Page 25 of Captive Souls

“Running. Here,” he said flatly. He didn’t look around, keeping his gaze firmly on me.

I felt one hundred pounds heavier under the weight of his gaze. I had an urge to shift on my feet, but I couldn’t signal my discomfort.

“Yes, here.” My tone was sharp. Challenging.

His jaw twitched. Barely, but I saw it. Only because I was determined to scrutinize him with the same intensity as he was looking at me.

“These woods are not Central Park, Piper,” he gritted out. “There are predators here.”

“I’m well aware that there are predators in these woods,” I raised a brow, my meaning clear. He was my predator. “And I’d rather face off with any of the animals in these woods than some of the men that lurk in Central Park, waiting for a woman to let her guard down.”

Though his expression didn’t change, not even a miniscule jaw twitch, I could feel his anger, his fury. A flock of birds even fled from a nearby tree.

Even though I believed in forms of magic, I convinced myself it had to be a coincidence.

“If you’re not smart enough to fear the wildlife—”

“I’m smart enough to know what to fear and what to respect,” I huffed.

The run was enough to rejuvenate me. Even if it depleted the physical energy reserves that I needed, I still fully possessed my mental faculties.

Again, I could feel a burst of enraged energy coming from Knox’s general direction.

He wasn’t used to being interrupted. I had the sense he was used to commanding a room, with underlings cowering beneath him in fear.

I wasn’t going to cower. It would be my destruction. My instincts told me that much.

After not so much as blinking, Knox drew in a visible breath. He was a fearsome creature. Like some kind of devil walking the woods. Though I sensed that even Satan would fear him.

“If you do not fear the animals, you’re still running in unfamiliar terrain. You could get lost.”

I didn’t mistake those words for concern. If he was concerned with me in any way, he wouldn’t have taken me here in the first place.

“You found me,” I shrugged, my tone as sharp as a blade.

He nodded. “I’ll always find you.”

My skin raised with gooseflesh at the promise in his words. It was terrifying. And exciting. Comforting.

Comforting?The fact that my captor would always find me? My mind was obviously fraying at the seams. I thought I’d last at least twenty-four hours... The reality of how brittle my mind truly was, was frightening.

“Well what’s the issue, then?” I folded my arms in front of me. “Even if I’m some damsel in distress, lost in the woods, you’ll come rescue me.”

Again, there was a long pause while he gave me that unyielding stare that turned my limbs to jelly and my skin ablaze. “You are not a damsel in distress,” he eventually replied. “And I’m not someone who rescues damsels. I kill them.”

I forced my expression to remain unaffected. He was trying to scare me. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing that it worked.

He stayed stock-still, as he had the entire time. It was unnatural for a person to stand like that, without any kind of physical tic, shifting of their weight, needing to scratch an itch, clenching their fists. He had complete control over every inch of his body. It was a finely-tuned weapon, that much was clear.“You wouldn’t want to deal with the consequences of me having to find you if you get lost.”

A threat.

“I’m not lost.” A flat-out lie. I wasn’t lost in these woods. But in life? Yeah, I’d never been more lost in my life.

His silence conveyed his disbelief. In his eyes, I was a damsel. If I wasn’t a damsel, I wouldn’t be here, would I? I would’ve found a way to escape Stone’s attention, to outsmart him. Defeat him.

I read books about women overcoming all odds, slaying dragons or riding them then laying waste to entire regimes. Yet there I was, face-to-face with a monstrosity I was powerless against.

“Fine.” I turned on my heel, even though it went against all my survival

---