AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 6
Ann
They’re fighting. I can’t hear anything because they’re signing, but the looks on their faces, the motions and speed with which they sign say more than words ever could. Not only that, but they motion at me. More than once. With their heads or their hands, one even kicked his leg out in my direction. Which is okay. I’m not any happier about being here, about “never” being able to go home again than they are about whatever it is that has to do with me.
I stare outside the cave as Onyx storms off. He’s the biggest of the three, and a brooder. He’s solemn and quiet, although I would bet my left eye he has a lot to say that he doesn’t. I would bet aside from his posture--straight as a board--he’s the rule follower. Phantom is all command and order. I don’t know about Dusk.
The two brothers work together to get some kind of soup brewing over the fire. They give me time to use the bathroom, well, the woods, and show me a river close by that I can clean up a bit at. Then, I’m led back to the fire, where Dusk quietly stirs the fire, and Phantom sits nearby sharpening a huge pile of swords and daggers, before carefully reattaching them to a wall with leather cords.
I eye the weapons. If push comes to shove, I can use them to escape. Every student at the Royal Fae Academy was forced to take various fighting classes, including with swords and daggers. I didn’t exactly excel in the classes, but they might be enough to give me a distraction long enough to get away from them.
Again, if needed. As of right now, I don’t know where I am, but I do know that these guys don’t seem to want to hurt me. And, apparently, there are creatures in these woods that do. I’m not exactly a whiz at logic, yet I think it’s smart to stay here.
For now.
When Onyx comes back, he’s calm, his face almost serene as he signs some words to the others. I know a few words. “Fight,” for example. And the circular motion made to say “ready.”
Then Dusk and Phantom speak and I catch a few words. “Into the woods.” And, “For her safety.”
Okay, some of my classes are coming back to me!
Onyx settled near the fire, ignoring me, as Dusk handed out bowls of the soup, me first, followed by the others. It’s steaming as I hold it, but I almost dig in anyway. How long has it been since I ate last? I have no idea, but I’m not exactly the kind of girl that misses a lot of meals. Some of the bitches at school regularly made comments about my looks and my weight. But when Rayne, of the most powerful fae house, claimed me as his mate, every mean comment I’d ever heard seemed to fade away.
I felt like the most beautiful woman in the world. And, somehow, that feeling still hadn’t changed. It lingered inside of me, almost like Rayne is still with me, building me up, and making me feel loved. Even from the afterlife.
As a light fae, I can’t see the dead. But sometimes I wonder if he comes to visit me in his ghostly form.
I smile at the thought, lift a spoonful of the soup to my lips, and blow softly. There’s no way Rayne is visiting me. After saving his sister and the other dark fae, his soul has to be at rest. And I’m glad for it, even if my heart still longs for him.
“What are you thinking about?” Dusk asks, and I realize they’re all studying me.
My smile fades away. “Nothing.”
They have their secrets, why can’t I have mine?
All three of them focus back on their food, eating slowly, and I eat too. For some reason, it bothers me a little that the mood changed after my words. I’m their prisoner. It shouldn’t upset me if I hurt their feelings, or they realize that I’m keeping things close to my heart too.
So why does it bother me?I ponder the question while I eat one bowl, and then another.
The sun makes its final descent, and the colors of night blend with the last rays of day across the sky. Bits of color filter through the leaves and branches. A bird flaps and squirrels run and trees rustle. The sounds are all magnified in my mind by the silence of the men I wish I could hear speaking.
Phantom offers me a leather waterskin, which I eagerly drink, and then Onyx takes the pile of bowls and washes them in a little basket of water tucked into one little area of the cave, that almost looks like a shelf carved out of the stone. Randomly, the men sign to each other, and I try to pick out any words I can, before I realize that I’m just getting frustrated, and give up.
I stand up and look out at the night. Why do I like this place so much? I was never a huge outdoor person. The outdoors were pretty, but there were always more important things to do. But out here it feels like I’ve stepped into another world, and it’s a world I enjoy in an unexpected way.
Dusk moves to stand in front of me at the edge of the cave where I’m leaning against the wall, going between trying to eavesdrop on the almost silence of their ASL, and looking back out at the woods.
After a second, he moves past me to one corner of our cave and kneels down briefly, before standing back up. He turns around and comes back with weapons--a broad sword, a dagger in a sheath he attaches to his belt, and the ever more modern handgun combo in some sort of utility belt that gives him a Rambo look Stallone would appreciate. They’d been hidden under a shroud that blends in with the dirt floor and walls.
Phantom gets another stone and is grinding a dagger’s blade over the whetstone’s smooth surface. He also has a gun--ago ahead and make my daykind of revolver--and what I think must be a harpoon gun.
Onyx moves back a boulder and pulls out a quiver and bow. He strings the bow--not the Robin Hood type he would’ve made from a tree branch and some sort of string. Definitely not from the woods, but one from Cabellas or Bass Pro. It’s fancy. Black. A composite. He has a mechanical pull and a hand trigger along with his black glove. Certainly, it isn’t what I expected.
“You use human weapons?”
Phantom’s mouth draws into a thin line. “Some of our men have ventured further into the human world to seek help in our war.”
“War with who?”
