In complete shock, Liv didn’t move at first, but at the sound of Val’s panicked voice shouting her name, she began to fight. As she managed to struggle in earnest, she felt a strong blow to the back of her head and the world went black.
2
When she awoke, she knew two things. Her hands and feet were bound by magically reinforced bonds, and she wasn’t alone. She was positioned upright, against a log, possibly in the Howling Forest. With concentration, she stared at the inky blackness surrounding her but couldn’t make out any form or figure.
“That was too easy. I expected much more of a battle with the mighty Liverity Strongwill, the wielder of the quickest and deadliest arrows and the evilest of curses in all of Hedonista.”
Hedonista?She hadn’t been in Hedonista since she was six years old. It had been her home in Umbraland before being taken from all she’d ever known.
Liv craned her neck and searched the area for the source of the voice, but she couldn’t see another living being. Only darkness surrounded her, leaving nothing visible. She couldn’t even hear movement. Her senses were completely numb, and her heart rate began to pick up speed in reaction. What was going on? Where was she? And who had spoken?
She swallowed a few times and began to pull in deep breaths through her nose, blowing them out through her mouth. After afew calming moments, she managed to ask, “Did my father send you?”
A tense pause followed by a humorless laugh was his response, but she sensed him moving. He was close. Even though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was within feet of her.
“Whatever he promised you, he lied. I can assure you of that. Let me go, walk away, and we’ll both live to see tomorrow.”
“You must take me for the biggest fool in all of Umbraland if you think I would trust any assurances or pretty promises that come out of your mouth.”
“I don’t take you for anything. I don’t even know you. There’s nothing that says we can’t keep it that way.”
Suddenly, like an apparition taking form, he pulled a blindfold from her eyes, and the owner of the voice was revealed, crouched in front of her, his knuckles white around the handles of twin knife blades.
“I can think of a couple reasons.”
The air escaped Liv’s lungs as she took in the image of the male in front of her.
His ice-blue eyes stared straight into her, as if he could see all the way to her soul. With a father so evil as hers, she wondered what he’d find there. She was slightly curious if he would find good or evil inside of her, but she was too distracted by the rest of him to think about that for long.
The rest of his features were just as striking, with an angular jaw, dimpled chin, and chiseled cheekbones. His nose was long and straight, flaring slightly at the tip. The only mark that marred his pure handsome features was a ragged scar that traced the left side of his face, slicing over his eyelid and up into his thick, night-black hair. His was the most attractive face she’d ever seen, and his scar only drew her to him more.
Ever since she could remember, she’d been drawn to the contrast of perfection and imperfection. A strange artisticsensibility that few others could understand was the hallmark of everything that attracted her gaze. It was possibly why she’d tried to rescue every disabled creature from birds to dogs to anything else that would let her close.
Yet, the power exuding from his muscular figure spoke volumes of his lack of weakness. He didn’t need her help. He seemed more likely to want her blood. But why? Was it personal? Or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? It seemed imperative to find out.
“Tell me, stranger, what do you hope to accomplish by kidnapping me?”
He slowly sheathed one of his knives and sneered in her direction. “Hope? I lost all hope years ago. Now, the only thing driving me is revenge.”
The fury in his gravelly voice burned over her with his every word. Every bit of his anger was directed at her, and she stared harder at him, wracking her brain to try to recognize the stranger. Had she wronged him in some way? She’d lived a hard life for all of her twenty-eight years, and it was possible she had done something to harm him or someone he loved. She never would have done it intentionally, but she often had to steal her bread or take mercenary work, never questioning the mission for which she would be paid. Yet, she had tried to choose carefully, not wanting to cause any undue harm.
“If I have unintentionally offended you in some way…let me say, I was just trying to survive, same as you.”
“Survive?” The blast of rage that erupted from him swept over her like a fiery wind. “You were trying to survive…the same…as me?” He stood up and began to pace in front of her.
“You have no idea what it took for me to survive. You…you don’t have the right to speak to me about survival, princess.”
Princess?Who did he think she was? He clearly had the wrong idea about her. Yet, he had used her name. Did he…didhe not know that…she was estranged from her father and all he represented? She had been for so many years now, she just assumed everyone knew the truth.
“Look, I don’t want to be the one to take away your bluster, but if you think I ever actually lived the life of a princess of Hedonista, you might need to get your facts straight, my man.”
For a moment, he stopped pacing and stared at her as he seemed to consider what she said. “Be that as it may, you are going to be my way inside. You will be my means to the revenge I seek. You are a Strongwill, and you will help me make Grawl Strongwill pay for ruining my life.”
Suddenly, his words sunk in. Her father hadn’t sent this beautiful, insane man to kill her. Her father was his target, and she was merely the means to his ends.
The problem with his plan was simply that her father would kill her and anyone with her on sight. Did he understand that they wouldn’t live long enough to be allowed within hundreds of feet of her father? If he thought her father would let him close enough to exact his revenge, he really didn’t know her father.
Maybe she could convince him to join Val and her so that they could find the curse breaker and finally end her father’s despotic reign over the parched land. Yet, she’d have to tread carefully. He hadn’t exactly been open to anything she’d had to say so far.
