Turning in the opposite direction of the men now rushing me, I started running the other direction, fighting to stay in control of my limbs and mind. I didn’t stop once I reached the end, jumping and leaping over the edge, sailing through the air as I looked down and screamed. It wasn’t a little fall; it was a big ass probably-won’t-make-it leap I’d just taken. I could make out an ant on the side of the moat, and as I got closer, I could see it was Brander with his mouth wide open in horror. At the last moment, I sucked in air and hit the water hard. My feet touched the bottom, and I pushed up to bob over to the surface before swimming toward where he stood.
“What the fuck, woman?”
“Lore threw me.”
“From the top level?” Horror filled his eyes as he peered back up from where I’d just leapt from.
“I think I was supposed to go down further, but there were guards, and shit happened. I jumped, we’re here now.” Something whizzed past my head, and I paused, staring at the castle. “Are they shooting arrows at us?”
He grabbed me and pushed my body to the ground as he lifted his shield, mere seconds before arrows peppered it. They were shooting at us! My head rested against his chest, and my eyes started to close, but an arrow shot through the shield, slicing through my arm.
“Ouch,” I muttered, and Brander looked at me.
“Your pupils are fucking blown,” he murmured, and I frowned as something hard rested against my belly.
“I’m on drugs. Is this hot for you?” I watched a smirk playing across his lips at my droll tone. “Are you like some adrenaline junkie?”
“You’re not wearing any panties, Aria, and my hand is on your naked ass. I’m a male, not a fucking saint. Lore should be making an appearance at any moment.”
I stared at the water’s reflection, watching as flames erupted from the castle in a straight line, then the sound of water splashing filled my ears.
“You two coming?” Lore asked, and when Brander moved the shield, he snorted. “I’ll take that pretty ass as a yes.”
“Grab her, she’s drugged. She also jumped from the top battlement.”
Lore snorted, but whatever he saw on Brander’s face stalled it. “No shit? Damn, I’m not even that brave.”
I was lifted by Lore as Brander got to his feet, and we started toward the woods. Guards shouted as the gate was opened and we moved faster, or they did. Brander turned, lifting me up as we moved toward the sound of rushing water. He stopped at the edge of a cliff and peered down before looking over his shoulder.
“Take a piece of her dress and go north, send those assholes on a chase with her scent. Meet us in the passes,” Brander ordered, and I watched as they removed a large section of the dress before Lore took off at a run. “We’re jumping. You will hold on to me and don’t let go. I’ll tell you when to hold your breath, okay?” He set me on my feet, never releasing his hold on me.
“Got it.” My head nodded as I swayed on my feet, staring at him.
“You have to hold your breath, Aria. There’s a whirlpool down there, and it’s going to fight to keep us in it. You can’t let go for any reason. Ready?”
“I’m ready,” I stated, wrapping my arms around him and hooking my hands together tightly as he stared down at me, kissing my forehead and saying something in a foreign language I couldn’t understand.
He jumped, and I buried my face against his chest, listening to his slow heartbeat. Mine was hammering between the drugs and the adrenaline. I would be lucky if I didn’t have a heart attack.
“Now,” he shouted, and I sucked in air, holding onto him as he hit the water hard.
The water sucked us toward the whirlpool. I saw a huge, perfect tornado beneath the water before Brander pushed us off the bottom and swam with me beneath him. He pulled me onto the shore as I gasped for air, staring as more people hit the water, jumping from the cliff above us. I looked at Brander, who didn’t move, and then back at the water as Knox slowly walked out of its depths while everyone else swam to shore in long, steady strokes to fight the whirlpool. Oceanic blue eyes slid over me, then locked on my face.
“Aria,” he smirked as he kneeled beside me, running his finger over my cheek. “You just slaughtered the Minotaur King in his own fucking court, surrounded by his guards.”
“I murdered my sister too,” I whispered past swollen lips. He frowned, letting his gaze slide down my battered body before he nodded to my words.
“So you did, little lamb. Welcome to the Nine Realms, Aria Hecate.”
Chapter 54
We walked through a dark, shadowy valley with creatures monitoring our every move. It was unreal and my first glimpse of the Nine Realms outside of the cell. It was exhilarating, but also terrifying to see where we came from. Creatures I’d only ever read about observed me as I absently scooted closer to Knox while we moved through the darkness toward a large mountain. If he noticed me getting closer, he said nothing. No one spoke, and between the chattering of my teeth and the inner turmoil I felt, I was thankful.
Occasionally, tears would burn my eyes, but I refused to allow them to fall. I didn’t need to be told that I was in shock; I felt it. Inside the cell, it felt unreal, as if it was only a nightmare, and I’d awaken from it sooner or later. Now it was settling into my soul that I’d murdered my twin, the girl who had been beside me before we’d even been born. Worse, it was sinking in that she’d hated me enough to allow me to be raped and mutilated because something she assumed I had done to her, which I’d had no more control over than her.
Amara had never once shown a darker side, and if she had, I failed to notice it or had chosen to overlook it. We all had our own problems, but in a house with sixteen females under the age of thirty, it wasn’t a big deal for someone to grow distant or need space. Especially with everyone being close in age due to Freya using her magic to speed up a few of the pregnancies with spells.
Fingers brushed against mine, and I stared at where Knox’s hand was touching me. Lifting my eyes, I found him observing me carefully. I dropped my gaze and continued moving forward, not willing to accept the silent support he offered. I felt like I’d just killed a piece of myself, and worse, I would have to tell my sisters I’d murdered Amara when I returned, and I wasn’t sure how that information would be received. I exhaled deeply and inhaled slowly, calming the turmoil before it shifted to turbulence.
“Aria,” Knox whispered, grabbing my hand and pulling me closer to him as we continued walking. “Breathe, they can’t touch you anymore.”
“I know that.”
He slipped his fingers through mine, lifting my hand to brush his mouth against my knuckles before he let it drop. Spinning around, he paused as the others stopped around us. His head turned, staring up at the cliffs that stood high above the valley we walked through, to where soldiers stood, peering down at us. Swallowing hard, I took in the men who wore the obsidian-colored armor, and shivered violently. The man in the middle wore the skeletal mask that I’d peered into, and I shrank back, hiding behind Knox as they continued to watch us from their vantage point.
My heart hiccupped to a stop and started with the force of thunder as everything within me turned to worry. Knox was a king in his own right, but that didn’t mean he was safe from the King of Norvalla. The royalty between realms could destroy one another, but only if the original bloodlines gave permission.
The problem was, the King of Norvalla was above that. He had refused to sign the covenant or even acknowledge that the Human Realm should be included in the same category, making it the Tenth Realm since it hadn’t been a part of the original nine. Until Hecate had ripped through the portal she created to discover it.
Hecate was the reason the portal barriers separating the Nine Realms had been broken. To create trade opportunities among the realms, she had merged them all together as one large region, while still maintaining physical borders identifying each of the Nine Realms. This also allowed the Nine Realms to be governed as separate kingdoms but overseen b
y the Council of Original Bloodlines, as well as the appointed High King.
Our family was considered one of the largest and most prominent families in all the realms. Not that we exploited it, but to land a Hecate direct descendant was huge. Or it had been until we’d left the Nine Realms to live among mortals.
Aurora had told us tales of the men who wooed her, courting Hecate’s daughter. My mother, Freya, had used it to mate with anything that had a cock she could physically take between her legs.
My heart kicked into overdrive as I peered up at the male who had watched me spinning in the Minotaur’s court. No one spoke as a shiver raced down my spine, and I leaned my head against Knox’s back as I closed my eyes.
The image of Amara and her husband filled my mind, and I gagged. It caused Knox to turn around, staring at me. He opened his mouth to speak, and I held my hand up, shaking my head as the images flooded my mind until I turned, throwing up. No one made a noise or questioned what was wrong, as if they knew I couldn’t speak about that place of horror.
Hands pulled my hair away from my face, and I heaved until nothing more would come out. Standing, I covered my mouth with the back of my hand as Brander’s pained stare held mine. He exhaled before stepping closer.
“I need to examine you, Aria.”
“No,” I whispered as I shook my head, covering my eyes with my forearm. “I’m fine.”
“You’re not fine, Aria. You were in the Kingdom of Unwanted Beasts, where women are mutilated, and even if you think you’re fine, I need to be certain.”
“I said no,” I whispered through clenched teeth, trembling as I shoved the images away from the front of my mind. “I am fine, there’s no reason to check me.”
I turned, staring at Knox, who watched me through narrowed eyes before he spoke in a low tone to Brander. “Once we get deep enough into the forest, we will camp for the night.”
“I think it best we do. I think we could all use the rest before we go through the passes.”
My stare moved to the empty cliff and then back to Knox, who had yet to look away from me. The men started forward, and I settled into their quick pace while Knox walked behind me.
It was hours more before we entered a vast forest with trees that had trunks wider than ten men standing shoulder to shoulder. My eyes stared up as I took in their height, moving higher than my eyes could see, as if they were reaching for the heavens of the gods.
All around us, woodland creatures played, jumping from tree to tree as they followed us deeper into the forest. It took another hour of moving through the woods before a group of men came into view, and I stopped dead in my tracks.
Knox moved toward the men, speaking low, in a foreign tongue as he pointed to a large clearing a mile or so away from us. I didn’t rush to keep up with him and the others, preferring to remain back from the men who continually gave me a curious stare.
Large tents were set up in a clearing, but the sound of water drew my attention, and I walked away from the group, silently, finding a lovely pool. The water was crystal clear and welcoming.
Slowly, I lifted the dress from my body and stepped into the water. My hands scrubbed the glitter from my flesh, hating that no matter how much I tried, it wouldn’t all come off. Footsteps sounded behind me, and I turned, staring at Knox.
His eyes lowered to the angry purple and blue bruises that covered my breast and shoulders, where Garrett had tried to pull me through the bars by force. My arms held bruises from where the guards had grabbed me roughly, jerking me around. My thighs held even more bruises, but from what I didn’t know. I was battered and bruised in places I hadn’t felt until the fear had left me, along with the worry of escape.
Another male entered the small clearing and paused, looking at the damage to my body. Brander groaned, covering his mouth as he took in the bruises before I gave him my back.
“Set a perimeter up around the pool. Make sure the men know to keep their distance.”
“I need to examine her. When she is ready,” he added firmly, placing his hands on his hips, frowning as he shook his head.
“Go do as I said,” Knox ordered, and silence filled the small clearing.
My hands dipped into the water that gurgled up from the bottom of the pool. I heated it to a boiling point, dunking beneath it to close out the sounds that haunted me. I emerged to take a breath of air, and arms captured me, turning me around until I was forced to face Knox.
“What happened?” he asked with worry etched into his words.
“I can’t,” I whispered, looking away.
“Did they rape you, Aria?”
I shook my head, knowing he wanted to know everything that had happened, but I wasn’t ready to speak about it. His arms pulled me closer, and I leaned against his silent strength, hating the tears that fell as they dripped down my face. He exhaled slowly, but it shook his body with the force of it as he placed his lips against the top of my head, kissing it.
“You rescued me again.” I slipped my arms around him to lean back and peer up into his turbulent gaze.
“Is that what I did?” He smiled sadly, watching me closely.
“I can’t get the glitter off.”
“It’s just glitter.” He pushed the wet hair away from my face.
His hands cupped my cheeks, and he lowered his lips, brushing them gently across mine before he released me. He ducked beneath the water, coming up with a weird-looking shell, his eyes staring at my breast that held evidence of how large Garrett’s hands had been. Knox cupped it with his free hand, and I hissed, pulling back away from him as pain ripped through me.
“Who did that to you, Aria?” he asked, but I shook my head once and turned away from him, hiding the tears that rolled from my eyes, slipping down my cheeks.
The shell slid over my shoulder, and I turned, watching as he slowly scraped the glitter off of my flesh. He was meticulous as he removed every tiny shining fleck of glitter until my arms were cleaned of any trace of it. He moved me to a flat rock, lifting me onto it, then began to clean my legs, finding my sex bruised from where Garrett had dug into my flesh while he’d used his fingers on me.
His eyes lifted, and his nostrils flared. I looked away while tears filled my eyes, and my lip slid between my teeth as my eyes overflowed with tears that trailed down my cheek as I refused to look at him.
He swallowed hard and stepped back, lowering his head. “Aria,” he uttered.
“I’m tired.”
He stared at me as if he’d argue and demand to know more, watching me as if at any moment, I’d break apart. He didn’t push it, sensing I couldn’t speak about it yet. Knox made quick work of removing the glitter from my legs and then carefully followed through with the area where they’d placed more glitter than others to make my cunt sparkly and enticing for the beast that had planned to rip me apart.
Knox didn’t caress me, didn’t touch me more than was needed to finish removing the particles, then he moved from the water and redressed. He picked up the soiled dress and shook it out, moving toward me as I stood on the rock, keeping my gaze on his feet. Knox slipped the dress over my head, pulling it over my naked body before he pulled me behind him, whistling to the men who had hidden in the trees, keeping sentinel. They emerged from the trees like silent warriors, falling into step beside us as we moved through the woods.
We walked back in silence, and Knox pointed to a tent that Brander followed me into. I turned slowly toward him and lifted my dress as he assessed the damage. He was clinical about it, but the moment he touched my breast, I cried out, and he looked up.
“Were you raped, Aria?” he asked, and I shook my head. “Your bruises are consistent with rape victims.” I shook my head again, swallowing bile as he frowned. “Did you eat or consume anything that they provided?”
Again, I shook my head.
“There are things they put into the food…”
“I know.” I gagged as the images of Irina filled my mind. I covered my mouth with my hand,
and he bent down, grabbing a jug of whiskey that I accepted, gulping down.
“Slow down, if you haven’t eaten, you were there for three days. I’ll have food brought in for you. The shot they gave you, do you have any idea what was in it?” he asked as the wind howled outside, making the tent ruffle. I shook my head again, and he nodded. “I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me.”
“I’m okay.” I wasn’t, but I would be, eventually.
“I’ll have food brought in, there’s a blanket in the satchel, and the brazier is being readied to heat the tent. Rest, it won’t be long before we have to move again. The new Minotaur King is not happy that you murdered his wife.”
I gagged again, turning away from him. He exited the tent, and I moved to the large bag that was anything but a satchel and pulled out the blanket, moving to the farthest corner before I sat down, wrapping myself in the warmth the clean blanket offered.
I could hear Brander speaking to Knox, and the sound of others joining in their conversation. The thudding of hooves beating against the ground made my head lift, and I tilted it sideways, listening. It was several riders, and no one seemed worried about it, so I pulled the blankets around me and lay my head on the bag, closing my eyes.
Chapter 55
Something touched me, and I screamed, jerking and jolted away from it as I crawled back to escape whatever it was. Knox watched me, his mouth opened, and he growled at my reaction. I fought to control my body, which shook violently, trying to calm myself down and rid my mind of the nightmare that had haunted my dreams. My hands pushed through my hair, and I released a shuddering breath before the scent of food caught my attention.
“Eat,” he said, and I grabbed the plate from him, sniffing it before I forwent the silverware and consumed the meat with gusto. I hardly chewed as I devoured it, and when I finished, I closed my eyes. I hadn’t even realized I was starving until the scent of the meat touched my nose.
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