AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She was sitting in a plush chair, her feet up on an ottoman. To her right was a table, and on it was a steaming mug of some sort of hot liquid, and beside that was a pastry.
She was starving, and still so cold.
She looked around the space, her eyes still bleary. It was all gray stone and gothic details. It looked like an old castle. She wasn’t in the little hovel she’d fallen asleep in earlier.
She thought back to the dream...
Of being lifted. Of being held.
That hadn’t been a dream. Someone had found her there and brought her...here.
She looked around the room, and then suddenly, the large fireplace against the back wall ignited.
It was a rush of flame and sound, and she recoiled in shock.
“Who’s there?” she asked, her voice trembling.
She did not believe in magic.
She had never seen it. Not living as she had in the compound.
This... This did seem like an enchantment. The entire thing. Or a dream. That this place could be here, in the forest. That someone had found her, sleeping, hidden away in that shack and brought her here...
She reached her hands out, and realized that they were still quite cold.
Then, shaking all over she reached out and picked up the mug. She knew she perhaps shouldn’t trust the substance in it, but she also knew she was thirsty and hungry and freezing. She had to let her more immediate needs take precedence.
And once she was warm, and full, she found herself drifting off to sleep again.
Something woke her. She could not pinpoint it. A strange sensation that filled her and made her chest feel like it was expanding until she was jolted from her sleep.
“What do we have here?”
The voice was rough, with a heavy Scottish accent, deep and frightening, and she found herself gripping the arms of the chair hard.
She was trying to shake off her sleep.
“Speak, lass.”
She tried to find the source of the voice, looking to her left and right, but she couldn’t find it. She felt the voice, as much as she heard it. A rumble through her body.
“I... My name is Athena.”
“Athena. Goddess of war. Tell me, Athena.” The voice became lower, rougher, close to a growl. “Have you come to make war with me?”
She looked all around, and she could not see where the voice was coming from.
“No. I’ve run away. From my...from my captors. And someone brought me...here.”
“Captors?” He said the word hard and harsh.
“Yes. Well... My father. My adoptive father. I came to live with him when I was eight years old. He’s selling me into marriage now.”
“I see. And you are running away from your arranged marriage?”
“Yes. Wouldn’t you?”
He laughed. Hard and harsh. “No. I’ve no need to run from anyone.”
