Chapter 13
CHAPTER 13
Footsteps padded by my ears. Soft steps like ghostly whispers. They disturbed the Wood’s soil littered with fragrant pine needles, each step inadvertently creating puffs of aroma that tickled my senses and roused me from sleep.
I opened my eyes groggily. Darkness greeted me. Beside me, a male slept. Soft, even breathing reached my ears, and a warm, hard body was turned on his side. His chest was pressed flush against my back, and his arm rested around my waist, as though completely unaware of the casually intimate way he held me.
Jax . Every inch of him was heated, as impenetrable as stone, and strangely, being held by him felt nothing but safe.
I roused more. I’d never been held by a male before. Not ever. Guardian Alleron had never permitted it since he wouldn’t allow me relationships. He’d only ever granted males the right to touch me during callings, and that was under his ever-watchful eye, except for the time he’d left the room and Lordling Neeble had...
I shoved that thought away and settled back more.
Jax’s arm tightened around me, as though sensing my fear. And even though he still slept, he dragged me closer to him, even if the movement was slight.
My cheeks pinked. His heat wrapped around me, keeping me warm in the chilled air. I closed my eyes again and was about to settle back to sleep, but then abruptly started. Wait, if Jax is still sleeping beside me, then who’s outside the tent?
A faint whisper on the breeze reached my ears, but it was so quiet I couldn’t decipher it. I scrubbed more sleep from my eyes, and my heart began to pound.
Somebody was outside our tent.
I was certain of that.
My collar vibrated along my throat, and my breathing sped up with every passing second. It was possible I was hearing the other males. Perhaps Phillen or Lander had gotten up to relieve themselves. But if that was the case, they wouldn’t be trying so hard to conceal their movements.
I turned over to jostle Jax awake, but before I could, the tent’s canvas door flew open, and a large siltenite fairy dove inside.
Gasping, I lunged out of the way.
But he wasn’t going for me.
The glint of metal in the moons’ dim light caught my eye. The blade streaked upward, its intent clear .
“Jax!”
But my warning came too late.
The dagger fell and impaled the Dark Raider.
I shrieked and flew back. A groan came from Jax, his hand going to his upper stomach, right by his heart. The blade had sunk all the way to the hilt, and an eruption of blood gushed from the wound.
My heart felt as though it’d stopped.
“Jax!” I screamed again.
Rough hands grabbed me and yanked me from the tent. Before I could scream again, I was outside, and the cold night air whipped my hair in front of my eyes. My collar vibrated so strongly that painful jolts traveled down my arms. Thrashing, I tried to pull free from whomever held me, but his grip tightened.
“Let me go, you?—”
A large hand clamped over my mouth, the male’s skin rough and damp with sweat.
“Is that her?” another male hissed.
More canvas flapped on the tents, and with a start, I realized the clearing was crawling with male siltenites. Ten, no fifteen...no, twenty . My eyes bulged. So many.
Hair tangled in front of my eyes. Another breeze blew through the clearing, shifting my hair from my face and allowing me to see. My entire body quivered when none of Jax’s friends emerged from their tents, and considering that several of the unknown males did, I could only guess that what had been done to Jax had also been done to his friends. They were likely all dead.
Oh Goddess.
Groans came from each tent, and my fear halted. Not dead, but obviously wounded. But from the placement of the dagger in Jax’s stomach... If it hadn’t gotten his heart, it’d been damn close. He would likely be dead from bleeding out within the hour, his friends probably in a similar state even if they currently lived.
A twist of regret cleaved my heart. Those males had taken me from my guardian and shown me the truth of him. And now, they were all as good as gone.
“Bring her here.” A rough voice reached my ears, and I stiffened. I recognized that voice.
No, it can’t be. I’m dreaming. This has to be a dream.
But the male I was presented to was indeed Lordling Neeble. Faewood Kingdom colors adorned him. All the males accompanying him wore similar garb. My gaze sharpened in the moonlight, and a few more familiar faces appeared, then more.
Every part of me locked up. These siltenites were Neeble’s fae, the notoriously brutal guards who he’d hand-selected to guard his properties. Most had come from prison, after spending full seasons behind rock walls for their atrocious crimes that usually involved violence against females. They were known for their vicious and abusive behavior. Nobody dared enter Lordling Neeble’s grounds due to what these males were rumored to do to fae.
“Is this her?” the male holding me asked.
Lordling Neeble grabbed my chin and angled my face in the moonlight. A cruel smile curved his lips.
Bile rose in my throat. My skin crawled, remembering the last time he touched me.
I tried to pull away, tried to inch back, but his fingers tightened their hold.
“That’s her. She’s mine now.” He cast a vindictive look over his shoulder to where Guardian Alleron was still bound and deprived of his senses. My former guardian sat entirely still. Jax must have released him from his pain-inducing psychic magic. It was possible Guardian Alleron was sleeping. With only his taste and smell senses activated, he probably had no idea that Jax’s camp had just been overrun, and the Dark Raider and his friends were close to entering the afterlife.
That knife-like feeling again cleaved my heart.
“Stupid fool,” Lordling Neeble said under his breath, then spat on the ground toward my guardian. “He got himself caught.”
“What are you doing here?” I muffled behind the male’s palm, my voice trembling.
Lordling Neeble smiled, a terrifying twist of his lips that had my insides churning. “Before he left for Lemos, Guardian Alleron told the king of your abduction. Naturally, the king wasn’t happy to hear that his favorite lorafin had been whisked from his capital, so he ordered your guardian to send regular updates via dillemsills, and when word arrived that you’d been found in Lemos and your guardian had you, the king sent several teams out to patrol the borders, just in case your rescue failed. Lucky for me, I had just arrived in the north via a ship, so the king asked me to remain on standby, and when Alleron failed to send word back to the king at the appointed time, the king sent me and all teams out looking for you. Hundreds of fae are scouring the borders for you, Elowen, and it’s a good thing our king is so diligent or you never would have been found.” He cast another disdainful glance at Guardian Alleron. “Really, such a disgrace. Even with three dozen guards, he couldn’t bring you back.” He scoffed. “Your former guardian has proven he’s no longer capable of keeping you. He’s obviously lost his edge, so I shall now take on that task.” He smiled, then licked his lips and eyed me hungrily.
Vomit threatened to rise in my throat, and I shrank back more, but the male behind me stopped my retreat.
“Where to now, Lordling Neeble?” the one holding me asked.
“Get her on the domal. If we move fast, we’ll get her to port by sunrise.”
I thrashed again, but the guard’s grip dug into my bare skin, and the stupid gown I wore offered little protection.
Another groan came from the tents, and with a sickening realization, I knew those were the last sounds Phillen, Lars, Bowan, Lander, and Trivan would make. They were all dying .
Even worse, the tent that I’d come from was completely silent. Jax was likely already dead.
A horrible aching regret filled me. And even though a part of me knew my reaction was ridiculous since Jax and I had only just met, it’d truly felt like something had shifted between us last night. On top of that, Jax had never abused me. Despite me physically hitting him, he still never roughly handled me or struck me.
Unlike the male standing before me—a despicable Faewood lordling, who was apparently here to abduct me as well. My third abduction. A laugh of hysteria threatened to rise inside me. The absurdity of the situation nearly made me cackle.
The guard holding me shook me. “Quiet.”
But his rough treatment did little to stop my hysterics, and an unhinged laugh escaped me.
Lordling Neeble seethed. “Shut her up, and get her on the domal.”
The guard holding me spun me around and slapped me across the face. He did it so fast.
The sting it left on my cheek was sharp and smarted enough that my laughter stopped. Searing pain coasted over my features, and I winced.
The males moved swiftly, throwing me on top of a domal as though I was a sack of flour before righting me, and then tied my legs with leather straps to the four-legged animal. My hands were still free, but I wasn’t given any reins, and my collar began to sing in warning as fear cascaded through me.
This is really happening.
The male who’d thrown me on the animal snickered. “I’d advise you to hold on.”
The domal’s eyes gleamed in the moonlight as it danced on its hooves, but domals were intelligent animals. This one was no exception, given its concerned looks my way and angry snorts at the males.
“We move. Now!” Lordling Neeble growled.
My domal took off, falling in line with the males who were already mounted, just as Lordling Neeble swung onto his steed.
Within seconds, we were flying through the Wood, galloping back up the Ustilly Mountains, moving south once more.
I struggled to stay upright but somehow managed to twist my fingers through the domal’s mane and hang on even though zaps emitted continually from my collar.
I jostled and groaned with every patter of the domal’s hooves. My newest captor hadn’t cared about my comfort. I was tied so tightly to the saddle that my legs burned from the stinging ropes.
A whip cracked on my animal’s backside. Whinnying, the domal leaped forward, moving even faster.
Wind flew through my hair, and I yelped when the domal careened around a sharp rock on the steep mountain slope. The sound of rocks scattering along the ground and tumbling off the mountainside had my stomach lurching.
With every step that we climbed, the Wood disappeared behind us until only towering rock and jagged peaks surrounded us. Moonlight lit the way. My eyes flashed wide. I hadn’t been able to see any of this when I’d traveled on Phillen’s back. It’d all been a blur, but on the slower-moving domal, terror engulfed me. The domals hooves weren’t equipped for the steep rock slopes, and all of the animals slid and whinnied in fear as the males pushed them to move faster.
I lurched forward when my steed tried to leap over a rock and instead swung precariously to the side before it landed, then skidded sideways.
Pain from the stinging ropes cut into my legs even more. My collar activated anew, sending a smattering of shocking bolts through my limbs, making my nerves burn and my mind go blank.
“Keep moving!” Lordling Neeble yelled.
The domals finally reached the peak of the mountain range and began to descend on the other side, but the downward descent was even more treacherous. Several times, the animals nearly plunged off the steep ravine, and Lordling Neeble was forced to slow us. The entire time, I clung to the domal’s mane, my fingers entwined so tightly around it’s dark-purple strands that its course hair cut into my skin.
“We’re almost to the Wood,” Lordling Neeble called. “ Once we’re there, head back to the wildling trail and head east. There’s a ship?—”
An enraged howl echoed across the valley from behind us, like a snarling beast emerging from its cave.
I swung my head around, wildly searching for the source of that sound. I was convinced I would find a treefang or wildesnare, or another mythical creature that was said to inhabit the mountainous Wood. But...nothing.
A whistling sound abruptly cut through the wind, and a blade impaled one of the males in front of me. I screamed.
Blood glistened in the moonlight when the tip appeared on the front of his chest, piercing right through his heart. The male tumbled off his domal.
Heart thundering, I leaned back on my domal, trying to get it to slow, but the animal must have sensed the death and blood in the air. Its head reared back, another terrified whinny emitting from it.
“Get her to the Wood!” Lordling Neeble shouted.
More blades and arrows suddenly zinged through the air, coming from behind us, and then I heard it.
Hoofbeats.
A swell of disbelief and joy tumbled through me simultaneously. Out of the darkness, cascading down the mountaintop like Lucifer himself, the Dark Raider, Phillen, and Trivan appeared atop their friends, having come into view only when they reached the lordling’s group and slowed enough to no longer be a blur .
They tore through the group of Faewood males as though demons possessed their souls, turning into a tornado of death and destruction.
The lordling’s males fought back, using their swords and daggers to counter the blows, but the stag shifters moved like the wind, dodging and swiping their weapons in moves so fast they were impossible to see.
I’d never seen any males move that fast. Ever.
A rough hand abruptly yanked the domal I rode, then I was careening down the mountain once more, the animal screaming in fear as Lordling Neeble brutally forced it into the Wood.
We galloped into the trees at full speed. Leaves and branches cut into my skin.
“Elowen!” Jax’s bellow came from behind me, but the noble didn’t slow.
Magic speared the air, filling the space around me, and then Lordling Neeble gasped.
“My eyes!” he screamed.
He let go of my domal, clawing at his face while Jax’s sense-stealing magic clouded around him.
The sound of more galloping hooves came from behind me, and then Jax was there, and his huge stag slammed into Lordling Neeble’s mount.
The noble fell off his steed, landing with a crash in a patch of barnbrambles. The lordling cried out when the sharp thorns mercilessly impaled his flesh and tore his skin .
“Elowen!” Jax grabbed my domal, slowing the frightened beast until he danced around where Lordling Neeble lay.
Jax’s sapphire eyes practically glowed in the moonlight. He jumped off the stag, and a flash of magic flared in the night, and then Bowan stood before me too, dressed in black with a weapon raised.
“Go,” Jax snarled.
Bowan disappeared in a blur back the way he’d come.
The domal I rode whinnied again and pranced, but Jax kept hold of its halter, stopping the poor animal’s terrified movements. Leaning closer, Jax whispered something, and some of its frantic movements slowed, but its eyes still rolled white.
I sucked in a breath, alternating between trying to breathe and attempting to stifle my heightened emotions so my collar would stop punishing me. It didn’t help that my legs ached from the vise-like ropes or that cuts lined my palms from the domal’s course hair, but none of that compared to the absolute fury emanating from Jax.
Jax quickly tied my domal to a tree, then rounded on Lordling Neeble.
The male was still stuck in the barnbrambles, trying to untangle himself from the wooded stalks as he thrashed in his blinded state.
Jax shoved his hands into the bush and seized the male’s shirt before hauling him out.
Lordling Neeble bared his teeth and punched for Jax’s mouth, but Jax easily dodged it, then slammed his forehead right into the lordling’s nose.
Bone cracked, and blood gushed from his nostrils. Lordling Neeble howled, but he continued trying to fight.
In the distance, sounds of hacking flesh and pitiful moans carried on the wind. Farther up the mountain, the fighting still waged, but given that the sounds grew less and less, I had a feeling I knew who the victors were, and from the sounds of it, Jax’s friends were ruthlessly killing every single male who had accompanied Lordling Neeble. This time there would be no survivors.
“How?” I managed in a strained whisper as Lordling Neeble continued to blindly swing. “He stabbed you. Right in the heart. You were dead. I saw it.”
“He missed my heart.”
It was the only explanation I got before Jax hauled Lordling Neeble clear of the thorny bush, staggering slightly under the lordling’s weight.
My eyes widened. “Jax, you’re hurt!”
He groaned under his breath and slammed Lordling Neeble to a tree, but he sagged and took several deep breaths. Moonlight shone off his complexion, highlighting the pale skin around his eyes.
The domal danced more beneath me as my worry grew. “Jax...you’re injured .”
“Still healing,” he rasped, then turned his attention back to the noble. “Who are you?” he demanded on a low growl .
But Lordling Neeble just kicked and thrashed, and my worry tripled even though Jax continued to dodge his blows.
“He’s Lordling Neeble from Faewood Kingdom. He rules one of the ten Houses,” I said in a rush. “The king sent him to retrieve me when Guardian Alleron failed to make contact.”
Jax’s eyebrows drew together. “You know him?”
I gave a swift nod, and a sharp swell of nausea roiled my stomach as the memories of how I knew him hit me anew. “He’s...used my services before.”
Jax inhaled sharply, his eyes narrowing in my direction.
The domal pranced more, and I rubbed my hand along the animal, trying to soothe it since I was still tied to the poor thing.
“Elowen?” Jax growled. “Did he do more than use your lorafin powers?”
My brow furrowed. How can he know that?
Somehow, I managed a nod. “When I woke from his calling, he was...touching me. Guardian Alleron wasn’t in the room. I was alone with him.”
The air around Jax completely stilled, and the Wood grew entirely silent.
Magic suddenly pulsed from the Dark Raider, growing stronger and more potent with every breath he took. The male felt like a storm brewing and writhing, growing and swirling as the power within him threatened to unleash.
Leaves rustled from the north, and then Phillen, Trivan, Bowan, Lander, and Lars appeared. All were coated in blood and smelled of death. Yet even though every single one of them had been stabbed, they were all still breathing.
“Did you take care of all of them?” Jax growled in a beastly tone.
“The bastards are all dead, on their way to Lucifer’s kingdom as we speak,” Trivan said, a smirk in his voice even though he slumped against a tree and breathed heavily.
“Untie Elowen,” Jax replied. He released Lordling Neeble, and in another cloud of magic, the noble gasped.
Lordling Neeble blinked rapidly and gazed around. “I can see again!” he whispered more to himself than anyone here.
Jax clutched his stomach and staggered back before righting himself. I had the most ridiculous urge to go to him, even though I couldn’t since I was still tied to the terrified domal.
Forcing himself to stand tall, the Dark Raider prowled toward the House noble. “Yes, you can see, Lordling Neeble, and I intend to have you keep all of your senses. Because I plan to ensure you experience every bit of torture I’m about to inflict on you.”
Hours later, the sun was rising steadily over the Ustilly Mountains. We were back at camp, and Jax and all of his friends had eaten a mountain of food, probably diminishing their supplies completely. But the food seemed to assist whatever magic healed them. None of them appeared tired or weakened anymore.
I sat before a fire that Lars had silently lit. Lander had given me a jar of cream, telling me it would help with the quickly healing welts on my legs. Bruises had formed on my upper arms from the guard who’d roughly handled me, and I’d had a swollen lip from the vicious slap across my face, but those were already gone. My magic had taken care of that.
Around me, the tents were still standing, but everything else was a mess. Lordling Neeble’s raiding party had trampled over all of the supplies, leaving dirty footprints in their wake.
Across the fire, Jax watched me, and I could have sworn that his eyes glowed as he meticulously sharpened a blade against a rock. He observed every dip of my hands into the salve, every spread of the blessed cream over my wounds. His expression, what I could see of it, was entirely indecipherable, but his motions with the blade increased as I tended to each cut.
Strangely, though, I didn’t feel fear when I gazed across the fire at my captor. Despite the dark energy strumming around him, it wasn’t directed at me, but rather at the male who’d been stripped bare and was currently dangling from a tree branch by a rope that cut into his wrists.
Lordling Neeble’s body swung slowly in circles. With his arms overhead, bound at the wrists, and the long rope holding him aloft so his feet couldn’t touch the ground, he was entirely vulnerable.
The other five stag shifters all prowled around the camp. They’d washed the blood away from their clothes and hands and now waited for whatever was to come.
“Tell me what he did to you,” Jax said in a low tone, breaking the quiet. His knife continued to move languidly across the stone, the scraping motion the only sound apart from the quietly snapping fire.
My hand stopped mid-movement from dipping into the cream again. I set it aside, trembling. To hide the movement, I wrapped my arms around myself. Before I even knew what I was doing, I was rocking silently. Memories I didn’t care to ever relive threatened to rise.
Biting my lip, I shook my head. “I can’t.”
Jax watched me, his eyes glowing slightly. His aura swelled, pulsing throughout the camp. He glanced down at his knife. “But he touched you?” he finally asked, his voice gruff. “In places he shouldn’t have?”
“He did.”
Jax rose in a blur. “Hold him still,” he barked at Phillen. “Lars, take Elowen away from here. She doesn’t need to see this.”
“What are you going to do?” I pushed to a stand as the magic inside me stirred.
“What he deserves. It’s best if you’re not here to see it.”
Lars approached me, his demeanor nonthreatening, but I sidestepped the redhead. “What if I want to stay?”
Jax inhaled, then said in a dark tone, “I don’t intend to be gentle. Do you remember when I said I reserved my brutal side for the truly vile in our realm? Fae like this are who I was referring to.” He pointed his knife at the noble.
But I still refused to move. “Tell me what you’re going to do.”
I could have sworn Jax’s jaw worked beneath his mask. “I’m going to carve into his flesh and make him bleed. Slowly at first, because he attacked my camp. He tried to kill me and my friends. For that, he will pay. But what he did to you tonight, and at that calling...” Energy slammed into the trees around us. “For that , I’m going to fillet the skin from his bones, strip by strip. I’m going to do it slowly, agonizingly so, and at the very end I’m going to cut that dangling tiny cock off.” His eyebrows rose as the dawn sun lit his face in a myriad of colors. He still wore his mask. All I could see were those startling blue irises. But despite the malicious gleam in his gaze, his words gentled, and his tone softened when he added, “Are you sure you can handle watching that?”
I wrapped my arms around myself, trembling more. I didn’t relish hurting others. Violence was never something I’d cared for, but after being abused by this male in the worst way I’d ever been hurt, I wanted to see Lordling Neeble in pain.
With a swift nod, I relaxed my arms and stood straighter. “I can handle it.”