Page 151 of Enchanted Kingdom
“Rafe,” Owen provided.
I nodded. “Yes. He saved me by biting that man.”
Krew pulled up a chair and lazily sat down next to me where I worked. “To be clear, did this man, who still breathes as of right this moment, hurt you?”
My eyes went to his. “I mean he grabbed me by the waist to keep me from running. What he was going to do from there, I am not sure. Why? Were they supposed to kill me?”
No one answered my question.
“So I’m supposed to tell you where I have been, but you won’t answer me?” I snapped.
Keir said gently, “We think they were going to kill you, yes. The man we have in questioning says he didn’t know. He was only paid to catch you. The one who was in charge was one of the men Owen killed. They were smart enough to only give the orders to one of them.”
“So kill you or in the very least scare the hell out of you,” Krew offered.
“Based on what Mr. Noyer said to me the other night,” I said as I felt my skin crawling, “I wouldn’t have put rape past them either.”
“What?”Krew snapped.
“When I was trying to get away from him at the ball, I told him to have a great night,” I explained as I gently kept cleaning Owen’s wound. “And he told me it was a challenge in a room full of people, but he’d find a way.”
“That son of a bitch,” Keir cursed.
I looked up to see both Keir and Krew’s blue magic creeping along their skin.
Owen didn’t look happy either. I was pretty sure Owen’s magic would be matching the princes’, but he had just used a lot of it in the forest. To provide a wall for me to escape with.
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Keir asked.
I squinted at him. “Because that was an eventful night.”
Owen shook his head. “I don’t care what Keir does. Next time you tellme.”
“Fine,” I snapped.
“Fine,” he repeated.
I stood up and Krew handed me the container of ointment, the lid already twisted off and on the table. “So Rafe bit him,” Krew repeated.
I sighed and dipped my finger into the soft ointment to apply it to Owen’s injury. “So I kind of panicked, thinking there would be more men at the hedge and not knowing how long that man would be down for, so I began running deeper into the woods, rather than toward the castle.” I ran the ointment along Owen’s scratch. “I kept running and running and then Rafe was there again. Running beside me.”
They all went quiet. Listening. Or disbelieving. One or the other. But it was about to get a whole lot worse.
“I know now I should’ve just started screaming and ran for the hedge anyway. Especially if there really were only four.”
“That we know of,” Krew provided.
“So I ran deeper into the forest instead,” I said with a shrug.
“So why didn’t you hear us when we had guards combing the forest and calling your name?” Keir asked.
I pressed my lips together as I grabbed more ointment from where Krew still held out the container. “I assume because of where I was. There was a trickle of water there, clean water, so I probably couldn’t hear you.”
“And where were you?” Owen asked.
My eyes went to Krew’s. “Their den.”
Owen’s eyes went wide.
