Page 53 of Trapped to Tame
Drax found him in an alley across the way standing over the skeletons of two fae males.
‘There are more. All male warriors.’
‘So, the few male protectors died here, and the females were captured and murdered by the First Scholar in Kitore when they went to seek aid. But what of the children?’
‘They definitely aren’t here,’ Priest said, his voice devoid of emotion.
He turned on his heel and left them both in the alley.
‘Where the fuck are they?’ Fie yelled, kicking one of the dead fae in the head and sending the sun-bleached skull hurtling into the outer wall of the adjacent house.
‘We’ll find them,’ Drax promised his Brother. ‘We’ll find your brother and Priest’s sister. We’ll find the evidence that Gerling orchestrated all of this.’
‘Well not here we won’t,’ Fie said. ‘This place is nothing more than a beautiful tomb.’
‘Perhaps it's time we went back to Kitore,’ Drax said.
‘I'm not setting my foot inside that fucking city again,’ Fie said, shoulders slumping.
‘You’ll do it if you want to find out what happened here,’ Drax snarled. ‘This isn’t just about you. These are all that are left of the fae children. We must keep our heads and find them.’
He left Fie to calm down, finding Priest standing in the street, staring at nothing.
‘I was sure they’d be here,’ Priest whispered. ‘Scared, perhaps, wondering what had happened but here. Safe.’
‘We will find them, Brother.’
Priest bared his teeth in anger, and then he abruptly deflated, running his hands through his hair and looking more exhausted than Drax had seen him before – even when he’d been their unit’s commander, even when they’d tried every day for weeks to escape Kitore to no avail.
‘You don’t understand.’ He turned to Drax. ‘Getting to the Underhill is all I’ve thought about since Kitore. I was sure that if we were able to discover a way in, we’d find them …’ he broke off, lookingashamed. ‘I’ve done something …’
Chapter 8
Eve
The Underhill was not what she'd expected, Eve thought as she wandered around. It was summertime here. Everything was in bloom. Everything was so beautiful; the opposite of the Dark Realms she’d seen, though she supposed there were thousands of realms and she shouldn’t use just those two for comparison. For all she knew, there were many lovely Dark Realms as well.
The men were talking amongst themselves in the middle of the street, leaving her out of their conversation, and she was glad of it. She’d woken up here not long ago, Priest’s actions fresh in her mind. She’d never felt so defiled. Not even by the Bull. She’d never felt anything with the Bull but hatred, she realized. He’d simply been a bad thing that happened sometimes. But this … Eve didn’t know why she felt so betrayed. She wasn’t sure she had the right. She and Priest were nothing to each other, after all. He’d made that clear by what he’d done. Simple hatred had been easier.
She stopped by a door, leaning on it for support as she tried to get herself under control. She was angry and scared and sad.
She supposed that some part of her had thought they might perhaps keep her as their Fourth when all this was over, that they might want her to stay with them. She hadn’t even realized that was what she wanted until Priest had done … what he’d done, and she’d understood that she truly was simply a means to an end to them. She had harbored a hope, though she hadn’t known it; a hope that was now dashed. Gods, she was pathetic. Was it because she had no one else? What were these men becoming to her?
She let out a breath. It didn’t matter now. They were here, and Priest would terrify her again so that they could leave and then they’d do whatever it was that they had planned all along. Would they free her, she wondered? Maybe death would be preferable than trying to navigate a world she knew so little about.
Eve walked through a door in the village, and a small bell chimed. It looked like an apothecary shop. She studied the various vials and potions, one of them looking very much like the one Priest had tricked her with. She turned away, trying to put it from her mind though her body was already responding to thoughts of him. In truth, she had enjoyed their time in that bed and that made his deception worse.
She shook her head to clear it, focusing on what was in front of her.
Everything in the town had just been left where it had fallen.
On the table in front of her were various bowls filled with colorful powders. There were bundles of dried herbs she didn’t recognize, and, in the dead center, there was a tiny black disk. On it sat a little puffball, pink and pretty. It was so beautiful, and Eve ached to touch it as she stared, not able to take her eyes off it.
Her hand hesitantly moved towards it, something telling her she shouldn’t and yet she couldn’t help herself. She grazed it with her fingertip, and it exploded into a white mist that settled over her despite her waving her hands to dispel it.
Eve sneezed, rearing back, and leaving the shop with itchy eyes, hoping the men wouldn’t find out about this. They’d call her all kinds of foolish, she muttered to herself as she went down to the stream to wash her face in the cool, clear waters, choking slightly as the dust caught in her throat.
She looked slowly down at the stones of the riverbed, smoothed by the running water. It was so hot here, she thought, pulling her boots off, and letting her breeches fall into the water. A tiny voice in her head was telling her not to, that this wasn’t right, but she silenced it, pulling her chemise over her head. The clothes had been itchy and confining. Now she felt free. She wandered in the sun, naked as a nymph, through the trees into the forest, following the river until she came to a waterfall and a pool. She waded in, sighing as the water touched her over-heated flesh.
