Page 27 of Branches of the Willow

“Okay, well, give me a few minutes and I will have food here for you.” Evan walked out to the living room talking on his cell phone as he went. “I am tipping big if you get it here in twenty. What do you mean, ‘how big’?” Evan sighed into the phone. “The tip’s going to be bigger than the bill. Good enough for you?” He clicked off his phone and tucked it back into the front pocket of his khaki pants. Evan was dressed impeccably, as usual. He had on khakis that hugged his thigh muscles and his butt just so, and he topped it off with a bright blue button-down shirt. The top three buttons were undone, and I could see what must have been a white gold chain hanging down inside his shirt. Had it been silver, it would have burned every time he moved. His hair was longer than I remembered, and he probably needed to get it cut soon, or it would start looking unkempt. Instead of his normal tied back look, today he wore it down, and it made him look younger and a bit wild, despite the pressed appearance his clothes gave him.

“So, what did I miss while I was gone, and recuperating?” I finally asked when everyone else just stood around looking awkward.

“Well, you missed the big man-hunt.” Asi told me. “We searched high and low for you. No mountain was too high, or river too deep…” Asi snickered as he spoke.

“You’re real cute, Asi!” I beamed at him, because he was the first in the group, including Mikael, to treat me normal. I appreciated the hell out of that gesture. Mikael was standing behind me, hands wrapped around my middle, chuckling in my ear.

Ashley looked stricken. “I can’t believe you just said that to her.” She whispered the words as if Asi was the only person in the room who could hear her chastising him.

“Sorry, Jess.” He apologized, more to appease Ashley, because it was clear he didn’t think it was warranted. He was right, but that was an argument for the two of them to have in private. I wasn’t about to get mixed up in the middle. Ashley felt bad enough for not realizing how truly screwed up I was when I first got back.

“Okay, besides the search and rescue, what else did I miss? How did your trip go?”

“Obviously, it was cut short, but we were able to wrap things up there before we left anyway,” Evan explained.

“We brought some people back,” Asi added. I waited for him to elaborate, and when he didn’t, I huffed and peered toward Ashley, and then Evan, who surprisingly, had a bit of a blush creeping into his cheeks.

“Who exactly did you bring back?”

“There were these women…” Ashely started in a small voice. I knew it wasn’t going to be a happy story when her shoulders slumped forward even further than they already were. “They were being held in a prison beneath the main house.”

“You brought back prisoners?” I asked, even though I knew by everyone’s demeanor that it couldn’t be the case.

“No, we didn’t. They were slaves, Jessie.” Ashley’s teary eyes as she said those words expressed how bad it must have been. They were there for the King to use and abuse however he saw fit.”

I sucked in a breath, not sure I fully grasped the scope of things, but knowing that didn’t sound good at all. “How many?”

“There are 17. Apparently, there were a few more, but a few were taken before we got there.” Ashley cringed at a memory that was clearly playing itself out in her mind. Then, she shivered involuntarily, and I had to wonder what the hell they had seen to make her react that way.

“Okay, well, you might as well start telling the story while we wait for the food to get here.”

“It might be better just to show you, after you eat.” Ashley mumbled from across the room.

“Ashley,” I called to her as I walked towards where she stood. “I am fine. You didn’t do anything wrong. Please, if anything, I need some normal back. This,” I gestured to her posture, “is not normal.” I reached over and hugged my best friend. It took a minute, but finally she wrapped her arms around me and squeezed back.

“You don’t hate me?”

“How in the world could I ever hate you?”

“Well, there was that dress you loved, and I spilled nail polish all over it…”

“Shut up!” I hugged her tighter for a minute. “Wait! What dress?!”

“Oh, never mind.” She grinned at me and even if she had spilled something on my favorite dress, I would forgive her because my best friend was back.

“We’ll talk about that later. Come, sit with me.” I walked to the couch, hand in hand with my best friend and we simultaneously plopped down on it. Finally, I felt like I could crawl back into my old life, just a little.

“Jess, you don’t need to do this right now. It’s your first day getting back to socializing with people. Work doesn’t have to be on the table.” I could see the worry on Mikael’s face as he spoke. It didn’t deter me though.

“It does when there are other women who were being held against their will, like I was.” I took a few minutes to catch my breath. It was not an easy thing to admit that you were held prisoner, even when others knew about it. “I wasn’t…” I started and stopped again. “I was lucky that Serena got to me when she did. I’m sure some of those women you brought home weren’t quite so lucky. If I can help them in anyway, I am going to.”

Mikael’s anger at my admission was palpable. I hadn’t talked to him about how close I had come to being raped. I still hadn’t talked much about what happened to me, how my powers were stripped, and I was kept doped up. I still wasn’t sure how to deal with all that, considering I was pregnant when I was drugged. That thought left me with an entirely new level of worries where my captivity was concerned.

Evan closed in on his brother and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. “My ordeal is over and done with. Let’s get these girls fixed up, so they can move on too. That’s what I need to do in order to get back to normal.” They were brave words for me, because honestly, I wasn’t sure I could handle listening to the stories of seventeen other women who had also been held against their will. This was going to be one hell of a challenge. “Now, please, someone tell me what’s been going on, so I have an idea of what I’m going to be working with when I head back to the pack.”

“We were checking out the main house, and I heard something behind one of the walls. I thought it was mice or whatever and I freaked out a little. You know how I am with rodents.” Ashley shivered slightly. “Asi came over to check it out, and he figured out that there was a lever to move part of the wall. It became a door, and when we walked through it, the smell was…” I could almost see Ashley turning green just from the memory, so I could imagine how bad it had been.

“They’d been locked down there for almost a week without anyone coming to check on them. Luckily, they had a stocked pantry down there when they were abandoned, or it could have been far worse.” Asriel had taken over telling me what happened while he rubbed his hand up and down Ashley’s back, offering her comfort.

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