A blade swung toward me without warning, but Brander intercepted it, slicing through a warrior that rushed forward with his sword lifted. The man’s obsidian eyes marred his face as ugly spider webs covered his flesh. Brander leaped into the air, cutting through another male without stopping until he was on the ground. Brander used his arm to swing his blade wide as he severed the head, sending it bouncing across the forest floor.
Killian angled toward a group of warriors, his blades swinging precisely and adeptly. His swords met and crisscrossed against the other male’s blades, unhanding them before he swung, severing the body at the waist. Killian moved to the next, blindly swinging, or what I assumed had been blind, only to remove heads and limbs from more warriors.
Knox stalked toward Lord Andres, who wielded dual blades. Andres snarled, cursing the king for being weak, goading him into anger, yet Knox didn’t take the bait. Knox said nothing; his anger radiated from him silently as he held his swords at his side. He stared at Andres with death exuding through the skull visor he wore.
Andres lifted his blades and swung, and Knox countered, sending one of Andres’s arms to the ground, still holding the sword. I hadn’t even been able to follow the speed of Knox’s blade as it moved.
Andres howled but still lunged, intending to catch Knox off-guard with his attack. Knox sent his blades into the air, coming down in an X before he lifted them, slicing both through Lord Andres’s throat. His body cut into sections and slid to the ground. More warriors came from the forest as if they’d intended to be a second wave of attack, but Killian and Brander dispatched them as Knox moved to me, dropping to his knees in front of me.
He turned as more men escaped the woods and whispered a single word, which caused the men rushing forth to turn to ash, as the wind caught and carried it through the air. Slowly, he turned back, staring at me as the pained sounds continued escaping my throat.
Knox cupped my face between his thick gloves before shifting his attention to my mangled shoulder. I didn’t stop the sounds. I couldn’t. My entire body shuddered from the rattling wail escaping me.
“Aria, you’re okay,” Knox whispered, his eyes dipping down my body to the soaked dress covered in mine and everyone else’s blood. “I got you,” he swallowed, his throat bobbing as he studied me.
I could see Knox, but I couldn’t process him. My mind refused to allow the fear to slide away. Everything within me was repelling against the feeling of Lord Andres’s bite. His mark on my flesh was vile, detested, and offensive. The wrongness of it consumed me.
Something touched my hands, and I screamed over the rattling wail. My hands broke free, rushing toward the shoulder to rip the mark from my flesh. Knox noted their direction and grabbed them with one of his, shucking his glove and visor before securing it with his bare hand. He jerked me against his body, cradling me as I fought him.
Everything within me was going haywire. Something was wrong on a deeper level than I could process. Knox struggled with me in his arms as his men moved in around us. He purred, rattling loudly while the others echoed him. He released me, and my hands flew to my shoulder as my nails pushed free.
Knox removed my hands again and covered his mouth over my shoulder. My hands ran through his hair, jerking him closer as the wail continued. His teeth pushed through my skin, and his other hand cradled me against him. The bite was painful, but there was peace within his mark’s pain, righting the wrong that was done.
Knox’s men purred around us, their comforting noises adding to his as he held his bite there. I melted into him, sobbing loudly as he cradled my shuddering form, tightening his hold. Knox pulled away, and I lunged, wrapping my arms around him as I continued to cry, oblivious to those watching as everything crumbled around me.
“You’re safe now, Little Monster. I got you. Lord Andres can’t ever hurt you again. I promise. Aria, you’re safe.”
“She’s wounded badly. She looks like she fought hard and lost,” Brander stated.
“She was probably…” Killian paused at Knox’s violent rattle.
Knox picked me up without waiting to see if I could walk. My arms held him against me as he kissed my cheek, holding me tightly. “Raped?” he snapped, and I tensed, which caused them all to purr loudly around me. “Set up a fucking camp. We’ll move to the other in the morning. I don’t smell his scent within her, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do other things to her body.”
Less than twenty minutes later, Knox had me in his shirt, wrapped in a blanket and cradled against him. I didn’t speak, and he didn’t ask questions. The men slept on the ground while Knox held me, pushing my hair away from my face to stroke it softly. His lips continually brushed over my forehead and ear while he purred. Brander eventually checked my wounds while keeping silent. No one asked the one question they were thinking, the one burning in their eyes. I didn’t offer what had happened.
It didn’t matter because Knox had come for me. He’d had enough trust to know I wouldn’t have left his men to die if I’d been able to prevent it from happening. I couldn’t bring myself to ask if Lore and Greer lived because I couldn’t form the words. I bathed in Knox’s heat, allowing him to comfort me through the tremors and fear that had yet to subside.
I closed my eyes, and he tucked me against him, holding my bloody, dirty body flush with his without care that I was filthy. Knox whispered soft words and used gentle touches to calm my broken edges, promising that everything would be okay.
It wouldn’t.
I’d let his lies appease me for now. I’d allow him to comfort me through the darkest hour and keep away the icy chill that had soaked into my bones. Knox was weathering the storm with me, and I didn’t care if it was a lie or if he hated me, so long as he held me through the tremors and kept the nightmares away for a little while longer.
Chapter Five
The next morning, someone lifted me to Knox on his horse before I’d even awoken. I screamed, hearing his purr the moment my eyes gained focus, echoed by the other men. Knox’s body stiffened against mine, and I removed my claws from his arms as I stared into his soft gaze. He hadn’t tried to touch me other than to hold me.
“You’re okay, Aria,” Knox stated like he couldn’t find anything else to say beyond that. I nodded, slowly turning to face forward. His lips brushed against my throat, kissing the rapidly beating pulse to calm my fears.
Nodding, I settled in front of him, shivering against the heat his body created while we started toward the camp. I still hadn’t spoken and was grateful he hadn’t prodded me. I knew it was coming the moment we got back to camp. I could feel his tense body, the way his arms clenched me as if he feared I would shatter.
I was in shock and exhausted, but not broken by any means. My entire body ached, and I’d been through hell to escape Lord Andres. I couldn’t get the faces of the witches who had helped me out of my mind. They’d died because the cuffs Knox placed on my wrists had weakened me. I’d been a sitting duck, defenseless and exposed as we’d moved through the forest to meet up with him.
Every time my eyes would start to close, I’d see Lord Andres touching me, tasting me, and I’d jerk upright. Knox would brush his nose against my ear, purring into it. I’d permit him to calm me before allowing my gaze to wander over the terrain, ever watchful of a trap.