Page 60 of Lost in the Dark

HOLD MY HEART

DEE ST. HOLM

All trolls require a toll…

Married by proxy, Anna travels into the desolate northern moors to serve the massive Lord Rathbytten. She needs to please him—her family won’t survive the winter without the coin from her hand—and hopes to build a bright future. But he denies her food and rejects her bed. Desperate, tormented by ghostly screams in the night, she tries to appease the twisting estate by scouring it from top to bottom.

The castle is filthy—and so are the thoughts she has for Rathbytten’s huge, disfigured, servant, Enulf.

Bound to serve the dark manor and all its inhabitants, Anna discovers pleasure in Enulf’s embrace. But even that release isn’t enough to stop the spirits from haunting her. Desperate for peace, she does as they bid and discovers the truth:

Both of the enormous men are trolls. And sausages hide all manner of sins.

Fallen 1:10

Midwinter

Fist clenched tight around the scroll that certified her marriage to a man she’d never met, Anna Fortyn peered out the narrow carriage window at the frigid landscape beyond. A rocky, almost barren country stretched before her, patches of twisting trees separated by stretches of scraggly grass and rocks.

Her grandmother would have called this troll country.

But of course, Anna’s grandmother had called anything north of their small village troll country. Even though she knew the trolls were long gone, driven out of existence by Chastry knights, Anna still heard her grandmother’s voice as clearly as if she sat beside her in the carriage.

As a child, she’d been enthralled by pictures of trolls, their huge bodies towering above the illustrated maidens in their grasp, tusks gleaming and lascivious grins. At the time, she’d imagined being captured by them would be a grand adventure.

Then she’d grown up and learned that all the grand creatures had vanished along with the Golden Gods.

A shiver wiggled down her spine.

She leaned further out the window and glanced at the hunched figure steering their carriage down the rutted road. She longed to question the driver, to ask through what lands they traveled—but she knew he wouldn’t answer. Nor would the spindly trees outside, or the ravens circling the darkening sky above.

For two days, she’d traveled alone, her only company the rattling of the wheels against rutted earth and the silent driver on the bench above. And now, she’d be arriving late in the day—the sun was already slipping past the horizon. Dinner would be past, and she would sleep hungry.

No matter.

She was a married woman now, bound by a piece of paper and a passing cleric to a lord she’d never met. She was used to hunger. But his bridal gift would feed her family until spring.

Assuming she pleased her new husband.

Parchment crinkled beneath her grip, and she forced her fingers to relax. Placing the contract on the seat beside her, she gripped the wooden frame and gaped at the view as the carriage crested a rise. There, past a copse of trees at the very top of the hill, stool the largest home she’d ever seen.

No, not a home.

Acastle.

Carved from darkened stone, the massive structure sprawled atop the hill, its turrets and multi-peaked roof mirroring the trees below. It was like some blackened mountain’s crown—a gilt nightmare—all spikes and decorative twists and arched passageways. The estate was so large, her entire village could fit within the courtyard, her church’s prize roof dwarfed by the smallest steeple.

Her jaw dropped.

I am to be mistress of this?

Hands trembling, she smoothed the skirts of her best dress. Made by her sisters only days ago from their mother’s favorite curtains, it was the nicest piece of clothing she’d ever had, and yet it felt embarrassingly insufficient in the face of such a house. As the carriage drew nearer, the door opened and two large figures emerged. Behind them, a third, smaller figure followed.

She focused on the large pair.

Was the largest of the two her new husband, or the smaller one—

A raven swooped past the window, and she glimpsed the dead body of a mouse in its beak.

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