I open my mouth to respond, but nothing comes out. I’m surprised, certainly, but I don’t know how to interact with this monster. He’d been so aloof, so angry before, and now here he is, looking at me like that.
“I’m sorry about how you were treated by humans in the past, Your Majesty,” I whisper, and he freezes. I realize my mistake a moment later. I shouldn’t really know any of his past, but he surprises me yet again.
He reaches forward to slide a strand of hair behind my ear and smiles, just barely. “You can call me Krug, Amata. Just Krug.”
Blinking, I offer my hand. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you officially.”
He looks at my hand before gently taking my fingers in his and pressing a kiss to the back of them. “I hope to continue to get to know you better,” he purrs before releasing me and moving over to help Grimus.
“Well, what do you know,” Bracken comments suddenly from behind me. I nearly jump out of my skin. “The orc is just as smitten now that he’s seen your magic.” He leans in close to the shell of my ear. “Think I can watch when you let him taste it?”
“Who says I’m going to let him taste it?” I ask, narrowing my eyes.
Bracken laughs, delight in his eyes. “Oh, I don’t know,” he sings. “Call it a feeling.”
He prances off into the forest alone, as if we’re not being hunted by every monster in the Dead Lands.
Snorting at the dark fay’s antics, I focus back on the group before me and realize Krug was right—they are getting along because of me. I did this, even if it was unintentional. It started out as a means to survive, but now, I not only need them to survive, I also crave them. I want them with me for as long as possible. I don’t want them to go. I don’t want to lose them.
After we eat the meal Grimus cooks, I settle down close enough to the dying fire in the hopes the heat will warm me. Instead, it fades too quickly to do so, but I need not have worried. Nero’s coils move around me, touching one side. Grimus settles on another side, his head pressed against me. Zetros takes up the remaining spot, and Bracken drapes himself over Nero’s coils and falls asleep on top as if he won’t topple off with any movement. Krug takes first watch, his eyes on the forest, but every now and then, before I can fall asleep completely, I see his eyes drift over to me and the monsters around me.
In his gaze, I see his longing, his urge to be a part of something, and I curse Bracken for speaking of the future so soon.
ChapterTwenty-One
The slicking sound is familiar. I huddle deeper into my bed, freezing when I feel his shadow fall over me. “You can’t hide from me, girl. I know you’re awake.” His voice is angry, furious even. I hear a whimper escape my choked throat, and when he rips my blanket back, turning me over, my eyes land on the empty bed across the room. I’m glad Kai isn’t here to see this. Raising my eyes, I meet the vicious, gleeful gaze of my father as he slides his belt from his trousers and wraps it around his fist.
“On your knees,” he orders. “Now, or it will be much worse.”
Tears fill my eyes as I slowly get to my knees, turning to give him my back.
I knew this would happen, knew this was coming—
A scream rips from my throat as I jerk upwards, almost sliding from Nero’s back with the force of it. The hazy nightmares based on my memory cling to me so tightly, I slip from him and stumble to the trees, gagging before sucking in deep breaths. There are tears in my eyes as I struggle to breathe.
Panic claws at my throat until I’m digging my nails into the skin there, trying to let air in.
It’s not real. He’s not here. I’m safe from him.
He can’t hurt me anymore.
I repeat it over and over until the panic recedes and I can breathe again, then I slide down the tree with my hand pressed to my racing heart. I look over to the dying fire to see the others all asleep. A frown tugs at my lips as I watch them. They are silent, unmoving.
No one is on watch.
Why?
That has me staggering to my feet and moving closer. “Nero?” I whisper, since he’s the closest, and shouldn’t he have noticed me moving? But he doesn’t react.
“Bracken, Zee, Grim?” I call.
No response. I circle our little camp, seeing Grim with his weapon in hand, sitting by the fire, his head slumped like he fell asleep before he could even move.
What the…
A noise has me jerking around. I reach for a weapon, but it fades through my hand, and when I lift it up, I see it’s almost see through. My eyes drift from my hand to the trees beyond. Now that I’m looking, I see it.
The fog wraps around everything, and the lack of color makes it seem as if everything has been leaked from the land or it hasn’t formed correctly. Some things are even hard to make out, but the one thing that isn’t is the castle.
