Chapter 9
Amaris
The grueling hours of riding took them well into the night. Amaris had contemplated jumping off several times, but her instincts to protect her patient overpowered the tiny voice screaming at her to run. She’d never abandoned a patient before and wouldn’t start now.
Along with the internal anger, she was kicking herself for not snatching her duffel before she fled her house. She would have given anything for a sweatshirt with the breeze brushing against her damp clothes, and Theodoric wasn’t any help in the matter with his own shivering.
With another twitch of his thigh and the rubbing together of his hands, dread filled her. I’m the worst paramedic ever. She got him breathing again only to kill him from hypothermia. She should’ve thought of it sooner.
“Are we almost there?”
“Soon,” Theodoric whispered.
Every insult and snarky comment riddled through her head, but before she selected her slight, Theodoric draped something over them.
It was a cloak. Its dark nature blended against the horse, but a gold stitching along the edge drew the light from the moon.
She hugged the edges, getting an interesting scent of leather clinging to the cotton fabric.
A rush of warmth spread across her cheeks. Embarrassment, anger, confusion. Everything gnawed at her stomach. She’d been about to sling every curse word she knew at him, but his cloak was a surprising anomaly.
They kidnapped me, she reminded herself. What she needed was a hospital for his lungs and her hand, not a damn cloak. She’d removed the glass from her skin, but she worried about a possible infection.
“Back on the riverbank…” he spoke, then hesitated. Maybe he was considering letting her go. “Did you bring me back?”
Amaris peered over her shoulder, disbelief settling over her. His face resembled a chiseled stone statue. He might have had an immaculate jawline, but not a hint of emotion lingered in his eyes. He was serious.
“You weren’t dead.” Amaris’s eyes skimmed the canopy above them. “You may have had one foot in the grave, but your heart was still beating. You almost drowned.”
“But…” he stammered, the first break against his brick wall of a face, “I was at the gates of After.”
After? She contemplated his interesting version of an afterlife before saying, “I don’t know what you think happened, but you weren’t—”
“I was gone.”
Amaris scoffed at him. If he didn’t know what a phone or ambulance was, then he certainly wouldn’t understand basic CPR.
Returning her attention to the woods in front of her, her heart leapt as the shadowy forest came to an end.
She’d grown accustomed to the steady breaths of the horses and the chirping of insects.
It startled her when the clacking of hooves clicked through the air.
A cobblestone path sat beneath them, not pavement or asphalt, but actual cobblestone.
She leaned over the horse, squinting to get a better look at the city emerging before her.
A list formed in her mind of every surrounding town, but none of them matched what befell her eyes.
A main road spiraled through the medieval-styled city, winding and twisting with shops and their darkened windows.
Smaller avenues flowed beyond. Amaris cranked her neck to set eyes on the small wooden and stone houses. The strangest part, though, was the lack of electricity. The only signs of illumination were the candles within the streetlamps.
What is this place? That same tingling sensation seeped down her spine as she took in the few people they passed.
She was hoping for someone to save her from her kidnappers, but everyone either waved in greeting or bowed their heads.
But the greatest oddity was what they were wearing.
Long dresses, knee-length frock coats, tunics, and billowing shirts dressed the occupants of the city.
It was as if the laws of societal dress code were gone, and everyone dropped back decades or even centuries.
Amaris was caught in an overload, taking in the scene unfolding around her.
It wasn’t possible. No town existed within miles of Gainesville with similar architecture, but by the end of the road she could no longer contain her shock.
Her jaw dropped. An elaborate castle stood, etched in gray stone with towers narrowing to points.
She pinched her eyes tight, praying it was all a mirage from the lack of sustenance and water or even a dream, but everything was still there.
They trotted through a stone archway lined with torches in a wall built around the castle, wrapping around it like a fortress.
Candlelit lanterns scattered the yard, casting the grass in a swarm of shadows.
Everything was dark, and Amaris found herself missing her flickery porch light.
They veered to the side instead of the front where stone steps protruded from a set of wooden doors with iron swirls running along it like vines of ivy. No, they ventured toward the side entrance with steps leading down into the dark.
Theodoric slid from the horse, holding onto the reins as he grasped at his temples. He raised his hands, ready to grab hold of her waist.
“I can get off myself,” Amaris sneered. He would’ve dropped her anyways. She slid onto her belly and plummeted to the ground, the momentum carrying her back as shockwaves traveled up her shins.
“Put her there for the night, and we’ll deal with her in the morning,” Bennet grumbled, gesturing to Alan.
Technically, now that Theodoric was home, Amaris wouldn’t be abandoning her patient if she escaped. At least that was what she tried to convince herself of, because there was no way she was going into that rat-infested hole.
As Alan approached her, she recalled all Viv had taught her about self-defense, which was minimal since Amaris declined most of her offers to join her classes she taught to women.
She was kicking herself now. Alan would see the kick to the groin coming—she needed something different.
He grasped her arm, but his grip was nothing compared to before.
He was tired. She allowed him to pull her toward the basement-like catacomb, shifting her gaze to each of the figures beginning their trek home.
With the others’ attention set to their warm beds, she waited until Alan was at the edge of the steps before she struck. She ripped free from his grasp and drove her knee into his stomach. He hunched forward, moaning in agony.
She took off. The uneven ground threatened to roll her ankles, but she needed to get away, to hide in the forest or maybe somewhere in town.
She raced for the arch. Two of their cronies chased after her, darting to cut off her path, but she was too far ahead.
She panted and pumped her arms as she pounded her feet into the ground. She was going to make it.
Passing into the city, she tore down the cobbled street, ignoring the shouts behind her.
An alley caught her eye, but before she could escape to freedom, an arm snatched her around the waist, and they tumbled in a mass of limbs and grunts.
Strong arms wrapped around her as they rolled and skidded across the street.
They came to an abrupt halt in the alley, smacking into some kind of cart.
She couldn’t breathe. Not because the wind was ripped from her lungs, but whoever caught her now had their knee compressed against her chest.
“Don’t…make this harder…for yourself.” Theodoric panted, attempting to catch his own breath.
“Fuck…off,” she gasped. She was growing tired of this specific encounter.
Theodoric fell forward, his hand slamming beside Amaris’s head, catching himself before his massive form crushed her.
“How are you not dead or passed out by now?”
Theodoric regained his strength as he leaned forward, further pressing his knee into her ribcage. “I don’t have the patience for this tonight.” A bead of what she was hoping was only water trickled down his nose and splashed against her cheek. “Get up before I drag you back.”
Some concussion. Apparently, Theodoric turned into an asshole when he had a headache.
“Like you have the strength right now to even stand.”
“Have it your way,” he grumbled, sending vibrations down his knee and through her chest. He scooped her up in a single movement and threw her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.
“Now you have the strength? Where was this when you kept falling asleep and drooling on my shoulder?” Amaris kicked her legs and beat her single fist against his back, but he seemed entirely recovered as he restrained her legs and carried her toward the dark stairwell.
The creak of an iron gate had her sinking her nails into his shirt, but he didn’t flinch.
They descended the stairs into a dark and dreary basement.
Scratch that, dungeon. Doors lined the walls, each one with a small window blocked by iron bars.
He took her to the far end and set her in the back of the cell, locking the door behind him as he slipped out.
“Let me out of here, you bastard!”
Blatantly ignoring her, he slammed the gate at the top of the stairs behind him.
Amaris was left alone with the only company being a small flame in the lantern of the even smaller cell.
Stone walls kept her in. Her body was defeated and her hand throbbed as she hugged it to her chest. A wave of nausea passed over her.
She couldn’t believe it was all a dream. They weren’t supposed to be gut-wrenching and painful, but any alternative was unbelievable. None of them knew what she was talking about, and a castle sure as hell wasn’t within miles of Gainesville.