on the station might
be interested in her. Begin collecting a portfolio to advertise her to them.”

  Tellian blinked. “Without her consent?”

  “She is trespassing on my property. I can take images of her from inside the house if I wish. Send in the monitors and have them affixed in the spaces she occupies. In the meantime, tell her that water and power are coming.”

  Azzul turned and left the area, returning to his study. He had better things to do than worry about an alien female on his new acquisition, no matter how soft she looked. She would be better off in the brothel where that softness could turn a profit.

  * * * *

  Keva was nervous and tense until the first unit flew toward her, and a huge water tank was settled into place at the rear of the house. Bots swarmed the area and hooked up the water and more brought in a box with a glowing centre and mounted it on the wall near where the power normally came into the house. The bots seemed to know what they were doing. A few tiny bots entered the house, but she couldn’t see them after they got past her on the way into the main hall. They must have been connecting things on the interior of the house.

  A box was now in the living room and another one in the kitchen.

  She looked at it and cocked her head. “Miss, if you have any further needs, please vocalize them.”

  “Um, this is fine.” The septic system had been included in the cut of property, so she thought that was fine. “Thank you.”

  “Do not worry, miss. Any further requests will simply be added to your bill.”

  Keva’s voice was strangled. “Bill?”

  “Yes, miss. Azzul owns the property you are on, and he does not miss out on the chance to turn a profit.”

  “This is my father’s house. Why is it here?”

  “It was lost in a hand of cards. Your father is no longer the legal owner, so Azzul brought his property to him. House and contents are his.”

  “What?”

  “Your father gambled it away if you are Knossos Morningwell’s daughter.”

  “I am. My name is Keva. Where is my dad? Can I talk to him?”

  “He does not currently have enough funds to make a call.”

  She nearly burst into tears, but she asked, “Is it possible for me to make a call to him?”

  “No. We are extending you credit to keep you alive, but until you determine a means to pay your way, you will not be allowed extras or luxuries.”

  She paused. “Credit? I have to pay someone to live?”

  The voice was wry. “Of course, miss. This is space. Our air, our gravity, the water we drink, and the food we eat are all brought in or grown at tremendous expense. We all pay, miss.”

  “So, you are a real person?”

  He chuckled. “You would not think so, miss. But I am. I work for the overseer of the station and satellites.”

  “So, he won against my father?”

  “He did indeed.”

  She closed her eyes in despair. “Of course, he did.”

  She waited. “How long until I get somewhere I can make money?”

  “The decontamination of a space that large will take four days. You will be able to authorize the debt for transport after that, and I can look at job openings that you might suit. So far, we are thinking a brothel is your basic opportunity to earn your way for a ticket back to Hemmer.”

  She stared at the box in shock. “A brothel? I have never charged for it in my life.”

  He chuckled. “That could change, and no one on your home world would ever know. You would be trained, given an alias, and in a month or two, your debts would be cleared, and you would have an option to return to Hemmer.”

  Keva swallowed. “I... I don’t know.”

  “You may think on it. Speak to us anytime, and there is someone here to hear you.”

  “For a price. This consult is going on my bill, isn’t it?”

  He chuckled. “Of course. That is the nature of life out here. Everybody has to pay.”

  The box went silent, and Keva stepped back in shock. Not only was her home no longer on her world, but it also wasn’t her home anymore. Her very act of breathing was putting her in debt, and her body was her only working asset.

  She took stock of her prior home and came to the realization that even her clothing wasn’t hers. Oh, god. She was part of the contents of the house!

  Chapter Two

  Keva ran to her room and hid under the covers. It was stupid, childish, and useless, but it made her feel a little better to have the scent of her things around her. If they were decontaminating everything, they would eventually remove all traces of her as well.

  She sniffled and tried not to cry. Crying wasn’t going to help. Even cursing wasn’t going to help. She needed a plan. She had to find out what she could do on a space station to earn money or credits or whatever.

  Keva was a researcher and archivist. There must be something for her to do that didn’t involve her using sex as a transaction.

  After a few hours of hiding and napping, she went to make a list of her skills, and she took a short shower before she gathered her thoughts to talk to the brick.

  * * * *

  Azzul sat at his desk while Tellian gave him a briefing.

  “I have notified the female that the property no longer belongs to her father. She accepted that. I believe she has figured out that she is also included in the acquisition. Scans are being run consistently, and based solely on appearance and rarity this far out, we have created a baseline value for her.” Tellian sent the number to Azzul’s tablet.

  Azzul blinked and smiled. “Is this open market or at the brothel?”

  “Open market. The brothel can’t do an estimate until they get a physical complete with blood samples.”

  He nodded at the figure. “How is the decontamination coming along?”

  “Ahead of schedule. If we tackle her and her clothing today, we should be able to move through the rest of the house in another day.”

  “How does she seem emotionally?”

  “She understands her growing debt and the ramifications of her being here. Well, some of them. I have mentioned the idea of brothels to her in order to gain enough funds to return her to Hemmer.”

  Azzul nodded and looked at his assistant. “You think that was wise? She has lost her father and her home in one day. Now she is across the stars, and home is a very long way away. Frankly, I am surprised she survived the transport.”

  “Humans are sturdy for many physical trials. I have already mentioned her to the brothels as a fact-finding mission, and they have begun bidding astronomical numbers. They are on the list for additional medical details when they are available. Apparently, humans are very malleable and can be made very accommodating with very little effort.” He checked his notes. “They also have hormones that are easy to manipulate and can be made sensitive to pheromones with a simple injection. The businesses are eager to welcome her on board.”

  Azzul raised his brows. “If there aren’t any on the station, how are they aware of it?”

  “Human females are on their wish list. Apparently, every brothel has a list of requested beings, and she is very high on the list. These are their current offers, and after her medical exams, they will begin negotiations.”

  Azzul nodded. “Good, keep me informed as to the progress. She will be examined when we can get her here to the station.” He stood up. “I am going to stretch my wings. I will return in two hours.”

  He left his office and launched out the balcony platform made for this purpose. He stretched his wings, looking toward the fragment of his dead world that had the manor house on it.

  He had begun to create plans for it the moment that he had seen it. The small form coming out and asking for help had derailed his scheme for his library and sanctuary. He now saw the building as hers. Her home. He rarely felt guilt, but she had not known anything about this before they told her. She had been pulled from what she considered to be a safe place and dropped star systems distant from where she had started.