The woman turned, staring over my shoulder as others moved in around me. I slowed down, leaning over to throw up water while they watched. Witches had found me and saved me. I stared at one who moved closer with a dagger in her hand, studying me.
“Thank you,” I whispered through trembling lips.
“Who is chasing you?” she demanded, closing the distance between us.
“Witches. Dark witches and the men who captured me for them,” I admitted, foregoing the murderous nymphs in the water that had tried to ensure I didn’t escape a watery grave.
“They’re coming, Adele!” one of the younger women cried, and the witch moving toward me paused, her eyes filling with regret before they rushed away from me.
“Don’t leave me,” I pleaded, running toward them until the reality of the situation slammed into me. If I followed these witches, I’d lead Lord Andres and his men right to them.
I turned, hating the angry tears of frustration that blinded me as I ran in the opposite direction with my hands still bound behind my back. Branches slapped me in the face, scratching my bare arms, and I gasped as something cut my leg. Staring down, I looked at the sliver of wood protruding from my thigh. I lifted my head just as something slammed into my temple, causing my vision to swim before me.
“Fucking little whore,” Lord Andres snarled.
Someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me back toward the large boulders that littered the riverbank. They slammed me down over one, my stomach lurching with the need to throw up as I watched Lord Andres slowly removing his armor.
“You thought I would allow you to escape me?” he chuckled coldly. “I agreed to let that witch slaughter my entire army just to get my fucking hands on you.”
I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move with the soldier holding me down as Lord Andres finished removing his armor, and I noted the burn marks and loose-fitting flesh covering his body. Tears swam in my vision as he reached into his trousers and stroked his flaccid cock. Fear burned through me, and I cried, knowing that no one was coming to save me.
Screaming ripped from the forest, and I sobbed when warriors brought the witches who had tried to save me into the clearing as they fought to escape. My heart sank in my chest, bottoming out against the boulder on which I was held. I shouted in denial as Lord Andres snorted, adjusting himself before he retrieved his blade.
“What do we have here?” he asked in mock curiosity.
“Witches within the woods, hiding,” a warrior sneered, gripping a witch by the hair before he shoved her to her knees before him.
“The only good witch is a dead witch,” Andres laughed coldly as his tongue slipped over his lips.
Fighting against the male holding me down, I watched in horror as another warrior brought more witches from the forest and shoved them to their knees. A scream ripped from my throat as a blade swung, ending the life of the woman who had pulled me from the water. My vision swam as they dispatched each witch until all their headless bodies lay twitching on the forest floor.
Lord Andres turned, smiling cruelly as he walked over to me. He yanked my head back, and I prepared for the assault that would surely unfold. My mind tried to slip away, to go where nothing could touch me, but teeth sank into my shoulder, and a loud wail escaped my throat, echoing through the forest.
The wrongness of his teeth against my flesh caused an inhuman noise to escape my lungs in a wailing rattle. I screeched loudly, and it echoed through me into the forest like a beacon sent for someone to find me. I screamed as tears burned my eyes, and the unnatural feeling of the bite caused bile to fill my throat, muting the sound I made, but unable to stop it from building in my throat, escaping through my lungs.
“Shut up, you stupid bitch!” Lord Andres snarled.
He ripped me from the boulder, burying my face against the forest floor, which only caused the sound to grow in force. His hands slammed against my ear, and I rattled louder until my body trembled from the strength of the sorrowful noise escaping me. His teeth sank deeper into my shoulder, marring Knox’s bite as he fought to subdue me.
I felt fingers pushing against my opening as Lord Andres prepared to rape me, forcing them in roughly while he continued biting into my shoulder. I couldn’t stop the noise I made as it grew until it became deafening. I couldn’t fight him with my magic bound and my hands tied behind me. I was powerless to stop what was coming, and I knew it.
He lifted my head by my hair, abandoning my sex to slam my face into the ground while trying to end my rattles and shrieks. Light burst behind my eyelids before Andres’s teeth returned to shred my shoulder, severing flesh from bone as he tried to subdue me.
He forced my body upright, moving my legs apart as he snarled against my shoulder. Power erupted around us, and Andres paused, standing as he shouted orders. I sat on my knees; my body propped there at an awkward angle as I tried to catch my breath. No one moved as the power grew thicker around us.
I blinked several times, trying to clear my vision while forcing air into my lungs. Shadows shifted around us as Lord Andres’s men withdrew their weapons. Still, I wailed, unable to prevent the sound from escaping. Everything inside me ached. Pain wrapped around me as he sent his foot directly into my stomach, forcing me to gasp, which only made the sound more painful.
“Shut up, you stupid whore!” he shouted, turning toward me. “Kill her if she moves or doesn’t stop that fucking noise!” Lord Andres stepped out from in front of me as someone else took his place.
“Shut up, woman!” the warrior snarled, and then Lord Andres yelled, causing everyone within the clearing to move into action.
“Kill her! The king and his men are here!” he demanded.
The world stopped moving as the warrior’s blade sailed toward my throat. Someone deflected it just before it reached me, and the warrior fell to the ground in several bloodied pieces. I blinked slowly. My rattle grew in volume, unable to prevent it from escaping as dark shadows covered in armor encircled me protectively.
“I think you have my girl, asshole,” Knox growled, peering over his shoulder through his visor to look at me. His eyes narrowed as the noise I made filled the area relentlessly.
“Your days as King are numbered!” Lord Andres snarled, taking a fighting stance. “You will die!”
“Not today, and not by you,” Knox laughed soundlessly. “You touched my woman, which means you and your men’s lives are forfeited.”
Knox turned, deliberately dismissing the lord while his piercing blue eyes locked with mine. A warrior rushed toward him, and he lifted his blade, pushing it between his arm and body, impaling the man who had thought to stab him in the back. Knox turned, lowering his head, and swung so quickly that my eyes couldn’t follow the movement. Body parts hit the forest floor, painting it crimson as a river of blood coated it.
More power entered the clearing as Knox’s men drew their blades around me. Lord Andres’s warriors closed in from the surrounding forest. Knox, Killian, and Brander chuckled, soundlessly watching them circle us. Dark witches with sightless eyes joined the warriors, building a barrier to prevent our escape.
Relief washed through me at the sight of Killian, hope flaring in my chest that the others may have also survived. Yet Lore was absent, which terrified and worried me. If he’d lived, wouldn’t he have been here too?