Page 117 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

Turning my head a little, I listened. All seemed quiet once again.

“Steady.” I patted the horse’s neck, trying to calm myself as well as the animal. My nerves were clearly all over the place, making me too jumpy.

The cracking of twigs and rustling of brushes suddenly appeared to come from all around me. The noise closed in from both sides, and several figures emerged from the darkness.

“Go!” I slammed my heels into the sides of the horse.

I’d send him into a full gallop if I had to. It was better to die falling off the horse than from the unknown horrors these woods held.

“Go!”

“Not so fast.” A hand with gray skin and red markings yanked the reins out of my sweaty grip.

The innkeeper’s smug expression looked outright evil in the bluish glow of the forest.

“Let me go!” I jerked at the reins, but somebody grabbed me around my waist, hauling me out of the saddle. “We had a deal!” I yelled, kicking at the twosnakanamen dragging me from the horse. “A fair trade. I owe you nothing.”

The innkeeper slithered closer. “But was it really a fair trade between you and me?”

“Well, you did rip me off. But I agreed to that, so… Let me go.”

He leaned closer. The blue forest glow flickering in his reddish eyes made him look terrifying. With a subtle hiss, he stuck out his tongue. Slim and agile, the tongue slithered in and out between his lips, the split tip of it fluttering in the air like a moth.

“The trade wasn’t fair because I didn’t know exactly how much you had to offer,lad.”The last word was said mockingly. He snickered, like he’d just made a joke.

The two other men who were with him chuckled, too.

The innkeeper turned to his buddies. “Or is he really a lad?”

Dread gripped my throat with icy fingers.

“What do you want? Your money back? Fine. Take it.”

“Why would I take back the measly ten coins when every High Lord in the kingdom will happily pay me a fortune for you,girl?”He ripped the hood of my head and pawed at my breasts through my cloak. “Couldn’t be easy to hide these.” He smirked. “You’ve got the biggest tits I’ve ever handled.”

I jerked away from him. “The way youhandlethem, it’s a wonder any woman let you touch her at all.”

Both men holding my arms snorted.

“She’s funny, this one.”

“She sure got you, Izux!”

“Shut up!” Izux snapped. “You too.” He jabbed a finger into my shoulder. “Or I’ll cut your tongue out.”

“How would you sell me, then?” I challenged him. “High Lords love my tongue.”

Izux’s buddies guffawed loudly.

“You’re too cheeky for a human,” Izux muttered gruffly, untying a sash from around his waist. “Keep your tongue. I have other ways to shut you up.” Yanking my head back by my hair, he shoved the sash between my teeth, then tied it around my head. “There you go. Now be nice and quiet.”

The other two dragged me back into the saddle. Only instead of allowing me to sit up, they threw me across it, face down.

Turning the horse around, they headed back to the village.

“Great catch, Izux.” Someone slapped my bottom as we made our way through the glowing forest. “You have a good eye.”

“The moment I saw her hand, I knew she couldn’t be a fae,” Izux boasted.

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