Page 51 of Trapped to Tame
When he saw her struggling, he picked her up, putting one arm across her back and the other underneath her knees, carrying her like a babe.
She didn’t look at him, didn’t say anything, but she vowed to kill him. He’d tricked her, used the unit’s bond to make her tell him the worst things that had happened to her, the things that scared her most … and then he had used them to make her conjure.
* * *
Drax
‘Where the fuck are they?’Fie asked for probably the millionth time.
Drax looked over at him and sighed. ‘They'll be here.’
Fie bared his teeth. ‘You’ve been saying that for days. I'm fucking frozen,’ he growled.
Drax rolled his eyes. ‘It will take time if they were transported to a far-reaching realm. It may take more than one portal to get to the main trade routes.’
Fie growled something under his breath, going back to his rock, the only thing that wasn't covered in snow because he kept brushing it off.
Drax looked out into the distance. Well, as much as he could see of it anyway. The snow was coming down thick and heavy and had been for hours. Such were the Ice Plains.
He saw something. Black. Moving. He squinted, trying to pick out what it was.
‘There,’ he said, pointing. ‘Can you make it out?’
Fie stared. ‘It's Priest,’ he said at last.
‘Where's Eve?’
‘I think he carries her,’ his Brother replied.
As they got closer, Drax could feel her. She was upset and miserable. But then, her only companion had been Priest for days, so that was a given.
They waited until they were closer, and Priest finally made it to the rocks where they stood. Drax gave him a nod and Priest returned it, setting the female down into the snow that almost came up to her waist.
Still, Eve tried to edge away from Priest and his Brother’s expression turned grim. She shivered with cold, her teeth chattering. Her tunic gaped, and the buttons were missing. Drax’s eyes narrowed at Priest, but his Brother didn’t look his way.
‘Come,’ Drax said gruffly, not quite willing to admit to himself that he had missed her. That couldn't be what he was feeling. He looked her up and down. Misery and fear came off her in waves the likes of which he’d not felt before, not even close. He frowned, looking at Priest who avoided his gaze. What was wrong with their Fourth?
Was it whatever realm they’d been thrust into that had scared her, or was it simply being in Priest’s company for an extended period of time? His gaze turned back to Priest, who gave nothing away, of course, but Drax could guess how the last days with him had been for her.
He’d speak to her later about it but, first, they needed to do what they’d come here for. He only hoped that Priest had readied her during the time they’d been together.
He led them down the gully that he and Fie had been clearing of snow everyday to where one of the Underhill’s portals had once been. There were rocks strewn about, owing to whatever cataclysm had occurred to make the bridges collapse so abruptly.
Priest, Fie, and Drax looked at her expectantly and she stared back.
‘Well?’ Drax asked.
She glanced at Priest and then looked down.
‘I can’t,’ she said miserably.
Drax threw up his hands at his Brother. ‘What have you been doing all these days you’ve been gone? I thought you would have taught her how to manifest—’
Priest stepped forward, his eyes cutting into her.
‘Do it.’ His tone was almost pleading.
She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself and cringing before him in a display that was very unlike their strong, proud Fourth.
