Page 55 of The Demon of the Wood

The man startled, his face curling up in fury, and he struck Kaemon hard across the face, standing and stalking away, locking the cage behind him. Kaemon leaned his head back, staring up at the trees, bits of blue peeking through the cover. He tried, once again, to reach within himself, to find that power that had burst from him the last two times he’d been attacked, but he couldn’t. It evaded him, slipping through his grasp like water through his fingers. The pain washed over him, and he succumbed to it, focusing on each bit of lancing ache that pulsed with the beat of his heart, letting it blot out the horrifying thoughts that assailed him.

thirty

Melina

MelinastruggledagainsttheHunter who guided her around the camp.

“Stop fighting me. I’m trying to help you,” he hissed.

“How? By tying me up in a tent?” she spat.

He sighed. “It’s for the best. Until your mind clears, you can’t trust yourself.”

She shook her head. They knew nothing about the beings they targeted. Men were still setting up tents, making a fire, and a few walked off to hunt for food while others prepared what they already had. Some stopped and stared, looking at her with an unsettling hunger.

“She’s ruined,” one man said to his buddy. “Wouldn’t matter anyway if we took turns on her.”

She paled, and the Hunter gripped her arm harder. His face was set in a scowl, his eyes troubled. “Do you still think Kaemon is the beast I should fear?”

The Hunter swallowed. “There are beasts on all sides.”

“Kaemon is not one of them,” she whispered.

He gave her a side glance, questions warring in his eyes, and hope sprang into her heart. But he shook his head and tugged her along. A small tent was in the back, near a much larger one, and he opened the flap, guiding her inside. Though small, the tent was spacious, with a cot in the center for her to sleep on. She looked around forlornly. There was no way out except through the front, or if she had a knife to cut out the back, which she did not have. The tent flap opened again, and she turned to see her uncle entering.

“Niece,” he said, then turned to the Hunter. “Jackson, you may leave. I can care for my family.”

Jackson regarded her uncle warily, but nodded, giving a glance to Melina, who kept her face neutral. He left the tent and Melina stared at her uncle, cold fear sluicing down her back.

“Has the demon defiled you?” he asked, and her cheeks flamed. She remained silent. He closed his eyes and sighed. “As we’ve feared. You will have a long road ahead of you to atone for this transgression, as well as your others.”

Melina swallowed, gritting her teeth, then closed her eyes. “Why did you come for me? What do you and Gregory gain for this?”

George gave a bitter laugh. “Gain? Gain? Melina, you have been a life sucking leech in my side since the moment I had mercy on your mother. Gregory came back from the forest, gathering all the men, saying you all had been attacked by a demon and he had taken you.”

Melina opened her eyes, enraged at the lie. But she saw it for what it was. A cover for Gregory. A cover because too many people saw him with her and took her into the forest. A cover if she tried to come back and say he assaulted her.

“Of course, I had to agree that we needed to get Hunters and find you. I had to get my dear, precious niece back. If that fool, Gregory, had just kept his mouth shut, I would have been able to let you be gone. I would be done with the burden of your existence. At least I know the elves pay families well for each daughter sent to the convent of the Holy Mother. Perhaps that will finally be enough to pay me back for every penny I’ve wasted on you.”

She stared at him. Those words had been said to her in many ways, through many actions, over the years. They used to bite and gnaw at her. But they didn’t anymore. She saw her uncle rightly for what he was. A selfish, evil man. He was the monster.

“You deserve to be locked up in that cage. You and Gregory. Not Kaemon,” she spat.

George brought his hand up and swiftly brought the back of it across her face. She stumbled back a step; the sting radiating across her face painfully. She looked at him, her eyes full of fire.

He cleared his throat. “Stay here and don’t cause any problems. I don’t want to hear a single sound from you.”

He left her then. How could she get her hands unbound? She could run away like this, but she couldn’t possibly get Kaemon out with her hands bound. As soon as the flap to her tent closed, she searched for anything to help. She still had her bag on her, but nothing of use would be in it. She saw little else of use around her, though.

The men talked and laughed raucously about the fire, someone playing a tune and others singing. They were so merry as they committed casual cruelty. Hatred bloomed in her chest for the first time in her life. She had always tamped it down, pushing away the negative, unwilling to believe others could truly be so horrible. But some of them were. They were hateful and cruel. They were selfish and careless. They would hurt Kaemon for simply being who he was. They would harm her for loving a male who was kind to her.

She peeked around the flap of the tent, and suddenly her vision was filled with Jackson. He shoved his way in, glancing hastily behind him as he did. Her stomach tightened, and she walked backwards from him.

“What are you doing?” she demanded. “I’ll scream.”

He sighed, pulling the dagger on his belt out of its sheath. “And what? Have them come and try to join in?” He grasped her hands quickly, cutting her bonds loose. “I don’t think you are safe here, and I don’t think you are safe with your caretakers. Wait an hour. The men still awake will be drunk by then, and you can slip out. Your horse is tied up by the others.”

She stared at him in shock for a moment. “What of Kaemon?”

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