Page 15 of Seized to Sacrifice
What was this woman doing to him?
* * *
She
She started,her eyes opening in the same instant. Wide awake, her gaze moved around the room quickly, but she was alone. She sat up and groaned, her head aching. She felt weak, as if her body had been ravaged. There was a cup by the side of the bed, and she drank thirstily once she tasted it and found it was water.
She was in a bed chamber. The walls were stone and, besides the sizable bed that she lay in, there was a hearth with a large chair in front of it, a table with haphazard piles of books, and an open casement through which she could see blue skies.
She remembered snippets of this room from while she’d been ill and shivered as she thought of the nightmares she’d had while she’d been caught in the fever. Horned men with grey skin, others with shining black scales who loomed over her, scared her, threatened her.
She swung her legs down to the floor, but one of them was caught on something. When she looked under the blanket, she saw that, not only was her dress missing but she’d been tethered to the bed. Her stomach dropped. What did they have in store for her now? She gritted her teeth and tried to prize the manacle apart, but it wouldn't budge.
The latch of the door clicked, and she lay back in the bed, covering herself with the blanket and feigning sleep. Someone entered, their footsteps heavy as they made their way across the room before coming back and closing the door.
She cracked open an eye just enough to make him out and saw that it was the man from her dreams; the one with the horns though there didn’t seem to be any now.
‘I know you're awake,’ he said, sounding amused.
She grimaced under the cover and, finding courage from somewhere, opened her eyes properly. She looked him full in the face and was taken aback by his appearance. His nose was broad and square much like his jaw was. High cheek bones and long eye lashes drew her gaze to his eyes that were a mix of green and blue like the sea. He also seemed to be a normal human. More attractive, yes, but no different really than any of the others she’d seen so far and definitely nothing like what she remembered from her nightmares.
He noticed her staring and frowned. ‘If I’d wanted to hurt you, I could have done it at any time while you've been insensible.’
She wound the coverlet around her chest and pursed her lips. Surely he couldn’t think that it had escaped her notice that she was naked in his bed.
As if guessing where her thoughts tended, he raised his hands in supplication. ‘Your dress was torn and covered in dirt and blood. I removed it to see to the putrid wounds on your back. That’s all.’
‘And the chain?’ she asked warily.
He shrugged. ‘Count your blessings. Could be worse. You could still be down in the dungeons dying of your wounds in the cold.’
Her brow furrowed at his words, and she suppressed a shudder.
He took a steaming cup from the table and brought it to her, placing it on the table slowly before moving back.
No sudden movements. He was trying to put her at ease.
‘Why aren’t I in the dungeon still?’ she asked, taking hold of the cup and sniffing.
Broth.She took a sip, not taking her eyes off him.
‘Why did you bring me up here?’ she continued when he didn’t readily answer. ‘Why did you save me?’ She looked down at her state of undress and found she couldn’t look him in the eye again. She wrapped the blanket around herself more tightly.
‘What’s the price of your kindness?’ she whispered.
He was silent.
‘Who gave you the lashes?’ he asked her instead.
A part of her wished he’d answered the question but was glad he didn’t at the same time.
She made herself look up again to answer. ‘The slaver. He found me on the road.’ She frowned. ‘He pretended that he wanted to help me, but he tied me up and threw me in his wagon. He whipped me once we got to the town your friend found me in.’
‘Why? What did you do?’
‘I—’
She swallowed hard as she remembered the slaver’s hulking form moving over her in his covered cart as he put his weight on her and forced her legs open. She’d thought he’d meant to rape her, but instead he’d produced a funny-looking glass object and eased it inside her, all the while hushing her as she screamed in anger and fear. When he was finished, he’d let her go, looking pleased as she’d struggled away from him. Then he’d thrown her in a cage.
