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“Are you insane? Those hillbillies are coming foryou.”
The encroaching steps grew louder, their voices reachingus.
I zigged to my right between two buildings. Damn, could the night get any worse? Surely, Ted hadn’t moved Elf yet, and I could ride him out of here. “Please be there,” Iwhispered.
The moment I burst into the darkened meadow where I’d left Elf, a strong arm snapped around my waist from behind and lifted me off the ground. Hooded Man grasped my knife, ripping it out of myhold.
I cried out as he pressed me against his side as if I were a toddler, my bag squished betweenus.
He broke into arun.
I jostled about,screaming.
People got kidnapped this way, then they woke up in an underground market auctioned off as slaves, or their organs removed and used for death magic. All kinds of things happened in the Darkwoods. Was that who this man was? A gang member making an extracoin?
I bucked and elbowed him in the chest. “Releaseme!”
“Enough!” he roared. “I’m trying to helpyou.”
“Fuck you.” With no weapon, I dug into my pocket for my herbs, energy already bubbling in mychest.
Five men emerged, each grasping long knives. “Get her! I want her to pay,” Blondie yelled. But when I recognized of the men as the idiot guard from Terra who’d broken Dad’s bedside table, Ishuddered.
Once Blondie and his friends were done with me, the guard would drag me into a dungeon back in Terra to rot for life for leaving the realm. I lowered my head, praying he hadn’t seen me in the tavern. Or had they followed the horse’s tracks to the Golden Lock? I changed tactics and decided to take my chance with the big man, even if he was probably abandit.
“Run faster,” I said. “They’re almost onus.”
We veered past the last building and came out in front of a carriage drawn by two dark stallions. Each had red horns, as if they’d just climbed their way out of the underworld. Their snorted exhales misted into the night. There was no rider out front. The carriage itself was pitch black with golden trim and studs encasing the door and windows. Rose motifs and thorned stems curled along the toppaneling.
“Fuck!” Was this a hearse? Shit just got real. “Youarekidnapping me, aren’t you?” I wriggled, panic gripping my insides. Energy rolled through me as I frantically tried to open the pouch with onehand.
“Don’t you dare put a spell on me.” His hand clasped across my mouth and nose, cutting off my air, pushing the pouch out of my hands. It slipped through my fingers andfell.
No! Iwasgoing to end up an undead with my organs sold to the highestbidder.
He kicked the door, and it creaked open. Inside the seats were torn, as if someone had released a large feral cat to mangle thedecor.
I drove my heels into his legs and flung my arm against his face, hittinghim.
But he rushed us inside, and with a whistle, the carriage lurchedforward.
We landed in a seat. Me constricted by a monster who suffocated me, stars dancing in my vision. My lungs strained and darkness crowded at the corners of myeyes.
