Chapter 6
Amaris
Striking blue stars danced around Amaris, blocking out the darkness as she fell. The light was blinding, absorbing everything, even her screams. She hit the ground hard, grasping the back of her head.
“Viv!” she called, but not a single sound came from down the path.
What just happened?
Amaris pushed off the ground, teetering as her vision threatened to blur around her—at least the few feet she could see.
The trail lights must have been out from the storm, but not a single raindrop pelted her head.
Reaching out, she waited for the water to puddle in her palm, but she was only met with a gentle summer-night breeze.
She furrowed her brows at the clouds. It must have been a quick storm.
She sucked in a breath of woods but startled when she got a subtle whiff of salt. How hard did I hit my head? A frustrated groan slipped out as she dropped her head into her hands. She needed to find Viv.
The woods were pitch-black, and each branch threatened to be a hand reaching out to smack her in the face again. Guilt spread through her with each flinch. Her steps were methodical to avoid tripping and falling off the path. She attempted to study her hand, but it was useless.
Her heart still pounded against her ribcage. She leaned against a tree, fighting the urge to cry as her hand grazed the edge of her jaw where the blood crusted. He’d never hit her before. A few times in the last year she’d stepped back, fearful he might, but he’d never actually done it.
He couldn’t have meant to, she tried to convince herself. It was an accident. She forced herself to keep moving, to prevent her mind from spinning. She couldn’t stay out here forever. She had to face reality eventually.
A few more steps carried her forward until she smacked her boot against something solid and careened forward. Pain shot up her arm in her attempt to catch herself. She dropped to her side, screaming as she sprawled in a patch of grass.
Amaris couldn’t fathom how her night could get any worse.
She threw her good hand out, feeling for the edge of the path, but her hand traced along the mossy covering of a log.
No. An actual tree. Her boot nudged it, but it didn’t budge.
She crawled over it, spreading her arm out to feel for the path, but all she found was more grass—shit.
The woods weren’t that big. If she kept walking, she’d eventually come up on the edge of town or one of the county roads.
Maybe a longer walk would help to slow her thundering heart.
She’d sleep the fight off at Viv’s, and she and Derek could fix everything tomorrow after shift.
He’d have time to simmer down, and she’d distract herself with other people’s problems for a while. They’d figure it out. They had to.
A horde of flies pulled Amaris from her dreaded thoughts.
Their buzzing whizzed past her ear. She dodged and swatted at the annoying pests, stumbling through a dense group of bushes to outmaneuver them.
But their presence only grew when she stepped from the foliage into a small clearing.
Her next step carried her into a puddle, and a warm and gooey substance splashed up her leg.
Her muscles stiffened. She’d stepped in a deer carcass once while hunting with Grandad as a kid.
She leaned down to confirm what was seeping into her boot, and the coppery scent of blood wrapped around her. Her stomach lurched, and she gagged, spitting up a few chunks of her burger from dinner. She pulled her foot back as the clouds shifted overhead and the moon cast its glow around her.
Her feet tangled beneath her and sent her falling into a butchered body.
Blood spurted into her face and soaked her shirt.
A frantic screech escaped her throat. She pushed off his severed flesh and propelled herself back, shoving her boots against anything to push herself from the pile of bones, skin, and organs.
She wiped at her shirt, her hand becoming stained in his blood. She wedged her fingers through a hole in her shirt and pinched something squishy in her bra. Another scream escaped her lips as she tossed a maggot toward the other side of the clearing.
The body wasn’t recognizable covered in slashes, and his face appeared mauled.
A snap of a twig stalled her heart. She scrambled back into the bushes behind her, obscuring herself as something crept through the dense foliage on the other side of the clearing.
She bit her bottom lip as it drew closer, waiting for a coyote or some other predator to come lurking.
A man stepped into the clearing. She heaved a sigh.
“For realm’s sake,” he muttered, dragging his hand through his jet-black hair.
Amaris paused. What did he say?
The stranger examined the body, squatting to lift the dead man’s arm. A cough rippled from his chest as he dropped the limb. He eyed the abdomen, cocking his head to the side as he took in the gashes.
Something wasn’t settling well with Amaris. She shifted her gaze from the body to a glittering bit of metal at the man’s side. It reflected the moon, and she squinted to see it more clearly. Is that a sword? She pressed a hand into the dirt, leaning closer to get a better look at him.
He couldn’t have been much older than her, with a stubbled beard covering most of his tanned face.
He wore a loose white top tucked into a criminal shade of taupe-colored pants fitting tightly to his thighs and tall riding boots.
She should’ve relinquished herself from her hiding place to speak with him regarding the animal attack, but something about that sword made her hesitate.
“Theo, it doesn’t take this long to piss,” a woman said.
“Over here, Gris,” he hollered back, but refused to avert his gaze from the body.
Amaris sat back on her heels. They weren’t from Gainesville, but she couldn’t place their accents.
“What are you…” the woman named Gris said as she stood beside her companion. “Holy realm. Is that—”
“I thought I heard something and came to investigate,” the man named Theo answered.
Gris stepped toward the body, further illuminating herself against the moon’s light.
Her attire was the same awful taupe, only cut tighter to the curve of her hips.
It looked almost like a military uniform, but a sword didn’t drape her side like Theo.
Several small hilts poked out from sheathes at her thighs, and she clutched a bow in her hand.
A small voice screamed in Amaris’s head to turn around and run, and it sounded a lot like Viv’s. But her stubborn feet planted her firmly in place.
Gris bent down, searching the man’s pockets and eyeing his abdomen.
“Is it him?” Theo ased, kneeling beside her and choking on another breath.
She pulled out a blood-stained paper from the man’s jacket and sighed. “Lord Freville isn’t missing anymore.”
“Do you think it was an animal attack?”
“Possibly.” She turned her head to study the markings on his abdomen. Her complexion paled with a swallow, her eyes widening as she leaned in.
“What?” Theo followed her gaze and the tilt of her head.
“The markings,” she breathed, hovering her fingers over the abdomen. “They’re sawed through with a dagger, not a claw.”
Amaris swallowed as her heart threatened to climb up her throat. Her hand shook as she slid it over her lips. Sawed through?
“Are you suggesting he was murdered?”
Amaris gasped, then clamped her hand tight to her face. Their conversation ceased. Gris stood, her eyes darting around the clearing. Tears spilled from Amaris’s eyes as she fought to hold her breath.
“I’ll grab Bennet. He’ll want to see this.” Gris was wary as she turned and sprinted back the way she came.
Amaris recoiled. Their suprise was the only reason she wasn’t sprinting, but that small voice begged her to get out of there.
Staying low, she took crouched steps back but bumped into a pair of leather boots.
Her head snapped up to face a menacing grin covered in brown stubble as the man beamed down at her.
He snatched her arm, yanking her to her feet and shoving her into the clearing.
“And who might you be?” He smirked.
Forget demons with their beady black eyes. His striking light-blue ones threatened to slice her open.
“Get your hands off me!” Amaris shouted as he tossed her beside the body. She landed against her right hand, immense pain searing into her bottom lip as she bit back her scream.
“Looks like I found our murderer.”
Her eyes stopped on the long knives strapped to his thighs and his pale fingers hovering over them. Her heart beat rapidly as he leaned down, narrowing his face into a wicked smile.
“No…” Amaris stammered, but her tongue twisted at the sight of his weapons within a moment’s grasp.
“What do we have here?”
Amaris snapped her head. A man with a receding hairline of sandy-blond locks entered the clearing sporting a similar variation of their uniform.
She’d never felt claustrophobic before, not after years of training in tight spaces, but the trees hanging above their heads pressed against her shoulders.
“She was hiding in the bushes,” the snitch said.
The sandy-haired man dropped beside Amaris, and instantly, she was fighting back nausea.
She’d take the stench of blood over his pungent body odor.
He seemed to be the type of person to always wear a scowl or never see a bar of soap.
He furrowed his brow, and his lips scrunched together.
The moon on his face illuminated a scar draping his chin.
It followed his scowl, starting at the corner of his mouth and ending on his neck beside his carotid artery.
Amaris startled and shuffled back as he pulled a knife from his boot. “I’m not a murderer!”
“You’re covered in the man’s blood,” he said, pointing his knife at her. It was too long to be a simple pocketknife. It must have been military issue.
Amaris’s gaze bounced across all their faces, their rage settling around her. Gris returned, her jog slowing as she eyed Amaris. Her blonde brows raised as she stared back and forth between all of them.
Amaris looked to Theo, who hadn’t moved an inch, his expression stone-faced and cold.
His first movement was his hand as he gripped the knife dangling from his waist. He was incredibly tall, far taller than Derek, at least. It was an unsettling thought as he stood with his hand wrapped around his weapon.
He combed back his hair and revealed the brightest green eyes Amaris had ever seen, but what could’ve been beautiful were encased in dark storms.
The sandy-haired man regained Amaris’s attention when he took the tip of his knife and settled it on her cheek where Derek’s ring had cut her. “Why did you kill him?”
“I didn’t,” she protested, her eyes darting around, meeting their hollowed expressions.
“You have to believe me.” Their faces remained unfazed.
“Call the cops. My fiancé is a detective. He’ll sort this out.
” She panted, attempting to catch her breath, even though she was sitting and barely doing anything besides trying to focus on what the hell was happening.
“Sounds like the words of a rambling fool,” the man with the long knives said. He had one pulled and resting against the outer edge of his crossed arms.
“Rambling?” Amaris breathed. Everything shuffled in her brain.
The morose man grabbed her right hand, and her eyes instantly watered at the pain. Gris and Theo both startled at her cry.
“Please.” Amaris tried to pull back her hand.
He prodded at her swollen and smashed knuckles, dragging his dirty thumb over the glass still embedded in her skin. Her vision darkened as he pulled her to her feet.
“Sunrise is nearly upon us. We’ll take her back with us and determine what is to be done,” he said.
“What?” Amaris shouted, but the man who’d caught her grabbed her arms and started shoving against her back. He forced her toward a small camp. “Let go of me!” She tried wiggling out of his iron-like grip.
Fight! Viv’s voice flooded her mind. Viv had always said, If someone tries to kidnap you, you either get on all fours and bark and chase after them, or you run like hell.
“Alan, keep hold of her for now. She’ll ride with Gris.” Theo gave his order, and Alan’s hand coiled tighter around Amaris’s arm.
More people were scattered around a dying fire with bleary eyes straining against its little light. They had long, matted hair and grizzled beards. None of them were wearing anything suggestive of the current century. Their mumblings immediately silenced as Alan dragged her over.
“Please, someone help me!” she screamed.
No one got up, but whispers erupted around them.
Alan whipped her arm back and pulled against her shoulder. “There’s no one here to help, you murderous scum,” he spat.
She yanked against his hold, but he shoved her elbow deeper into her back. Her shoulder burned as it strained. She forced a breath and waited several seconds. What would Viv do?
She summoned all her courage. Now was the moment.
When Alan released the pinch of her shoulder, she turned and drove her leg up into a groin kick.
She took off running and didn’t look to see if he shriveled up on the ground or if anyone was running after her.
The faint echoes of a curse and the gasps from his friends followed her.
She thought someone even laughed, but she couldn’t stop.
She should’ve grabbed her phone. She needed to call the police, to call Derek.
What in the actual fuck is happening? Her mind spun like the county fair spinning strawberries. Why are these people kidnapping me? Why aren’t they calling the police?
She raced through the woods, her ankles threatening to roll while using the moonlight to avoid running into a tree.
Her hand burned as she pumped her arms and pushed branches out of her way.
She shouldn’t have punched that stupid mirror.
Anger found its way into her heart, for them, for Derek, for this whole situation, but mostly her own stupidity.
When she leapt over a log, her foot slipped, and she fell forward.
Her momentum carried her down the hill in a series of somersaults that twisted her stomach.
A sudden stop drove a sharp pain in her side.
She fell back, panting as she expelled air from her lungs.
She turned her head, and her vision narrowed on the tall and burly figure sauntering down the hill toward her.