5. Chapter 5
Chapter five
Leena
H e took my hand, guiding me from the tree scraping against my back. His eyes held mine with ferocious intensity. My heart raced. What was I doing? This man—this monster —was dangerous, yet here I was, entranced by his every move. Liquid at his every word.
He stopped and turned so suddenly I bumped into him. My cheeks set fire at the feel of his bare chest on what was exposed of mine. He guided my hand to be at my side, but he didn’t let go. He laced my fingers in his and took a step closer so nothing was between us but our breath.
“Do I scare you, Leena?”
I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t speak, and I didn’t know what I’d say if I could. He did scare me, and he knew it. He chuckled, low and deep, and unlaced his hand from mine to trail it up my arm and onto my bare shoulder. I couldn’t move. I didn’t want to. Every place his fingers touched went aflame, sending shocking waves across my flesh. I wanted to melt into the sensation .
He swept the back of his hand down the slope of my neck. “Don’t be afraid.” His fingers fell down my throat;I had to force down the shaky breath crawling from my lungs. “You’re safe with me.” His eyes flicked up, and when they met mine, they were feral. It shook something in me—something primal from a forbidden place I’d never dared investigate.
“You’re dangerous. You’re killing innocent people,” my words tumbled out with a bite, but he didn’t so much as flinch.
“I haven’t killed one innocent creature. My very job is to protect the innocent in my forest.” His face was barely a finger’s length away, and his voice was so deep it rumbled against my chest.
The air hitched in my lungs. “Y-you don’t consider my people innocent, and you may not have killed them yet, but you’ve at least stolen them.”
“They’re not—” he snapped, baring his teeth. “The ones who have gone missing are children and victims. All were innocent. Children are always innocent. I would never harm one. And I didn’t steal them. I rescued them.”
My head jerked back. “What? But—”
“Are you almost done accusing me?” Something close to rage swirled in his eyes, but that feral look of hunger was too powerful to replace. “I’ll lose my patience soon, even if you are so…” he smiled on his way down to my shoulder, where he pressed a kiss to my skin. I let out a sound as he trailed his bottom lip along my collarbone. When I started to fall, he caught me by the small of my back with one large hand .
His lips didn’t move from my collarbone. He gently scraped his teeth against it until his mouth was at the base of my throat. I let out a gasp and jumped back, trying my best not to fall as I composed myself.
“Don’t touch me!” I pulled at the silk of my dress and attempted to cover myself. It was no use. The cloth remained firmly beneath my shoulders, refusing to cover anything it didn’t have to. That was probably the exact reason Ms. Tomlin had chosen it.
Something darkened in his eyes, and suddenly, everything that had transpired in the village flashed before me. The reason I was here.
I needed to be on his good side if I wanted to save my grandmother and stay alive.
And I was screwing it up.
Being accepted by him was the only way I could live and the only way my people would be safe. No matter the danger or cost, I had to push past the fear.
I was doing this all wrong. I had to be seductive in return to survive.
Shifting my weight, I tried looking more confident, but the corner of his mouth curled, and the foxlike way he watched me sent that warmth rushing through my blood again.
“I’ve heard all about you, but I’d like to learn more,” I said, immediately cringing. How was that seductive? Trying to recover, I offered him a smile, but when he chuckled and shook his head, it dropped, and my hands curled into fists. “What’s so funny?”
“You’re adorable.” He crept closer. I had to avoid his gaze so I could collect my thoughts. “Why are you looking away? I won’t hurt you. I promise.” The deep hum in his voice begged to differ.
He couldn’t be trusted. My semi-seductive facade immediately crumbled. “How can I believe you?” I looked up at him, inhaling sharply. He was a lot closer than I’d thought.
He caught a loose strand of my hair between his fingers and bent down to smell it, his eyes closing as he breathed in the scent. I swallowed and ignored the dizzying sensation that followed.
“Why would I lie to you, little dove?”
“Because you’re a monster.”
His eyes flicked to mine. “Is that what I am?”
“Yes,” I said firmly, planting my back against the tree and slapping his hand away from my hair. “Now tell me the truth.”
He rose to his full height, his emerald eyes gleaming.
“I am, little dove. I don’t only play games with you lot, you know. I’m capable of good deeds, too.” He cocked his head playfully. “Besides, I’m far too powerful to give a damn about lying to you.”
I scoffed and looked away, but his grasp found my chin. He forced me to look at him. “I mean it. I am capable of good.” Those unearthly eyes shone with something no mortal could possess. A light like crystal stars. They appeared sincere, but he could easily be casting a spell on me—the same one he was clearly casting on my body. I felt strange like there was something burning deep within my bones. It heated my skin in a way that made me want to fall into his arms against my better judgment. Luckily, my head was at least somewhat clear right now.
“Your definition of good is entirely different from mine,” I said.
“Is that so?” he purred, and I had to look away again. No part of him was safe to look at. His eyes, his arms, his exposed torso and legs. It all sent strange bouts of fire whipping through my blood and skating across my skin.
“And what about you?”
“What about me?”
He leaned in until his nose was almost on mine. My eyes shuttered, but I kept them open this time.
“Why are you here?”
“To help my people,” I whispered, barely able to speak.
“But why you? Besides your obvious bravery.”
Pain tightened my face as I thought of everything that had happened these last few days—my unsuccessful hunts, the cruelty of my uncle, Ms. Tomlin’s stony face as she laced up my corset, my grandmother’s gut-wrenching expression, Casimir’s disgusting leer. Of this stupid gown and this treacherous man or monster. Whatever he was.
“I’m a protector,” I said, and the Leshy laughed a low, sultry chuckle.
“Now who’s the liar.”
“I am not lying.”
“I can feel your heart.” He slid his hand down my arm and tucked his fingers beneath the lace of my glove. He pressed against the inside of my wrist. “You’re lying. I can feel it. I can smell it. It radiates from you like a perfume.”
I jerked away. “Fine. If you must know, no one in the village was doing anything, so I was chosen to find you. Are you happy?”
He frowned, crossing his arms as he studied me. “Why you? Surely, you have a family to protect you—one who wouldn’t want to send you to a monster like me. You mortals breed like rabbits.” My blood boiled, but something ached in my chest. “Ah,” he said. “You have no one.”
“That’s not true,” I grumbled.
“No one who cares then.”
“Shut up,” I growled. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.” Without thinking, I shoved him, and then was immediately horrified that I had. This wasn’t Casimir or some village brute. This was the monster of these woods.
His brows shot up.
“Oh my. She has a temper.” His lips formed a wicked curve. “How delicious.”
My hands formed fists at my side, but I was relieved that my sudden bout of bravery—or stupidity—hadn’t left me dead. Shifting uncomfortably, I suddenly realized my body was itching with sweat. My fingers uncurled. What’s going on? It only took a moment for my answer to come. One look at my surroundings left me gaping.
Just mere minutes ago, the forest was a sea of dying trees with spotty, claw-like branches. Now, each tree was vibrant and alive with wild heads of green, the most magnificent shade of the color I’d ever seen, save for the Leshy’s eyes.
“What—How did you…”
“Can’t you see I’ve turned it into spring for you?” His wicked grin remained as he hooked his finger inside my glove, gently gliding against the center of my palm as he tugged it off. “Would a monster give you spring?”
“Get away from me!” I hissed, pushing him away and stumbling back. Distance. I needed distance from him. To leave his stare. His spell. His body.
“My, my,” he said, sauntering closer. “Come now, is that a way to treat the Keeper of the Woods?”
“Just bring those children back, and the woman—”
“You know I can’t do that.” He craned his neck, and I was once again shadowed by his massive frame.
“Why not?” I glowered at him, keeping my eyes on his face, refusing to let them linger on his physique. Whenever my gaze flickered to his form, it set off a deep curiosity I wanted to satiate. I couldn’t deal with it right now, and it was embarrassing. I desperately wished he had more clothes on.
A chuckle rumbled from his throat. “I can tell what you want.”
“And what’s that? ”
He stepped closer. “You want to touch me.”
My face burned. “I do not!”
He took my gloveless hand and placed it on his chest, but I instantly snatched it away. “That is completely inappropriate,” I said, holding my hands across my chest and turning from him.
“Do I intimidate you, Leena?” His voice was a dark song. I longed to close my eyes and listen—to drink it like a poison. To let it infect me.
I had to keep it together.
“No,” I snapped, but it came out the way a pouty toddler might have said it, which made him laugh again.
I shot him a glare over my shoulder and peeled off my remaining glove, tossing it to the side, but my eyes widened at the clothes forming on his body. A black tunic stretched across his muscled form, with matching tight, black trousers replacing that tattered cloth. “Is this better?” When I didn’t respond, he said, “I want you to look at me more. I love those eyes of yours.”
He was trying to capture me. He was trying to trick me.
“That won’t change anything,” I said, then remembered I was supposed to be playful. Sultry. I was very bad at this.
“Please come with me, Leena. I have a whole forest to show you.”
“I would like to stay here, thanks.”
“Leena,” he breathed my name against the back of my neck and slid a finger down my spine. Goosebumps blanketed my skin, and my head fell back against his chest. I didn’t care that it was irresponsible; I closed my eyes. I let myself revel in the black magic of his touch. He wrapped his arms around me. “Let me show you my palace,” he whispered, “and then I’ll tell you where the missing villagers are.”
My eyes shot open, and I turned around. “Really?”
“Really.” He offered me his hand, and this time, I allowed my hand to curl into his. His fingers were long, his palm enormous—my whole fist could easily fit inside.
My body was still warm as I followed him, and I stared at the muscles of his back through the thin tunic. I was able to admire his form with less embarrassment this way, watching his muscles move, the way they tightened and relaxed. My gaze wandered to his hair. I’d never seen someone with hair such a dark shade of brown that it appeared black; it only revealed its true color when the sun hit it just right.
It was impossible to take my eyes off him until we reached a thick wall of moss, vines, and leaves. Upon further inspection, I realized that beneath the green was a long rock wall with a gray slab of stone embedded in the middle. Across the stone’s surface were strange, ancient markings and insignias that created a border around an emerald gem that matched the Leshy’s eyes.
“Are you ready?” His eyes shone brighter as if being in close contact with the gem lit something within them. I nodded, and he put his hand on the stone .
Beneath our feet, the ground came to life, growling and quaking as branches soared through the dirt and pulled on the mossy wall. The leaves trembled in a shaky dance before falling away, and as the vines curled in, the branches pulled at an opening in the middle of the slab. The emerald stone cracked in the middle, and light poured out as a doorway appeared.
My free hand clapped over my mouth. A rounded entryway now gaped in the center of the wall, and through it was a scene I couldn’t believe.
“We’re here,” he said, but I couldn’t take my eyes off what lay beyond the rocky maw. He gently tugged on my hand and guided me through. “Welcome to my kingdom.”