Chapter 4
Alina
Only when I was down, draped all over Liam, did his hold on my arm slacken. I scrambled back in a panic, desperate to get far away from him. I didn’t even waste time on getting to my feet, moving on my hands and butt. The soles of my shoes squeaked against the marble.
My heart drummed with terror, my entire body shaking with tremors I couldn’t control.
Time seemed to slow as the noises around me muffled and stretched, gaining a strange, echoing quality. The only things I heard clearly were my gasping breaths and the blood rushing in my ears. Colors blurred around me, but I didn’t dare look away from Liam’s prostrate body, my hands growing clammy as I waited for him to get up and attack me again.
I waited. And waited. A scream jolted me out of my daze, penetrating through the thick cocoon wrapped around my mind. I blinked. Liam was still down, his body oddly motionless. I focused on his chest, a single thought breaking through my panic.
Look. He stopped breathing.
I stared at his chest in awe while the chaos of screams and running feet around me finally broke through, as if someone tore down a curtain muffling everything. I was still on the floor, and I looked up dazedly, watching people of various species running around, most covering their eyes with their hands.
“Get up,” a cool, female voice spoke in my ear. “Get up. You have to leave. Take your groom and step through the portal. It’s already programmed for you.”
I stood up on wobbly legs, still reeling from everything that happened. A priestess, not the one who handled my ceremony, had me by the elbow. My eyes snagged on Liam’s lifeless body, and I finally understood with full clarity what was wrong with him.
He was dead.
“Go so we can resume operation. Everything will be taken care of. You and your husband are barred from further visits in the temple.”
The priestess spoke rapidly into my ear, propelling me through the chaos. As soon as Voss appeared in my field of vision, I looked down at the floor, a cold, sticky fear breaking out on my nape. The priestess shoved me forward, and I fell into his arms with a gasp.
“Go!” she commanded.
A moment later, we were whirling through a flurry of colorful lights as a feeling of weightlessness settled in the pit of my stomach with queasy suction. Another breath, and we were spat out onto thick, lush grass.
The chaos died. The air around me filled with rustling, subtle sounds. I inhaled and coughed, the air heavy and too rich with a mixture of scents after the cool and sterile interior of the temple.
“Alina,” Voss said behind me, and I jolted, stumbling away from him. I looked around frantically, keeping my gaze low so I wouldn’t accidentally meet his eyes.
My mind was still processing everything that happened, but my body already knew, and it acted on instinct. Protecting me.
When I saw the golden arch of the portal, I took an impulsive step closer before I stopped, staring at it without comprehension. The frame wasn’t filled with liquid light in various colors indicating the portal was online. It was empty. Behind it, I saw lush, green vegetation blossoming with huge, red flowers.
“I have to go back,” I said, my voice sounding hollow to my own ears.
“You can’t.” Voss’s voice was more alien than ever, and so cold, it burned. I flinched. “This portal doesn’t operate on its own. I had it installed to get to the temple, and now it’s cut off.”
I wanted to look at him and argue but stopped myself. Sweat broke out on my forehead and slickened my armpits. I realized it was hot—way hotter than I was used to. Something buzzed to my right, and I looked just in time to see a large insect gleaming gold in the sun that penetrated through the thick foliage.
“Then I’ll walk,” I said, hugging myself.
When Voss came closer, his clawed feet moving into my field of vision, I took a stumbling step back. He stopped, saying nothing. I didn’t dare look up even an inch higher, terrified of meeting his gaze.
Oh gods. Was I trapped with him? I shuddered, a sob gathering in my chest, the pressure growing. I dug my fingers, ice-cold despite the heat, into the skin of my arms. What was that saying?
Out of the frying pan, into the fire.
At least with Liam, there were other people around. People I knew. People who could help in secret, even though they’d never defy him openly.
Here, I was on my own, thrown into a strange land. I had no one.
“You can’t walk away, it’s too dangerous. My estate is surrounded by swamps filled with predators,” Voss said, his hissing voice making me flinch.
Gods, how did I think I’d be safe with him? How would I ever look into his eyes and hope for a happy, bright future at his side? I wanted to laugh at my naivety, now so thoroughly crushed.
He’s exactly like Liam, except worse. He can kill you with a look.
“Alina, please,” Voss hissed, twitching as if he wanted to step closer. I gasped and stumbled back, raising my hands in front of me in a plea for him to stay away.
If he was like Liam, he would ignore all my pleas, verbal or not. He would take what he wanted from me, and who would stop him? I was his wife, after all.
The only reason Liam hadn’t raped me were his old-fashioned notions about marriage and propriety. He didn’t want the woman who became his wife to be used up, even by him.
That had been a comfort which was now gone, crushed like the rest of my hopes. Even if Voss had the same twisted principles as Liam, which I highly doubted, he had no reason to stop himself. I was at his mercy.
“Don’t come closer!” I said, my voice high-pitched and desperate.
I still only saw his legs, clad in those stiff trousers that shone a deep bronze in the dappled sun. Voss surprised me with his easy acquiescence.
“All right. I will not come any closer. You have my word.”
I rubbed my arms, breathing heavily, and didn’t reply or look. A weariness slowly overcame me, the air so humid, breathing it was an effort, the temperature way higher than was comfortable. The buzzing of the gold insect stopped as it sat on the bark of a tree nearby.
The bark was black, wrapped in vivid red vines.
“Did you kill him with your eyes?” I asked, still looking at the insect as it slowly made its way up the slim trunk, stopping when it reached the swollen rope of the vine. It pressed its tiny head to it and shuddered, maybe in pleasure or in pain. I looked away.
“I did,” Voss said, his voice devoid of emotion. “He grabbed you and caused you pain. Of course, I killed him. But I’ll never hurt you, Alina. You’re my mate. Why are you angry that I killed him? Was he important to you?”
There was no accusation in his voice, but I still sensed the jealousy, simply because it was so familiar. Just like Liam’s.
It made me shiver, an ugly echo of the past. For a moment, a memory shimmered in the heavy air before me. Liam tugging my hair roughly and screaming he would kill each and every man I ever touched.
I couldn’t do it again. I wouldn’t.
A drop of sweat trickled down my temple. Another fell into my eyes, and I blinked away the sting. There had to be a way out of here.
I surveyed the landscape on the other side from Voss. A narrow, black path slithered through verdant greenery of narrow trees with enormous, glossy leaves. The canopy overhead was high, higher than any forest back home. Among the green shimmered brilliant splashes of color: turquoise blues, blinding yellows, and vicious pinks.
“I’m not angry,” I said, my voice trembling slightly as I addressed my husband with my back turned to him. “Liam hurt me, over and over, for months. I was supposed to marry him in a week, but he was forcing me. Getting matched through the temple was my only hope of escaping him.”
Voss was quiet for a moment before he finally asked, “Then why?”
I turned but didn’t look higher than his knees, a wave of helpless anger swallowing my terror.
“Because,” I spat out, my fingers curling with the need to hurt him so he wouldn’t touch me, “do you know what Liam did as soon as he decided I’d be his?”
“Tell me,” Voss whispered.
I sneered, stepping closer despite my fear. Yet, I kept my gaze low, my instincts hyper-aware of how dangerous his eyes were.
“He killed the man I was going to marry. Just like you did.”
I swallowed, the anger and fear tasting bitter on my tongue.
“You’re just like him,” I snarled, turning that one word into the curse it was. “I’ll never want to be your wife. So go ahead, do what you want. I’d rather drink poison than lie with you out of my own free will.”
I turned and set out down the winding path, pressing my hand to my chest to keep my sobs inside. I was doomed, trapped with a violent male who could do anything to me.
The last sound I heard before I walked around a bend was a small, gasping whimper of anguish. I wondered what kind of insect or animal might have made it.