6. Aurelia
Chapter 6
Ipulled all of my terror deeply inside of myself so that I was mostly a shell of a person. No emotion would show on my expression or color my tone. It was imperative not to show fear with this guy. He fed on it.
“Making the rounds?” I asked placidly.
His gaze moved down my body slowly, a feeling like spiders crawling over my flesh. “Joss mentioned that Xarion was talking.”
I leaned against the door frame, the picture of disinterest. “Xarion is always talking. So is Joss.” My tone conveyed a rock-solid confidence I did not feel. “So are you, it seems. I can’t imagine that is a trait Granny is fond of in you.”
He studied me for a moment, no doubt hearing my subtle threat. Unlike the others, Granny gave me an audience. She listened to me. I’d made myself invaluable for just such a reason. If he tried to shove me around, I’d tattle without reservation. Even if what he’d said wasn’t true, and I suspected it wasn’t, he wouldn’t get let off the hook for saying anything at all.
He huffed, a little smile playing across his lips. He knew the score.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he finally asked, his eyes sparkling with violence.
“Nope. I have too many memories of the times you forced your way in. It’s nice to have a choice this time.” Assuming I did have a choice, anyway. That was still up for debate.
“You deserved those other times.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t make this situation any more palatable. What do you want? If it’s to tell me not to say anything, you don’t have to worry about that.”
“I know that I don’t. I know you’ll keep your mouth shut like a good little pet.”
“Fantastic. So why did you come?”
“I paid your buddy Xarion a visit. Joss and the others, too. They’ll know better than to talk about my business again. You’re the only loose end, and we’ve already established that you know to keep your mouth shut about anything I might’ve said.”
Hatred burned in my gut. “You’ve had a busy day,” I said. “Imagine if you didn’t speak when you should remain quiet, you’d have more time to relax.”
“What would be the fun in that?”
“What fun, indeed.”
He shifted his weight from one foot to the other and then back to center. “You don’t need to hear about the Outside from those idiots, you know. You can get what you need directly from the source.”
The sexual innuendo dripped from his tongue. He’d made it very clear over the years that he wanted me in his bed. Thankfully, he would never force the issue, not with Granny watching over me. None of my punishments—no one’s punishments—had ever been sexual in nature. That fact had been greatly relieving to many.
Even still, everything in me recoiled at his words. Somehow, I kept my tone light and disinterested. “Is that right?”
“I know that she shelters you, keeps you in the dark. I could shed a little light on things, tell you about the world.” He paused for a moment, his gaze at my chest. “I tend to be very chatty after I come.”
“Yikes, a little too much oversharing there.” I straightened up. “Lovely offer, but I think I’ll pass. I’m not overly fond of the outside world. If that’s all?”
I grabbed the edge of the door, ready to close it.
He put his hand on the wood to stop me. “I got business with you.”
My legs started to shake. Maybe she’d let him off the leash, after all. It took everything in me not to wet my lips in worry. Memories clambered for attention. Him pushing past me and into my little cottage. His fists connecting. His smile down at me as blood trickled into my eye.
“And that is?” I asked.
“I’m your babysitter for tonight. Granny said you had to go looking for flowers in the wood. She doesn’t want you to stray too far and think about running.”
And just like that, my tight hold on my unenthusiastic responses cracked. I wanted to reach out, grab his neck, and shake him.
“Seriously! I got off course one time and everyone assumes I was trying to make a break for it. One time in fifteen years. Do you know why it is so fucking annoying?”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t care.”
“Oh no?” I stepped forward in a rush of anger and jabbed him in the chest. He flinched, stepping off the porch. “I’ll tell you anyway, how’s that? Quite frankly, I’m incredibly insulted that you all would assume, that Granny would assume, I was trying to escape, like this was some sort of cage. I get the reason for needing an escort to the Outside. I understand what would happen to me if the wrong people figured out who I was. I’m fine with all that. I’ve agreed to it. But to assume I would run...?”
Tears threatened to well in my eyes. It almost felt like a betrayal that Granny still kept on about my leaving the path, as though I couldn’t be trusted. As though I’d just up and leave my family in the middle of the night. Because she was all I had now. She’d saved me, given me a home, and she was as close to a real granny as I’d ever had. It hurt that she would assume it meant so little to me that I’d walk away without a backward glance.
“I thought she’d had better faith in me than that,” I finished, my lower lip trembling. “I’d thought we had better trust in each other.” I hesitated at his intense look. “Granny and me, obviously. Not you. You’d probably brain me right now if you could, and smile while you did it.”
“I’d fuck you first?—”
“But her?” I shook my head, looking to the side. “Why would I run? Forget that I have nowhere to go, but what would I be running from?”
I turned to look at him again, seeing the answer in his eyes. Him. The punishments. The parts of this village that were a little harder to bear.
“Well, whatever.” I wiped my forearm across my nose. “I wasn’t running. I won’t run. Because again, I have nowhere to go, okay? Happy? This village is my home.”
Alexander lifted his hands, his eyes wide. “Wow,” he said slowly. Then, “Are you on your period or something?”
I dug my fingernails into my palms. “Fuck off,” I said, turning and slamming the door in his face.
“Fine, but we still gotta get flowers,” he said through the door. “How long you gonna be?”
I ate and cleaned up, wanting to take my time to annoy him but also wanting to get out into the forest and look for those flowers. The longer I wasted in my cottage, the less time for the flower hunt.
After packing a few random supplies, like a canister of water and a bit of dried fruit and nuts in case the night ran long, I grabbed my lantern and swung the door open. Alexander sat on my top step, looking out at the lane. Pati from up the way was passing by. Usually she’d glance up when I came out of the cottage and spare me a tight smile, but this time she hunched and looked down at her feet. Her shoulders were tensed, her whole body rigid.
“You’re a big favorite around these parts,” I said, stepping out and closing the door behind me.
He got up slowly, staring after her. “I had to pay her good-for-nothin’ mate a visit the last time I was here. He was trying to smuggle out some—“ He slid me a side-eye. “More to follow after you suck my cock.”
“I’d better not. Small items are a choking hazard.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Like you can talk, anyway,” he said, following me. I knew exactly where I planned to start looking. “Anyone giving you the time of day in this village is only interested in one thing, your skinny little pal Xarion included.”
“My witty banter, is it? My hilarious jokes?”
“Spreading your thighs. That’s the only thing you’re good for.”
“Lovely. But untrue, right? My work gives you a job. My ingenuity affords your lifestyle.”
He ignored me. Alexander was only good with his fists. When it came to sparring mentally, he didn’t have any weapons.
“Shit detail, this,” he finally said as we cut through the village. No one looked our way, their gazes directed downward. “Hunting for fucking flowers in the trees?” He spat. “Why we going this way? You have flowers near your hovel.”
“My hovel?” I huffed. The guy lived in a shanty not far from Granny. Was he really throwing stones? “Because the Moonfire Lilies tend to group together and I want to go to the place I found the last one. Hopefully I’ll be able to find a few that way.”
He grunted and thankfully fell silent.
We reached the path that would lead us toward Granny’s cottage. My lantern glowed in front of me and he stayed back a ways, not needing its light. The trees once again crowded in, leaning overhead, branches tangled along the sides. The longer we walked, the harder it became for the moonlight to reach the path, until it disappeared altogether, my lantern now the only light I could see by. It didn’t take long for emberflies to drift in, sensing we weren’t danger and dotting the path and between the trees with pricks of light. Too bad they didn’t glow any brighter or maybe they could’ve filled in where my lantern struggled.
Halfway there, and not yet at the place where I’d had that vivid hallucination, I veered left, holding my lantern high so that I could slip between two slim trunks.
“It was somewhere around here,” I said softly, scanning the ground.
“I ain’t never seen as many of these bugs in one place as I do around this village,” he said, his voice too loud for the serenity of the night. “They must like your stink.”
“Or maybe they don’t like yours. Hush now. I’m working and you can help.” I described the pulse of the flower and where exactly to look, quickly mentioning that if he helped, we wouldn’t have to be out here for as long. I knew that would shut him up. “If we wander, you’ll know the way back home, right?”
“How do you not know your way around?”
“I do know my way around... when I can see more than a small ring around my feet. Otherwise, I have to rely on my directional sense.”
“And?”
“I don’t have one.”
“What a shitty life,” he muttered, tromping through the brush. “How can you live like that?”
“How can you make so much noise?”
We walked at a slow, measured pace. Emberflies dotted the way, occasionally going dark as they drifted behind trees, only to lazily pop out again.
“Have you noticed the emberflies kinda seem like they are keeping pace with us?” I murmured, not really caring if he heard or if he answered. “We’re not really passing them. They seem to be moving with us as a horde. Usually they kinda drift on their own. I wonder what the deal is.”
“They are keeping pace, yeah. It’s fucking annoying. It’s messing up my vision.“
“How so?”
“My eyes keep trying to adjust to their light, as feeble as it is, and it’s harder to see in the dark. It feels like I’m not able to peer through the shadows.”
“My lantern can’t be helping either, then.”
“I can kinda... shield that a bit, but the bugs are everywhere.”
“They have a name. Ember?—“
“I don’t give a shit. They’re bugs. We need a bunch of birds to swoop down and eat the fucking things.”
“I wish they had stingers,” I muttered, “and an inclination to use them on you.”
Onward we went, creeping almost. I walked at random, willing a flower to make itself known. The foliage was thick here, though, dense. Heavy leaves, vines and tangled moss could be caging in the light. These flowers didn’t shine like a beacon; it wouldn’t be hard to contain their glow. Even if I was right on top of one, my indigo light would wash away the faded pink of the flower.
“Okay, new plan.” I stopped. “I’m going to turn off my lantern. You’ll need to direct me, okay? Maybe... get in front?”
“You can’t see at all? Like... not even enough to walk?”
I rounded on him, my temper flaring. Work topics so often blotted out reason, eclipsing my fear of him. “Is pretending to be stupid your natural high? No, I can’t see in the dark. You know this. Everyone knows this. Why do you think Granny got me this lantern?”
His power surged alongside his dissatisfaction at my insubordination. I was too frustrated with him and my situation to let it cull me. “She got it because it’s a faerie lantern and you have some huge bullshit love of faerie shit. Keep you happy, keep our clients happy. That’s why she got it.” He paused for a beat, staring me down. “And because you can’t see in the dark, yeah. But like... not at all, though? The moon is out tonight.”
“It’s barely a sliver!” I looked up at the dense canopy. Even if there was space up there between the reaching branches, the weak light from a sliver moon wouldn’t do much to help me. “I need your help. It’s why you’re here.”
He heaved a loud, exasperated sigh. “I see now why you don’t have a mate.”
“I’ve always seen why you don’t. Come on, hurry up. I really want to find one of those flowers tonight.” I reached out and took his arm, only to have him rip it away again. “Fine, move on your own. Just move.”
“I hate this,” he grumbled, stepping over a fallen branch and shuffling in front of me. “I still want to fuck you, because you’re a nice slice of ass, but now I’ll cover your mouth when I do it.”
“Fantastic. Very charming. After I switch off the lantern, I do have to hold on to part of you for this to work, you know. Not your cock, either.”
“Do you think I’m crazy?” he asked, half looking over his shoulder.
I wasn’t quite sure what that was in relation to, since he’d been talking about cock-related topics since he’d first shown up on my doorstep, so I let it go.
“Just hold still,” I told him, tapping off my lantern. Darkness rushed in to envelop us both, and while I did see a few weak patches of light way up in the trees and the soft glowing orbs from the emberflies, I couldn’t see the ground or him in front of me.
“Here we go,” I said softly, hooking my lantern onto my pack as I heard a foot crunch onto the ground. Then another. “Wait, are you moving?”
“You said go!”
“Did you fail to notice that I was not holding onto your shirt?”
“I thought you changed your mind.” His boots crunched onto the ground again, coming back.
“You wonder how I go through life without seeing in the dark?” I reached forward, connecting with his shoulder. “How do you go through without a brain? I’m not the one people should be pitying.”
“They’re too scared to pity me,” he growled. “You might take a hint.”
“What’s the fun in that?” I said, repeating him from earlier.
When he didn’t start walking, I sighed.
“Now you can go,” I said.
“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to walk away and leave you room to run for it.”
My nails dug into him. His dark chuckle said he’d meant to affect me.
Finally he started walking, going just as slow as before. I stepped gingerly, my eyes scanning, ready to fall to the side if my foot caught rather than fall against him. I didn’t want any more bodily contact than was absolutely necessary.
“What about that?” he said, stopping.
“What?”
“That!”
I scanned first one side for a glow, and then the other. “I can’t see where you’re pointing.” I turned to look behind just in case. “I don’t see any...”
My words drifted away as I noticed the emberflies begin to move. They started slowly, as though a heavy breeze were blowing them right. And then they picked up speed, getting out of the area, scattering every way but one. The way danger was obviously coming.
The events of the night before flashed through my mind. The emberflies scattering, the presence, the hallucination.
I dropped my hand from Alexander and took a step back. I could not imagine how I might’ve accidentally dosed myself, but just in case, I didn’t want any touching. I wasn’t sure what would be worse: danger finding me or sharing one of those hallucinations with Alexander.
“See it—“ He cut off as a wolf howled in the distance. I heard the soles of his shoes scrape against the ground. He swore softly. “Run. Hide! Don’t go home. Find a secure place and wait until I come for you.”
“Wh-what?” I said stupidly. What sort of danger would keep me from going back to my cottage, something dangerous enough that even Alexander was afraid of it?
Something rustled, like fabric being stripped.
“What do you see?” I whispered urgently, alarm rising within me.
The emberflies cleared away and hands grabbed my arms. Foul breath washed across my face.
“Go, you stupid bitch. What are you waiting for?” He shoved me.
Not expecting it, my feet tangled in the vegetation underfoot, sending me to my hands and knees.
“Idiot,” I heard before a sort of whoosh. Footsteps on a smaller scale pattered across the ground. He’d shifted into his wolf form and was hurrying away.
“Don’t leave me! Wait,” I hissed, reaching around to grab the lantern from my pack.
I found it quickly and didn’t waste any time in setting it to glow, getting up while I did so. Seen easily for a decent distance through the trees, it would act like a beacon. Without it, though, I was a sitting duck. I couldn’t even hurry to get away, especially since I’d lost the thread of what direction we’d been heading.
The indigo glow highlighted the area around me. My breath was loud in the sudden stillness.
Hide? Where the hell was I supposed to go? Any shifter or forest beast would be able to smell me if I stayed outside. If I couldn’t go home, I doubted I could go to the work shed. No one in this village would take me in, especially if danger followed.
There was only one place I could think of. Only one safe space I knew.
I took off at a jog, light held low, focused on the ground. I’d be damned if I would fall this time. My ankle had been miraculously healed the night before—the issue likely (hopefully) conjured by my mind in the first place—but I would not let it happen this time.
Trees seemed to ghost by me in the darkness. My breath came in fast pants. A few bushes caught my eye in certain configurations that looked familiar. Ferns were interspersed within the plants, and I recognized a bush with purple flowers.
Left! The path to Granny’s was left.
I emerged onto it with a sigh that was short lived.
Vicious growls tore through the night. Baying. Loud whimpering-screams. They were battling somewhere to my right.
My heart shoved up into my throat. I worried they might’ve found Granny.
I dropped my pack and ran faster, with only the lantern now, the light bobbing and jiggling. Little shadows played across the path, hinting of uneven ground and rocks. I avoided them as best I could, hitting one but not going down. Around the bend and the trees started to thin a little, letting in a little of the weak light from the sky. Further along and they continued to clear, the moon and starlight giving me a shimmery view of what awaited me.
Granny’s cottage sat in the little clearing, a stump outside with an axe sticking out of it. A woodpile was stacked neatly a little way behind it. Smoke curled up from the chimney and the area around it lay quiet. Still.
“Oh thank the gods their mercy,” I whispered, not slowing. I chanced a look to either side as I passed, seeking out any hulking forms that might be waiting in the shadows. Looking for any evidence that the enemy had been here.
Nothing seemed out of place. I felt no strange presences or danger. No watchful eyes. Still, butterflies exploded through my middle in anticipation.
Nearing the cottage, I slowed and veered so I wasn’t headed toward the windows. Closer still and I doused the lantern, just in case.
Then I grabbed that axe—also just in case.
I hadn’t had to exert real violence in fifteen years and hadn’t killed anyone in just as long. That didn’t mean I wasn’t capable of it anymore. I might not have genuine magic, but I had the innate ability to survive, and nothing, man or beast, would stand in my way of that. I’d proven it before, and I’d prove it again if necessary.
I hoped it wasn’t necessary.
My limbs shook. My grip on the handle was too tight.
I put the lantern just outside the door, grabbed the door handle, and paused for a deep breath. A moment later I was action, ripping the door open and stepping through, expecting to see Granny in the chair by the fire or the room empty. Instead, several large figures crowded the space.
They turned as one just as I spied what they’d been looking at.
In the corner, with curled hair and a mangled face, lay the woman who’d saved me. Who’d taken me in when no one else would even speak to me. Who’d given me a home, a job, a life.
Her clothes were in tatters, ripped through with claws or teeth. A limb was severed. Blood had stopped flowing from the deep gash in her throat.
Dead.
My world spun in dizzying circles. The need to be sick clawed up my throat. I wanted to scream, to rage, to faint. All I could do was stand there, though, staring at the mangled and disfigured form of my last remaining family member. The only person in the world who had cared about me.
One of the enemies reached forward to grab me as emotional agony screamed through me. Adrenaline followed.
With a wordless howl, I launched into the small area. My axe came down hard, breaking bone and sticking into flesh. Blood splattered my face, my hair, painting my clothes like a scarlet canvas. The name Red would now take on a much darker tone.
I yanked the axe free as though my strength had doubled and swung at the next, who rushed toward me. I lodged it into his chest and punched over it, hitting his nose. His head snapped back, giving me time to yank the axe head free and throw it between the first two toward a third. It stuck in her chest and surprise lit her face. She looked down with her hands spread out, as though she couldn’t fathom how the axe had gotten there.
I grabbed the nearest weapon I could find—unfortunately, just a knitting needle—and prepared to pay them their due. I turned toward the first guy, who was struggling to stand. These people were tough. Usually, the first vicious wound would send most people scattering.
I held the needle aloft as the door swung open behind me, a blast of air invading the small, musty space. With it came the most mouth-watering smell: sun-warmed sandalwood with hints of jasmine and peppered with forbidden sin.
Forbidden sin was not a smell, and yet, that’s what my brain made of it, something I might have ignored when I thought I was hallucinating.
This was not a hallucination.
My stomach tightened but my muscles unexpectedly loosened as I turned, the other people forgotten. In my head, panic and dread and incredulity and disbelief all fought for dominance.
Large shoulders filled the doorway, the robust frame just as I’d remembered. Tall. Muscled. Powerful thighs I’d held onto while his hard dick fucked deep into my mouth.
What the fuck?
Last night hadn’t been a hallucination. I’d fucked a stranger. An intruder.
The enemy.
The man whose people were responsible for killing the only family I’d had left. Because it was clear he was in charge. It showed in his confident bearing, in his air of authority, in the way he looked everyone dead on, not lowering his gaze for anyone.
I flashed my teeth and stepped forward, knitting needle at its zenith. This wouldn’t kill him, but maybe if I could manage hitting his eye, it would maim him for life.