Page 69 of Cursed Evermore
Wolfe released my throat first, then my hands, which flopped to my sides as if they were made of straw. He stepped back, freeing me from the wall, and gazed down at me, making me feel small again.
“Follow me.” He waved me forward, motioning back to the door we’d just come through.
A tremor rippled through my brain, but I moved, still trying to keep my heart from falling out of my chest.
Chapter 13
Elariya
“The Price of the Gilded Cage”
Wolfe didn’t look back as he led me deep into the ship’s bowels.
I followed him through narrow corridors of gray walls that seemed to be closing in on me.
My lungs twisted and tightened, and my legs no longer felt like they belonged to me. Each step I took was like dragging my soul behind me, a hollow thing stitched together by fear and sheer will.
The dread that following him was my only choice still pulsed cold in my veins, and my worries were pushing me closer to insanity.
Was I ever going to escape him?
Would he set me free if I did what he said?
Where were we even going that would take three days to reach?
I wouldn’t know what I was up against until we spoke, but I assumed he was going to ask about my father, whom I hadn’t seen in five years.
So, how was I to help Wolfe?
His steps were soundless against the polished wood. Mine were a jittery mess marking every ounce of my discomfort.
I couldn’t stop watching his back, the slow swing of his coat, the movement of someone who’d always been in control.
I hated how calm he was. How composed. As if dragging a terrified girl across the sea was nothing more than business as usual. Maybe it was.
Maybe he was a pirate or bounty hunter.
And what about Arielle? I hadn’t seen her. Maybe she wasn’t here. That spell she performed was to get in my head. That could have been done from anywhere.
Why was I even thinking about her? She was working with Wolfe. So, why would she help me? What could she even do?
The corridor swallowed us in shadow once more, but I could still feel the sun on my skin like a fading memory.
The ship was ginormous with levels that ran wide and deep. We hadn’t been walking for long, but it was long enough for me. I thought we would have been talking by now.
I’d only ever been on a ship a handful of times in my life to visit my grandparents on my father’s side. They lived in Alandria, a continent south of Nelkaraad.
I was fourteen the last time I saw them. I enjoyed the one-day voyage. It was beautiful being on the sea. Like nothing else I’d ever seen. And Alandria had its own beauty that I used to look forward to. With its sea myths and legends, it was like a magical realm for me.
My last journey there was sad as we’d attended my grandparents’ funeral. They’d both perished from the same blight that came to Stormfell years later.
I’d always hoped my next sea journey would be better. Something more adventurous to replace the grief from the last. I never thought it would be this. With thisfiend.
“This way,” he said, finally glancing over his shoulder. His voice was smooth again. Normal again. As if the shadows that had crawled across his face and devoured his eyes weren’t still burned into the back of mine.
Gods, what kind of power did he have?
It frightened me into submission and I hoped to never see it again.
