“To be presented to the village.”
The dark bull’s laugh was incredulous. “Is that what that was?”
“No- I- That wasn’t- She wouldn’t have been accepted and you know it. If father had known I’d mated her it would have been her death sentence. What was I to do? I thought if I had you take her in and play house, it could buy us some time.”
“Until what?” Hooves stomped the ground.
“We... we could escape.”
“Escape?” Another incredulous laugh, a hint of mockery in his voice as he continued, “Runaway, you mean. To where? And what?”
“Anywhere but here.” Kvigor sounded tired, bone tired and weary.
Well, that made two of us.
“Creature...” I mumbled, “hanging right here. Creature wants free.”
Adelric and Kvigor cursed in unison. Steps stomped. A wall of heat approached. More cursing followed.
“Less sweh- sweh- argh. Less cussin’,” my fingers wiggled, bound as my wrists were, or I hoped they did—couldn’t be too sure—“more cuttin’, fellas.”
Angry grumbles had me shivering. “I’ll stand in front, block the tree, you cut the binds. I’ll catch her before she falls.” Kvigor was the one giving orders, taking charge.
Adelric grunted but moved. That wall of heat dispersed, splitting, one at my back, the other at my front. “Her hair is a tangle,” the guardsman’s breath puffed along my nape, “like twisted fishing line, I-”
“Cut it,” Kvigor’s deep voice rumbled, close to my face.
I forgot how to breathe as my binds loosened, shoulders screaming after being stuck in the same position for so long. The sound of branches slapping flesh had me flinching, trying to cringe away. The pain never came.
Forcing my good eye open, I had just enough time to watch as whip-like slap after slap ravaged the wide shouldered, pure white Tauran’s back. That was going to leave a mark. His teeth gritted, eyes narrowed, and then I was falling.
“Got you,” Adelric murmured, rushing around and scooping me up to press me to his chest, Kvigor’s back blocking the slapping branches. He was warm, almost too warm, my body shaking as it tried to adjust.
Nobody had me, though, not really. And no one ever would again.
My gaze traveled down my length, my ravaged legs, caked in rusted red and muck, catching my eye, and I shuddered. There was more dried blood than anything, cuts zigging and zagging, but I’d scar. So many scars... Tears pricked my eyes and fell. A small sob caught in my throat. I was surprised I had any tears left in me to lose.
“What’s wrong with her?” Heat coming up on us alerted me to Kvigor’s presence before his voice. “Is she hurting? Are you holding her too tight? Here. Give her to me.”
I was trembling so badly my spine ached.
“Shock,” was the stoic beast holding me’s reply. He made no move to relinquish his hold. “We need to get her back to the village, to Mama.”
A hand came up, brushing stray strands of hair from my face. They stuck, pulled, and then let loose, blood crusting them having glued the loose strands to my cheeks and forehead.
“We’ll take turns holding her,” Kvigor murmured, his breath but a whisper.
“It might be too much for her.” Adelric’s hands tightened. “You carry our bags and I’ll keep hold of her. We’ll go faster if we take the way past the lake path.”
A wet snout gently pressed to my hairline, warm air ruffling the top of my head. “She’s feverish.” Kvigor’s tone turned accusatory.
“Then we mustn’t delay.” Adelric’s too held a note of censure. My captor and rescuer, the hand in my taming, started off.
Kvigor made an angry, very bovine noise from beside us. “Here. I’m bigger. I know her. Give her to me. She-”
“I will carry her.” Adelric’s muffled snarl had me peeking, one-eyed, up at the male dazedly.
“It’s Puck,” I mumbled, trying to blurt out the whole sordid affair, the fae plotting, the revenge scheming, the Trickster living up to his name.
By the time I’d finished, Kvigor was staring down at me in wonder, maroon eyes larger than usual in his boxy head. Adelric fared no better, his mouth open, lips parted and moving, though no sound came out.
“You have to believe me,” I begged, incensed and growing frustrated as the males merely stared, eventually turning to one another to share a telling look. “I’m not crazy,” I garbled out hoarsely.
“You’ve had a long... night,” Adelric finished on a wince. He made sure to stare directly in my eyes, avoiding the rest of my ravaged body.
“Kvigor,” I looked to the white bull imploringly, “Puck, Peacock, he spoke to you, in your prison in the labyrinth. He wanted to make a deal with you, remember? And the king? You know the king! It’s why you brought me here in the first place, wasn’t it? You’d said so yourself!”
Kvigor glanced at Adelric, who was too busy studying me like a broken doll that was all his fault, like he was trying to figure out how to fix me, to notice the subtle shake of Kvigor’s head.
“Tell him!” I croaked out.
When Adelric looked to him, the pale Tauran’s expression went perfectly blank. “Kvigor?” Adelric’s head cocked questioningly.
“I... I-” his gaze faltered, unable to meet mine, “mushrooms.” He shook his head. “I ate mushrooms. They aren’t like ours. I must’ve-”
“Liar!” I sobbed out brokenly. Emotions clogged my throat. My chest heaved, and with my injured rib, I heaved again. Crying out softly, reaching out to cup my side and finding it too difficult, I gasped, another sob wracking my frame, and turned into the soft, curly, fluffy fur of Adelric’s pelt.
“Addie-”
“Addie is dead!” I shouted belligerently, my voice muffled in his rival’s chest. “You killed her the moment you ripped her heart out and squished it between your ugly, wingless people looking feet!” I was hiccupping, rambling, raging, overtaken with chest rattling sobs. “I hate you. I hate you more than Adelric and Puck and all the rest! At least your brother”, I lifted my head weakly to snarl, “had the decency not to lie to me!”
Kvigor was so stunned he froze, eyes bleeding to red as he watched his bastard sibling continue on with me without him.
“Not a word,” I warned the oddly silent beastie carrying me when we turned and I was sure enough distance was put between us and his pompous sibling.
“Won’t have a word from me.”
Falling back against him, the steady beat of his heart loud in my ear as I pressed my cheek to his chest, I closed my eye.
“For what it’s worth,” he started, several starts and stop to follow, “I’m- Riadne, I’m so-”
“Not worth a thing,” I cut in. My hand stroked over his fur as if to belie that. Lips trembling, eyes burning, his fur caught the brunt of my tears. My eye cracked open to watch him, just watch. His throat worked, breathing unsteady.
A long silence ensued.
We were almost to the pond outside the village sometime later, my mind muddled, murky, a very long time later, before I spoke again.
“Did your actions protect Vachel?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” he admitted without hesitation.
“Will your lack of caring towards me continue this protection of sorts for her?”
“It’s not-”
“Will it save her?”
The sharp shake of his head had me jerking as if he’d just slapped me. “No,” he murmured slowly, “but it would spare me.”
Glancing away from him, stiffening in his hold, I left it at that. I didn’t want to know what he meant by that cryptic remark.
Thinking of Kvigor, my jaw clenched, the only part of me willing to work properly. Nope. Definitely didn’t want to know.
˜˙˜*˜˙˜
“Mama!” Adelric called, his booming voice startling me wide awake.
I must’ve fallen asleep at some point, coming to with a fresh wave of pain sweeping through me.
“Adel?” Hi
s mother came into the room then, wearing her thin waist wrap, a shawl about her shoulders. Upon spotting me the priestess lifted her thin wrists, a black and gold bangle adorning each, whispering something to give each a kiss. “All-father preserve us, Adel, what’s happened?”
“Ekodar sought punishment. He thought to try and,” he swallowed thickly before he could get the words out, “tame her.” And that was all that needed to be said.
Suzaela cursed, eyes flushing a bright, pinkish red. “And he thought to tie the poor thing up to the whipping trees to do it?” The disbelief lacing her tone, as if she simply couldn’t believe it, had me groaning.
Lovely, another non-believer. Puck had said this would happen.
My heart shriveled up further and I sniffled. My hands sunk into the beastman holding me’s fur. He was so soft and warm, strangely comforting. I really should hate him, should gather all of his faults to remind myself. Didn’t matter—not in this moment.
“No one believes me,” I bemoaned.
“What’s that?” Adelric’s mother asked.
Adelric grunted. “She’s taken to the fevers.”
Whatever exactly that meant. I was too lightheaded and sore to think too long on that one.
A hand swiped across my forehead, careful of my condition. “Burning. Quick. Quick now,” she urged, “bring her in here. Lay her down on the bed. See what we can do about that filthy gown and those cuts. I’ll prepare a tincture.”
We were moving again, though I wished with all my soul we weren’t.
“Let me die,” I muttered.
“Let you die?” He paused. “And deny myself the gift of your presence?”
Sarcasm? The beast held humor? I must be bad off.
“Is this before or after you tie me to a tree that tears flesh from bone and leave me for dead? I can’t be too sure you’ve been in my prescence long enough to know if you like it, too busy trying to be rid of me.” I was all sass and no forgiveness.
When he said nothing, I sighed. “Ask your brother if I’m worth keeping. He couldn’t toss me to you fast enough. He’s in Puck’s pocket, you know. You all are. Doing as he wishes at the snap of his fingers. He called you all his Abandoned.”
A soft gasp had me glancing up. Adelric’s mother, Ekodar’s high priestess pair bond, Suzaela, stood staring down at me. Nay, gaping.
“Puck told me,” I felt the need to boldly inform her. What did it matter? They’d all think me mad soon enough. “He likes to play games with his “children” in your chief’s body. They made a deal. I think, though I could be wrong, I’m... I’m feeling fuzzy right now.” A few ticks passed before I found myself again. “He means to remove Ekodar, take his seat for himself, but not before making a deal with Kvigor, a younger male’s body, to take his place, be his next victim, next borrowed body. He has it all planned out. Your sons are not safe.”
“Adel, how does she know of-”
“I don’t know,” the male cut in. “She’s been rambling about fae and plots nonsense since we found her. I highly doubt Gor has divulged our blood tie. Perhaps Vachel has? She’s been prone to loose lips of late.” He lifted me a little. “Your youngest’s mouth set Bainan to Ekodar, who thought this fitting.”
“Oh... Adelric... and you did it?” Suzaela cried.
“Vachel,” he said her name as if a reminder, his mother suddenly clamming up. How she could remain tied to a male who would renounce his own children, their children, and make threats against them, was beyond me.
“This one claims Puck wishes to rule Tavros, taking one village at a time, and the All-father is King Beron.” With a grunt he shifted, kneeling beside the bed. It was a flat, straw stuffed makeshift bed, bits poking at me giving it away, more in line with a cot, with thick furs atop it. “Hasn’t stopped rambling,” he felt the need to add, blurting the words out on a grumble.
“We found her, you said?” The high priestess’ head tilted curiously. I found it strange she didn’t question anything else. Even stranger yet, the fact a high priestess was paired with a man so desperate for power he’d take up with this world’s equivalent of the devil. Perhaps at one time Ekodar was of stouter character, once upon a time.
Suzaela moved in closer, her breath chuffing over me in curious sounding, animalistic snorts. It was a little unsettling, this close to her, trying not to stare at her, erm, décolletage? Assets? through that single slitted lid I’d managed to keep open while she blew nose-air over my face.
How did that work if they were given to the gunk? I shuddered, thinking of all those affectionate nose blows across the face swiftly going wrong. Crusty nose rings were just the beginning.
“Adel?” Suzaela prompted. The female was met with silence.
Despite the pain, I tilted my head, angling it to get a good look at the beastman cradling me like he worried I might break. He was lost to his thoughts, staring down at me, that same somber countenance, almost sad, resigned, his mouth a hard, thin line, same as when he’d first left me strung up to that tree. Eyelids shadowing glowing gold irises, he inhaled deeply a few times.
“Adel?” Suzaela’s hand came up, settling on the Chief’s guardsman’s shoulder.
The dark-furred Tauran twitched and jerked, causing the priestess to pull back, her hands wringing as she watched him, her features softening the way a mother’s does, worrying over her child. Bringing himself back to the present, he shook his head.
“Kvigor,” Adelric replied without feeling. “Vachel found out of the taming from Bainan, who told vacha. We were sworn to secrecy before the deed was done. Kvigor came, had her lead him there. I’d already slipped out after Ekodar announced his hunt. Yhem has taken my place. Our great chief thought to stall any aid, leave her out there.”
“I- Oh.” Clearly surprised, Adelric’s mother gave me another once over, to which my eye narrowed and I grunted, catching the woman’s gaze.
Suzaela’s eyes widened at the look I leveled on her. Clearing her throat, smiling though it looked strained, she stood back. Like hell I wanted the Chief’s pair bond looming over me. She might smother me in my sleep!
My gaze found Adelric’s face again. He was new yet familiar, something very... comfortable about him. I nearly clung to the bastard. I shouldn’t feel that way—he’d dragged me to the woods and tied me to those trees of punishment in the first place, on a whim from his possessed chief, no less. Yet he hadn’t pretended he was doing anything but. The male had yet to tell me a single lie. Feeling as if I was swimming in lies, no way out, he’d yet to throw me over. I knew where I stood with him.
The memory of him walking away, his steps faltering, gate uneven, shoulders stiff, chest moving funnily the louder I became... he’d had to, he claimed, for his sister. After my night with the whip trees and then this morning, I believed it without question. Puck was a twisted devil, making everyone else miserable along with him.
Why was it so much easier for me to forgive the guardsman his sins, yet Kvigor and I... it would forever leave a bad taste in my mouth?
Adelric made no promises, told no untruths. He was up front about everything from the start, that’s why.
Unable to keep my eye open for so long, I closed it, allowing my head to fall back.
Adelric was exactly as he presented himself, a hard male, a product of this world, cruel and uncaring as it’s shown him. A male with unwavering loyalty for his family, especially those he felt responsible for, like Vachel, willing to do whatever it took to protect them. How, just blasted how, was I to fault him in that? My thoughts kept circling to Vetra, the choices I’d made for her, when being selfish would have seemed easier, when doing the ‘right’ thing could be considered wrong. In his position, with my sister at stake, I couldn’t say I’d have taken any chances either.
Truly, how could I fault him? I couldn’t.
My eyes drifted lower, hovering over the fur puffing up on his chest. He was strong, blunt, offering painful at times, undressed honesty. It was more than I’d received from any ma
les I’d been involved with, few as that had been.
A deep rumbling, vibrating my side, had me struggling to lift that burning lid again.
“Don’t,” that deep voice snapped.
I looked anyway. Gold flushed amber and back again, until they were a swirling mix of the two.
A long, put-upon sigh left the bull man. “Do you ever listen to anything I say, vacha?”
“You did not just call me a little cow,” I snarled, then yelped, grimacing as my skin pinched when my lips pulled back. My lips cracked anew, the urge to grimace in response overwhelming.
If I didn’t know better I’d say the corners of his mouth twitched in amusement at my asinine stubbornness. As if remembering himself and my current state, his expression blanked.
“Shut it,” I mocked, snorting when his eyes widened and he balked. A laugh escaped me, melting into a harsh groan. The big bad warrior didn’t know what to think, to do, about the pathetic, damaged wingless, docilely lying there, haughtily telling him to stuff it.
Spotting Suzaela watching us through the corner of my eye, the small, smirk of a smile gracing my lips fell.
The warrior bull’s head turned, as if sensing his mother’s open regard.
Suzaela’s hands waved and she smiled innocently enough. “I’ll just... be right back then.”
Holding me out, despite my protests, my hands still buried in his fur, my dark-furred companion leaned with me, bending his wide frame, placing me gently on a cool, comfortable sheet atop the furs. It felt like heaven after a week in Hell.
The sounds of someone moving about Suzaela’s abode fell to the background.
“Please.” My hand gripped Adelric’s when he made to stand. Tugging the dressing on his wound until it hung loosely, exposing the map mark identical to mine burned into his, I pressed our palms together. I didn’t want to be alone.
He grunted, reminding me I’d tried to take a chunk out of him, my mangled hand worse now in comparison. I needed him to believe me in all of this, if only it was to be kept between us.
“Please,” I entreated, pulling myself up, tugging on our joined hands, “you have to believe me. If no one else, then you. Please.”
By the Horns Page 26