Chapter 16
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
We had to move fast to keep up with the creatures offering us protection.
The woodland was thick and untamed in places, snagging in hair and grabbing at our clothes, but we pushed on, keeping to the path that Shem and his minions cleared until we hit a narrow dirt track where the moonlight shone brighter.
It gave me a chance to better study these creatures.
Their bodies were similar to ours, but larger and mutated.
They had talons for slicing and stabbing and pointy teeth perfect for tearing flesh.
Their skin, what I’d felt of it when Shem had touched me, was rough, and I imagined thick, to make penetration with a weapon harder, and they moved with a primal grace that terrified me.
They were hunters.
Predators that had taken down huge, razor-beaked monsters from the skies. Torn them to shreds in minutes.
And I’d made a deal with one of them.
“Faster!” the monster behind us ordered. “I sense danger.”
“Danger?” Javier snorted. “We’re fucking surrounded by that already.”
“You have no idea,” Tumiel snapped, appearing as if out of nowhere. “Keep your mouth shut and your assessments to yourself.” He pulled back his lips, and I couldn’t help but flinch at the sight of his teeth. Not pointy like the others but curved and sharp like a piranha.
He closed his mouth quickly, nose twitching, eyes flinching as he took in our reactions before turning his head sharply away from us, almost as if…as if he was embarrassed.
Fuck this, I would not attribute human characteristics to these creatures. For all I knew he was trying to talk himself out of taking a bite out of us.
Although, Shem had said they didn’t eat humans.
No…he’d said he didn’t eat humans.
We trudged in silence for a few moments longer, Shem in the lead.
Javier fell back and Bastian took his place beside me on the narrow track, his shoulders free of my father. I glanced back to see Jamie carrying my unconscious dad now.
“We’ll figure something out,” Bastian said, drawing my attention back to him.
“I don’t think it’ll work that way.”
His jaw ticked. “Then when the time comes, we’ll fight.”
Hope bloomed in my chest but then someone stumbled and cried out, reminding me of our cargo.
Bastian and Jamie could fight, and if I could get hold of the celestial sword we’d found, then maybe I could fight too, but there was no way we could defend fifteen other people against these monsters if they fought back.
“Rue…”
I didn’t want to talk about the inevitable. A change of subject was a much better idea. “So, I used a celestial sword. An actual fuck-off huge one.”
His brow furrowed. “I know. That shouldn’t be possible. Maybe with serum in your blood stream but not without.”
We fell into silence, because what more was there to say? Something freaky had happened and we had no explanation for it aside from the fact that I was obviously a freak.
A freak that this Shem guy wanted.
Because of the sword?
Was that why he wanted me?
“They’ll have answers at the golden city,” Bastian said. “They’ll know why you were able to wield it.”
“You don’t think this Shem guy has answers? I mean why does he want me, in particular. It must be because of that sword.”
Bastian considered it. “Yes, that makes sense. But Rue…don’t push it. Don’t push him.”
“Why not? It’s not like I have much to lose. He owns me now.” I couldn’t keep the bitterness from my tone.
He cursed softly. “Fuck this, Rue. I won’t let him have you.”
His words made my chest feel warm, but my stomach remained hollow. I slipped my hand into his, reveling in the solid feel of his fingers as they wrapped around mine and the brush of his calloused palms against my soft skin.
I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed talking to him. Being close to him like this. “Why did we stop hanging out?”
Bastian sighed and squeezed my fingers. “Life got busy.”
My chest felt hollow. He was lying to me. “Did it? Really?”
He looked away. “You started seeing Jamie so I gave you space.”
Once again that feeling that he wasn’t being completely honest with me tightened my chest. “I didn’t need space.”
He ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “No…Maybe not. But I did.”
I stared up at his profile in confusion. What did he mean?
A menacing growl interrupted my thoughts and my head whipped round to find Shem staring at us from up ahead. He’d come to a halt, forcing us all to a stop in the process, and his gaze was zeroed in on my hand nestled in Bastian’s.
“You.” He pointed a talon at me. “Come here.”
Bastian’s grip on me tightened. “You don’t own her.”
Shem canted his head, eyes narrowing, cruel lips curving in a speculative smile. “Yes. Yes, you’re right. I don’t own her…yet.”
But soon…
He didn’t have to say it for me to hear it.
He turned away and continued to walk. The breath rushed out of my lungs, and I sagged against Bastian.
Oh, God. What had I done?