Page 82 of Trapped to Tame
‘Aye.’
Drax lay back, listening to the wind howling. The storm was finally starting to abate, but it was getting dark so there was no point in carrying on now. He and Fie stayed with Eve, Priest returning in the night to sleep in the warmth.
When they woke the next morning, it was silent with a calm stillness that new snow always brought. The wind had died down to nothing and they packed up the camp. They carried on with the journey, taking the narrow passes slowly though at least the new snows gave them traction on the ice-covered stones of the paths they traversed, making them marginally safer.
It was high noon before Priest pointed up at the next peak. There, nestled in the rock, was the carved edifice of the ancient temple they were searching for. They’d have to make their way down and through the valley below, which they couldn’t see because it was beneath the misty clouds that circled the peaks.
Come, let’s find a way down,’ Fie said, leading the way with Priest following.
Drax glanced at Eve who was behind him. She was quiet. She usually was, but today he felt a confusion in her that he hadn't before.
‘What’s wrong?’ he murmured. ‘You’re unsettled.’
She looked at him in surprise. ‘I keep forgetting you can do that.’
‘Do what?’ he asked.
‘Know my thoughts.’
He grinned. ‘It's not your mind I know. It's your heart.’
She snorted. ‘That's even worse. Why can I not feel yours in the same way?’
Drax shrugged. ‘Perhaps you can, you simply don’t know how to sense it. It is part of a fae bond for all parties to know each other so intimately so, I ask you again, female, what is it that’s upsetting you?’
She glanced at him and then at Fie.
‘Nothing,’ she said.
Drax leaned back on his horse. ‘Is it because you enjoyed what we did yesterday together?’
She looked away and he knew that he'd hit the nail on the head. ‘I never did anything like that before you,’ she murmured. ‘The night I met you … when you all came into my room, I was afraid Jays would give me to you all. I thought it would be … I didn’t think I’d ever enjoy it withoneman, much less with more than that.’
‘We are not like the human men you have known.’ Drax took her hand and was glad when she didn’t pull it away immediately. ‘I know that in the beginning we were not kind to you.’
He grimaced. It was time to speak of something he didn’t want to, but this conversation was necessary.
‘At the Camp, when I … when I bound you and claimed you, I know that—’
Eve put a hand up to stay his words. ‘Camp laws are Camp laws. I know what would have happened to me had you not done it. It was the lesser of two evils.’
‘You are our Fourth and our mate. You will never again be treated as anything less,’ he promised her, ‘and anyone who tries will die, either by your hand or ours.’
She looked out over the cliffs. ‘When will we arrive at the temple?’ she asked, changing the subject.
‘By tomorrow I'd say.’ He hesitated. ‘There's something I should warn you about. I’m guessing Priest hasn’t told you.’
‘Told me what? What is it?’
He could feel her disquiet and cursed himself, but she should know what was coming. It was wrong to keep her ignorant.
‘Are you yet able to reach your magick?’
Eve shook her head. ‘Not by myself.’
‘Almost a hundred and seventy children under fourteen went missing from the Underhill.’
Her eyes widened. ‘So many?’
