Chapter 4
Chapter 4
Emma
I wasn’t sure what woke me, but I found myself blinking my eyes open and staring at the darkened cavern ceiling of my alcove. I could see the flickering candlelight of the wall sconces out in the main tunnel, the light peeking through the edges of my privacy screen, the shadows making an array of shapes that crisscrossed along the uneven ceiling and walls.
I turned onto my side, assuming I’d just heard someone in passing, and closed my eyes, trying to go back to sleep, when there was a flash of light and the sound of my privacy screen being pulled to the side.
My eyes flew open, and I was about to sit up when a large body was suddenly crouched right in front of me, a big palm covering my mouth. Instinctively I cried out, but the sound was muffled because of the hand. Panic seized my chest, and as my eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, I saw who was in front of me.
Leland.
His face was set hard, and his expression appeared more severe with the darkness swallowing my little room.
“Get up,” he said in a cold, hushed whisper.
Before I could do what he said, he gripped my upper arm and hauled me up. “What?—”
He slapped a hand over my mouth again, his lips by my ear. “I said get up, not talk.” He yanked me forward and pulled the privacy screen to the side, peering out to make sure no one was around, and then looked at me once more. “If you make any sound, I’ll make us match with a chipped front tooth, got it?” He grinned, showing me his teeth, a visual to go along with his threat.
He didn’t give me a chance to respond—not that I had one—before he pulled me out and started walking briskly down the tunnel. His hand was like a vise on my arm, the pain sharp enough I knew there would be bruises.
I wanted to drag my feet, to slap at him, shout for help, but the reality was Leland would most definitely deliver on his promise, and people weren’t too keen on getting involved in the Pit if someone needed help. It was a society of cowards who kept their heads down and their focus only on themselves.
I should know; I felt like I was one of them.
Before I knew what his plans were—as if I didn’t have a disgusting guess—Leland was taking me down a tunnel that I knew would lead to the older parts of the Pit, where the rooms had been converted to storage… and where there wouldn’t be any guards patrolling.
I shook my head and started saying the only word I could over and over again. “No. Nonono .”
He made a frustrated noise, and his grip on me went painfully tighter. “I said shut the fuck up, Emma.”
I kicked out and leaned my body back, trying to get out of his hold.
“Fucking bitch,” he grated. “I’m tired of these games. We’re going to get this done and over with.” He sneered. “I may even let you enjoy it.”
“No. No. No. Let me go, Leland.” I was clawing at his hand, survival taking root in me so fiery I tasted the bitter flavor coating my tongue.
I spit in his face, shocked I'd done the act, afraid I’d made things terribly worse. His expression darkened, and I watched as his arm pulled back, his hit imminent.
I could have cowered, braced myself, flinched for what was to come. I did none of those things though. My hand shot out, my nails curled forward as I aimed them at his face and raked them down the side of one of his cheeks, skin tearing away, blood welling up. He grunted and let out a vile curse before letting go of me to cup his face.
I didn’t wait. I tore out of there, running fast and hard, my voice lodged in my throat so I couldn’t even scream. I heard him curse again, and then the sound of his heavy footfalls followed in my wake as he charged after me.
“Emma,” he hissed. “You’re only making this harder on yourself.”
I pumped my legs and arms, unsure where to go. My alcove was out of the question. And if I went to the guards, I had no doubt Leland had them in his pocket. He had enough power in the Pit. But I couldn’t stay here. I had to hide. I had to get out of here or I’d die… or worse.
I was small and fast and could outrun him.
I rounded the corner and slammed into a body hard enough it pitched me backward, and I fell on my ass. The air knocked out of me, and my hands got scraped up as they skidded across the hard, dirt-covered floor. I stared up at Bryce. He reached out and tried to help me up, but I pushed his hand away and stood.
“Emma? What are you doing in the tunnels this late? Why are you running?” His brows pulled down lower when his gaze flickered behind me.
I heard Leland’s footsteps slowing behind me and the harsh sound of his rapid breathing. If I were looking at Leland, I could imagine the rage reflected back at me.
Instinctively I moved behind Bryce’s bigger body, refusing to look at Leland, hating that I had this weakness in me. I wanted to have the same power these men did, but fear was a strong-willed bitch.
I didn’t want Bryce to think I was turning to him, didn’t want him to think I needed him for anything. But at the moment I was the smaller, weaker one in this scenario, and Leland wouldn’t go against Bryce. So there was at least that.
I looked up then. Leland’s expression showed murderous promise as he glared at me. The three bloody scratches down his face looked redder, angrier because of his rage.
“What the hell is going on?” Bryce demanded in a low voice.
“Nothing,” Leland grated out and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nothing at all.”
“Yeah?” Bryce glanced over his shoulder at me then, but I refused to look at him.
Although he wasn’t violent like Leland, he didn’t have to be in order to get his way. He didn’t have to be in order to be a bastard. Bryce had power and manipulation working on his side. Leland liked to use brute strength and force to get his way.
Both these men were evil in their own way, and I found myself taking another step back, and one more. Leland narrowed his eyes at me.
“I told you to leave her alone,” Bryce addressed Leland but stared at me as he said it. When I didn’t meet his gaze, he faced forward again.
“We were just taking a walk. Talking.”
Bryce let a long pause stretch out before he spoke again. “Yeah? That how you got those scratches down your face? From just talking?”
Leland’s face turned redder, and his lips thinned. “How about you mind your fucking business and keep it moving along, Bryce? Don’t you have more rules to make for the Pit?”
There was this thick, heavy silence that stretched as the two men stared at each other, and then Leland let out a vile curse, looked around Bryce’s shoulder to give me a nasty grin and wink, and said, “I’ll see you later, Emma.” He turned to leave, but I still felt the tension. I still felt that disgust and stickiness cover me like a second skin.
Bryce turned to face me fully and watched me with gray eyes I’d seen locked on me far too many times. I just wanted to get away from him. From Leland. From everyone. I had no connections to the Pit, none except for Tilly. She was the only one who gave a shit about me. She was the only one who never expected something in return from me.
But she was outgoing, sociable. She made friends with others, had connections. She was all I had, but it almost didn’t seem like enough. I still felt so distant and void inside.
“Why don’t you come with me, and I’ll get you a drink?”
I shook my head. “I don’t have extra tokens for that.” Exhaustion suddenly weighed heavily on me, which had nothing to do with being woken up in the middle of the night by my would-be attacker.
“How about a drink on me? I’ll get you one of Harold’s boozers.” Bryce smiled, but it didn’t come off as genuine or sincere. It came off as a little bit aggressive, a little creepy, like he wanted to push that homemade brew into me so I’d be more forthcoming.
He was used to getting what he wanted. Except with me.
I shook my head again. “Thanks, but I could really just use some fresh air.” I shouldn’t ask him for anything, yet I was bringing up going outside, knowing Bryce would be the only one who could get me access past the guards this time of night.
“It’s late.”
“I know.”
He exhaled and ran a hand over the back of his head, looking behind him at where Leland had long since disappeared. “You need some fresh air?” He looked back at me, and I nodded.
A long moment of this weird silence stretched out, one where he just watched me as if he were working out some kind of plan in his head. It set off all kinds of warning bells inside me, but before I could say never mind, he cleared his throat and nodded.“Okay, come on then.”
He gestured for me to follow him, and I did, in silence. I could’ve seen myself liking Bryce if he wasn’t a power-hungry asshole. And although he was nothing like Leland, not a sadistic bastard, he had no qualms about using people to get what he wanted.
I followed several steps behind him, my focus trained straight ahead even though I couldn’t see much past Bryce’s big body. We made a few turns, walked a long while more, and then he slowed as we neared one of the back entrances to the Pit.
I could see one of the guards up ahead, the makeshift door he guarded made from the thick, almost stone-like wood that grew from the gnarly, crazy-looking trees that surrounded the encampment.
Bryce and the guard spoke in low tones, and then I watched some kind of exchange happen as he reached into his pocket, pulled something out, and handed it to the guard. I really shouldn’t be making deals like this, because no doubt Bryce would want something in return. But I needed some space, fresh air. Silence. And right now I felt desperate.
And then the guard was pulling open the heavy door and allowing us entrance to the outside. Bryce looked at me and inclined his head toward the exit, and I followed behind him once again.
Once we were outside, the door was closed behind us, sealing us out from the safety of the tunnels and caverns. I shivered as I looked into the sky, expecting to see a massive dragon flying overhead.
During the day, the temperature outside was stifling because of the dual suns, and although it was now night and dark, the massive moon in the sky couldn’t ease the stifling temperatures much.
I took several steps forward and tipped my head back, staring at the large moon in the sky. It was massive, so monstrous it was like a single eye staring down at the world and casting this eerie silver glow along the land. I didn’t know how long I stood there, but once again I felt like I was being watched. I blinked back to the present and glanced over my shoulder to see Bryce leaning against the scarred door, his gaze locked on me. He had his arms crossed over his chest, and I shivered again even though it wasn’t cold.
“Thank you for taking me outside.” He didn’t say anything in response, and I wanted to look away but couldn’t. “Do you think… Do you think I could have a couple of minutes alone out here?”
“It’s not safe, especially alone and without the security of the suns.”
I didn’t respond because what could I say? He was right, of course, but I was only feeling the fear from Leland, the Pit, and right now the way Bryce looked at me.
Long moments passed where he didn’t speak or move, and then he pushed off the door and made his way toward me. I stepped back when he stopped beside me, his focus on the moon. Bryce stared down at me then, this weird expression on his face that had me taking another step back before I realized I’d done it.
“If you were mine, he wouldn’t bother you anymore. No one would dare.”
I didn’t respond. I didn’t know how to. What he was implying was obvious. I licked my lips and wanted to look away from him. But his gaze was like a trap, a vicious one you couldn’t escape unless you chewed off your own arm.
“If you became mine, Emma, nobody would fuck with you.”
I was shaking my head before I realized I was doing it. “I-I don’t want to be anyone’s. I just want to be left alone.” The last part was whispered from my lips.
The grin he gave me wasn’t pleasant or humorous or anything that came from a warm place. It was sardonic and dark. It held a promise I didn't want from him. “Don’t you understand, Emma?” He took a step toward me, and I took one back. “The world we live in is all about owning things. It’s about having the control and power to survive. That’s how it’s always been and how it’ll always be.” He held out his hands. “You can either choose to be at the top—‘owned,’ as you put it once before—and protected. Or… you can be on your own. And we know how that works out.”
His words were so cold, colder than anything I’d ever heard or felt. “You have enough women to keep you company,” I finally whispered. “I don’t understand why you need me. I don’t understand why you want me.”
I expected him to grin, to show his disgusting lust, but all he did was sigh as if my words annoyed him. “Just because I fuck those women doesn’t mean I want anything from them.”
His crassness was nauseating. And when he let his gaze move up and down my body, I felt like covering myself despite being fully dressed.
“It’s you I’ve always wanted.” This gross sound of need left him. “It’s you I think about when I fuck those other women.”
The fear pulsed through me as he advanced. I’d never seen Bryce look at me like this, never seen him be so brazen and obvious. But then again… we’d never been fully alone, not like this, where we were blocked out from the caves, out here in the open where there were no witnesses. Not like the latter would have helped me anyway, but this situation clearly gave Bryce a power trip and head rush.
I wished I had a weapon, a shard of that stone-like bark so I could defend myself, so I could plunge it into his heart. I glanced to the side at the creeping branches of those dead-looking trees in the distance. Go there. Break off a branch. Use it. Use it on him.
I was breathing harder the closer he got.
“Stop retreating.” His voice was harder, angrier.
Is this how my life will end? Was this how things ended before a new, more horrifying chapter in my life started?
Run!
I didn’t think, just did the only thing I could as a weaponless, threatened female.
I ran away from the safety of the Pit, knowing I’d rather take my chances out there in the desolate, dangerous, dragon-filled world than with the evil men who called themselves allies.