Page 52 of Trapped to Tame
‘I can’t,’ she said again.
Without a word, Priest took her by the throat, his other hand grabbing between her legs. She gave a broken cry, grasping at his hand and trying to claw him off her, but he was too strong.
He whispered something in her ear and Drax felt her terror increase ten-fold, palpable in the air around them. He staggered back a step, feeling sick. What was Priest doing?
Eve flailed and there was an ungodly sound of the stones around them cracking. Lightning flashed and the portal opened. The roar of it was deafening, and Drax screamed at them to get through the doorway before it buckled. They lunged as it sputtered and Drax was sure they’d be killed as rocks began to fall around them from the cliffs surrounding the gully.
They found themselves by a gurgling stream in the warm sun and Drax thanked the gods that there had been enough power for the portal to bring them here. He looked around him, taking in the vibrant colors of the foliage and flowers around them. It was always high summer here. There were birds tweeting, fish swimming lazily in the river. It was a beautiful realm where everything grew and thrived.
‘The Underhill,’ Fie breathed.
Drax looked back for the others. They’d all made it through; the horses as well. The portal was gone and though the others wouldn’t like that as there was now no quick escape, Drax found himself relieved, for it meant that they still needed Eve’s magick to leave this place. Priest couldn’t yet break their bond with her.
‘Is she all right?’ he asked.
Priest was staring down at their unconscious female who he now carried once more, looking at her in a way that Drax had never seen his Brother look at anyone. Could it be that Priest was forming an attachment with her since they’d been traveling in each other’s companies?
‘I believe bringing us here drained her. Her magick is new and it was only earlier today that she brought us to the Ice Plains. It may be some time before she’ll be able to reopen a portal to the outside.’
Drax frowned. ‘Are you going to tell us what happened in the Dark Realms?’ he asked his Brother.
Priest’s face was shuttered, his tone emotionless. ‘It doesn’t matter. I got us to the Underhill.’
Drax’s jaw clenched, remembering the fear Eve had been feeling. What had Priest done to her while Drax hadn’t been there to stop him?
Realization dawned. ‘Fear is her magick’s trigger,’ he guessed aloud, but Priest didn’t answer, beginning to walk in the direction of the realm’s only town with Eve in his arms.
Drax caught up with him, taking him by his shoulder and turning him.
‘What did you do?’
For a brief moment, Drax saw his Brother’s emotions flit over his face, and he held Eve tighter. Drax knew without a shadow of a doubt that Priest had done something unforgivable, but then his face again became a hard mask and Priest thrust Eve’s sleeping form at Drax.
‘You take the bothersome female,’ he said. ‘I’ve had my fill of her over the past days. Let’s find the children, the proof we need to implicate Gerling for the destruction of the portals, and get this fucking mission done.’
He stalked off down into the valley, Fie oddly silent and following on his heels, both of them leaving Drax standing in the road holding the female.
He looked down at her. Physically she seemed fine, but when she woke, he would find out what Priest had done.
Drax began to follow his Brothers down the hill, leaving their mounts to wander. There was nowhere for them to run off to after all.
He closed his eyes and smelled the air as he walked, memories assailing him from when he had spent his time here as a boy, as all the fae did in their youths.
He hoped to the gods they’d find the children. They had to be here.
As they entered the town, they took off their cloaks and their tunics, for the weather was completely the opposite to where they’d just been.
All was silent. For the first time in millennia, there were no children playing here, no laughter. The tinkling of the stream that ran through the village was all they could hear as they explored slowly. The whole place looked abandoned. There was no one and nothing. A goat ran in front of them, bleated and then ambled away again.
Drax put Eve down in the moss under the shade of a tree and walked into a house. It was deserted. Food had molded and withered to nothing on the table. It was as if everything had been left in one moment.
‘There's no one here,’ Fie called, ‘but whatever happened, it happened quickly.’
Drax nodded. Everything pointed to that assessment.
‘The horses starved to death in the stables,’ Priest muttered.
‘Here,’ Fie called.
