Chapter 53
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
BEFORE
She was finally going to leave. Dolion was waiting for her at their meeting spot as he promised. The moon was beaming among the stars as his figure came into view. He had staked a thin torch into the ground, illuminating his features. He wore all black; he had told her to do the same.
“You came.” He flashed his charming white smile her way.
She reached up to kiss his sweet, awaiting lips, running her fingers through his soft hair.
“I came.”
His hands found the back of her neck and buried themselves beneath her long locks.
He cradled her face toward his, allowing their lips to meet.
Why did his kiss feel wrong tonight? It must be the nerves.
His grip grew hard and possessive. He was shaking, like he was holding back from clutching her tighter.
The sound of rustling reached her ears, tree branches being pushed apart. She tried to pull away to look. Dolion’s grasp on her neck was immovable.
She placed both her palms on his chest, pushing lightly. He didn’t release her. More branches cracked behind him. The sound of a foot or maybe a giant paw? She couldn’t tell.
Her wide eyes swooped in both directions.
The attacks.
Why had she not brought a sword? She hadn’t thought about protection on the road.
Dolion kept her close, kissing her with invasive force. His tongue slipped between her teeth. The infiltration caught her off guard. He was being unusually rough and wouldn’t let her pull away. She did the only thing she could think of and bit down, finally sending him rearing backward.
“Dolion! What—” She couldn’t finish. Not when she heard his laugh. It sounded deranged, a bitter evil thing ringing in her ears. He spat red on the ground. She had drawn blood.
“You never told me you liked teeth. I’ll make sure to remember that.”
She froze as two gargantuan men became visible in the torchlight beside Dolion.
“Is it done?” Dolion asked them over his shoulder.
The men nodded. She couldn’t decide which of them looked more gruesome. Each possessed grimy hair and sickly brown teeth. Their hands looked soiled by a thick wet oil all the way up to their wrists.
She looked down at the sheathed blades at their belts. Both of them were armed.
She turned.
A sharp grip engulfed her wrist around her silver bracelet before she could take a step away. She whirled to face an all-too-calm Dolion holding her in place. How had he moved so swiftly?
“Hey, hey. Don’t go running off. We have plans, remember?” His tone was unfamiliar, so cold.
“What’s going on? Who are they?” she demanded.
“Friends, Helaina.” Dolion’s voice didn’t belong to the man she had fallen in love with. This voice made her stomach roil with its false glamour. “I know you don’t have any, but the twins are some of mine. Benon and Balor have been eager to meet you. I’ve told them so much about you.”
His striking face grew dark and vicious. “You know, I gave you so many opportunities to be honest with me, to tell me the truth. I thought we were close.” His grip grew tighter, and his eyes grew feral.
“I . . . I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She was trembling now. “Please, Dolion . . . you’re hurting me.”
The men behind him chuckled. The sounds made her skin crawl.
Dolion’s smile was lupine as his nails dug into her supple flesh. “You know, you were so desperate for love from the moment I set eyes on you, so deprived of affection. We could have sent anyone in here, and you would have followed him like a bitch in heat.”
He squeezed her wrist harder, the metal of her silver bracelet biting into her skin under his oppressive hold.
“Dolion . . . please!” she shrieked as she went to her knees from the pressure. He was going to snap her bones in two.
“I like seeing you on your knees. I think I’ll have you like this again, when we get to your new home. Maybe see what that pretty mouth can do.”
More laughs from the men behind him.
“I do like the sound of your begging. Do it again for me.”
She steadied her breathing and gulped down the pain. Her eyes flared up at him. She wished now more than ever she had some sort of control over this so-called power she possessed.
“I said beg, bitch.” He bent her wrist backward, making her shriek. “She looks pretty when she screams, doesn’t she?” Dolion glanced over his shoulder as their twisted laughter continued, all of them reveling in her pain.
Helaina whimpered between breaths, scrunching her eyes tight, not wanting him to see her tears. She tried to pry his hand off with the one she had free.
He brought his face closer to hers. “Why do you think I spent countless years in this piece-of-shit kingdom?” he gritted out through clenched teeth. “I’ve known exactly who you are from the beginning. It’s why I was sent here. It’s why I killed that stable master and his son to get close to you.”
Her eyes widened as her heart shattered.
Glen, who had always been so kind to her. The son who had never even set foot here. Glen was never Dolion’s father . . . It had been a trick, an elaborate lie. She had been so naive, so foolish. She had cost two innocent men their lives.
He finally pushed her away, letting her body fall to the ground. The bracelet he’d given her scattered in pieces. She bled from where the silver had cut into her skin.
“After all these years, making sure you stayed found and untouched, it’s finally time to collect on my investment, Helaina. You’re finally getting your wish. You get to leave.”
She rubbed her wrist, cradling it to her chest, and let him see all the hate she felt in this moment. “They’ll come for me. It won’t be long. The soldiers will realize I’m missing and ride out here.”
Clearly unfazed by her words or ire, he bowed his head to her. “On what horses?” he whispered.
The second the words left his mouth, she smelled it—the smoke.
No.
She spun to the direction of the stables a couple of miles down the slight hill. A flash of fire was growing, black smoke billowing above it in the starlit sky.
The twins, the slick oil on their hands. They had set it ablaze. The horses.
“No!” Her shrill screech echoed in the night air.
She tried to get up and run, but he caught the back of her hair, fisting it as he pulled her close. Her back was flush to his chest as he forced her to look at the stable that was now engulfed in flames.
“Get used to the smell of burning flesh, Helaina. Your future is riddled with it.” His breath was hot in her ear.
Her stomach retched.
Her only friend, her only companion—her only love—was shattering the world around her. Years of bonded trust broken, and she couldn’t wrap her mind around it, that this was her Dolion.
Tears rolled down her cheeks. “Please . . . let me go. I want to go home.”
“Let you go? I thought you wanted this. I thought you were going to marry me and carry my children.” He took his other hand and gently caressed her abdomen.
She tried to slink away. It only brought her back closer to his front.
He reached to his side and unsheathed a dagger.
Her whole body tensed as the tip of the blade came under her chin, guiding her face to make eye contact with his sinister gaze.
“There are plans for you, love. And while you fulfill your destiny, I’ve been guaranteed full access to you. In exchange for the many years I dedicated to the cause.” He licked her, starting at her shoulder and migrating up to her ear, like he was tasting her.
“You’re mine, Helaina. I could have taken you in that field when you offered me your sweet virtue .
. .” He inhaled deeply at the crook of her neck, taking in her scent as she struggled to get free of his touch.
“. . . but as you’ve witnessed, I am a man of patience.
When I take you for the first time, I want to be the only one to enjoy your screams.”
She closed her eyes, praying she would wake up from this nightmare. This was the prophecy fulfilled. They had come for her, to claim her and use her. This was her fate.
She hung her head and stopped fighting him.
A moment after her hope had shriveled, a savage cry roared in her ears. An angry bellow from behind.
She knew that scream—that voice.
Krysta.