Page 94 of Trapped to Tame
She could feel soft sheets, smell flowers in the warm air and hear the crackle of a small fire. She stretched, making a noise of contentment. Someone coughed close by, and she froze.
Where was she? Still in the temple?
She cracked her eyes open and found herself in an unfamiliar room in a four-poster bed with a canopy above her. She found the source of the noise; a man sat quite close by in an overstuffed armchair. All around them was the casual opulence that she’d got used to in the Brothers house and it annoyed her very slightly that being reminded of them comforted her.
She didn’t know the man in front of her, but he was looking at her as if he knew her. He was older with dark, sable hair that was greying at his temples. Though he was sitting, Eve could tell he was quite tall with a broad frame. His eyes were fae.
‘I must say you've grown into a pretty girl.’ His eyes moved over her, making her skin crawl. ‘A very pretty girl.’
He seemed to consider. ‘You clearly favor your human mother. No one in my bloodline has hair of such a light hue.’
‘My mother?’ Eve asked faintly, trying to put the pieces together, but her sluggish mind seemed unable to do so.
He snorted. ‘I wouldn't bother asking much about her. I can’t hardly even remember what the chit looked like.’
She closed her eyes and opened them again, trying to make her mind catch up. ‘You’re my father.’
‘I prefer the term sire, but yes.’ The man in front of her chuckled. ‘Gods, I never expected to see you again. I assumed that bottom feeder Talik had worked you to death or some such. What name did your mother give you? It escapes me now.’
‘Eve,’ she said.
‘Yes!’ Her father snapped his fingers. ‘That was it. Eve.’
He looked her over again, his eyes narrowing. ‘Odd. I can smell the magick on you. I know with certainty that you can conjure, but as a babe there was nothing to prove you were mine at all. In truth I assumed one of the other human slaves had found his way into my harem and bred the bitch.’
Shaking his head, he gave her a rueful smile as if all of this was simply a silly misunderstanding. ‘I’d never have given you up for such a small debt if I’d realized. Of course, we didn't know then that our birth rates were falling quite so drastically either.’
He leaned forwards and sniffed her, giving her a playful wink. ‘But you smell fae enough to be of much more use to me than you were as a babe. You're going to continue in that same vein though. You're going to pay off a very large debt indeed.
‘I'm a Fourth, a member of the Dark Army. I have mates,’ she ground out, finally finding her voice.
He waved a hand. ‘Where you’re going, it won’t matter. They’ll never find you. That'll be apparent soon enough.’
With that he stood up and walked to the door.
‘Don't try to escape,’ he called over his shoulder. ‘You'll find my home is a fortress ... and a maze. Food will be brought. I suggest you make yourself at home. This was your mother's room once upon a time, I recall.’
A key turned in the lock and she was left alone. Trying to remain calm, she slid from the bed, happy to find she was still wearing her clothes. She looked around the room as she took stock of her person. The knife that she'd had in the temple was gone, of course, and the pouches from her belt as well.
Eve moved around the room, checking in drawers, finding clothes and trinkets.
She wondered if any of these things had belonged to the human woman who had birthed her. There were no windows and the light seemed to come from the ceiling, a false sun in a painted mural.
She tried the door but, of course, to no avail. There was nothing else to do but sit and wait as her sire had said.
A young woman brought her a meal sometime later. She looked human, dressed in a short shift and nothing more, limping slightly as if one of her legs pained her.
She placed a tray on the table and turned to leave.
‘Wait,’ Eve said.
She didn't turn around.
‘I'm not to speak to you,’ she said in a whisper.
‘But I need to—’
‘Please!’ she said. ‘There are guards outside. If they hear my voice, I'll be punished.’
