Page 35 of Trapped to Tame
And she did possess some. She was simply out of practice.
When she'd first joined the gang, Talik had taken her to an older woman who’d taught her some of the rudiments of etiquette. Eve had only realized later that he must have intended to make her a courtesan. But then he’d seen her strength, and his plans had changed.
Since then, she'd always been in the company of men. She could not appear weak, so she had emulated their mannerisms. She walked differently, stood up straighter because she was small. She spat and swore. She had no shame, as Priest called it, because none of the men she'd been around ever had any either.
Perhaps all of this was making things worse for her while she was with them. These men were not like the men in the town. Perhaps it was because they were fae, but their values were different. They didn’t see vulgarity as strength.
She stood and watched from inside the camp, surveying the trees around them. She still wasn’t used to being in the dense forest. She felt closed in, and she could swear that she heard whispers on the wind, but that made no sense. They were alone here except for whatever creatures were out there and, as far as she knew, they didn’t speak.
‘Where are you going?’ Drax muttered from the fire.
She looked back at him. The first thing that came to mind was to tell him in no uncertain terms that she needed to piss, but she best start tempering her words.
‘I need to …’ She trailed off, having no idea what the polite way of saying it was.
Drax got to his feet and tied his bedroll to his horse.
‘Come,’ he said to the others. ‘The light is upon us. It's time to go anyway. Break the circle.’
Priest muttered something and then held a necklace out to her. ‘Keep this around your neck,’ he said.
She looked at it suspiciously. ‘What is it?’
‘Protection,’ Drax said simply. ‘So long as you have this, you need not worry.’
She took it from Priest gingerly and put it on. It was an oval of dark, charred wood carved with runes hung on a leather cord.
Drax looked around, listening. ‘They're gone now,’ he said, ‘but don't go too far.’
She nodded and went behind some bushes, finding herself hurrying, though, not liking being out of her Brother's sights. She paused as she was walking back to the camp.Her Brothers.It felt right and yet it was so, so wrong. They were not her anything, she reminded herself. Everything was so confusing …
Drax might be being almost friendly, but she couldn’t afford to forget what he was … what they all were. But then there was the other night at the inn … what Drax had made her feel … she shook herself free of the thoughts.
Fie wasn’t being particularly cruel to her, but he didn’t like her. Of that she was certain. And then there was Priest. He hated her with a vile passion that made her want to recoil whenever he looked directly at her. She shuddered as she remembered what he’d done last night, terrifying her with his threats.
No, these men may be feeding her and not treating her so badly as the others had, but it would all come at a price. Everything did.
When she got back into the camp, they were already ready to go. The fire had been doused in sand and the men had mounted their steeds.
She looked at her own horse with barely concealed suspicion. Her thighs and arse hurt from all the riding yesterday. In truth, she'd rather walk, but she knew that it was foolish to expend that much energy simply because she didn't like riding a beast of burden, so she gamely got on the mare’s back, taking the reins as Fie had shown her.
They got back onto the main road. It was so quiet, but what did she know about the wilderness? Perhaps this was how the forest always sounded.
The men stayed in formation, Drax at the head, Fie at the back and Priest riding next to her.
‘Keep your eyes open,’ Drax said, and she copied him as he scanned the forest in front and beside them. She looked back and saw that Fie was doing the same and also constantly turning his head to look behind.
‘Is someone following us?’ she asked.
Priest barely glanced at her. ‘Somethingprobably,’ he answered her. ‘This forest is practically Dark Realm now since the wards of the portals failed.’
Eve knew that some of the portals had collapsed in recent years. Everyone did. The one that had been closest to her town was one of them, which was why so many people had left when the trade route was no longer viable.
‘Why did they close?’ she asked.
Priest shrugged. ‘That doesn't matter now. What's done is done. But it means we need to be extra careful, extra vigilant.’
‘What's out there?’ she asked.
