AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not all.” There was an almost desperate melancholy in his eyes. “Maybe it ought to be. I really wish it was.”
***
Though I’d been free all day, Devon still tied my hands and feet for the night, though it seemed a bit more perfunctory than usual, and I settled down to sleep.
It had been… it sounded so very stupid to say it, but it had been a wonderful day. We’d ridden in the sun, we’d picked flowers with Uther and watched the birds in the skies above us. We’d chatted and laughed, we’d joked and shared deep and meaningful moments, albeit brief ones. We’d been together.
Naturally, we’d been together all this time—thanks to the tether we’d been quite forcibly so. But today we’d beentogether. Today I hadn’t merely been in the vicinity of Devon, I’d been with him and he’d been with me.
For all the near misses and forced intimacy and even those few stolen kisses, it was the casualness of today that had most made me feel close to him, and most made me wonder hopefully about tomorrow.
“Goodnight, Selena,” he whispered.
“You’ve never said goodnight to me before.”
“Haven’t I?”
“No.”
“I meant to.”
“Goodnight, Devon. See you in the morning.”
To that, he didn’t respond. We’d made it through the day without mentioning tomorrow, he wouldn’t start now.
I should have been unable to sleep, anxious and scared for the coming morning. I should have been making one last ditch attempt to get away. But, instead, I dropped off almost instantly into the easiest sleep I’d managed for weeks.
But I didn’t wake as pleasantly.
I started as a hand shook me and almost choked as another was clamped over my mouth. It remained there as my bonds were cut and I was pulled roughly to my feet.
Was I being rescued? Some idiot part of me thought it must be Devon, saving me from himself.
“Come on,” hissed a voice I knew and feared.
“Vorst?”
The unpleasantly sharp face snatched back to look at me. “You want to stay here and be sold or you want to be free?”
“I…”
“It wasn’t a question.”
The hand clamped over my mouth again and Vorst grabbed me, displaying a wiry strength I hadn’t been expecting. Still dopey from being woken, I struggled but not very effectively as Vorst slung me over his shoulder and started out of the camp. The more I woke up, the harder I struggled, kicked at my latest abductor, trying to scream past the gag he’d thrust into my mouth.
“Shut up complaining, you ungrateful bitch.”
I wasn’t sure how far we went, but we were out of earshot of the camp when Vorst dropped me to the ground.
“You’ve got a funny way of saying ‘thank you’ for being rescued. If I was Devon, you’d be all smiles, wouldn’t you?”
“I don’t call that a rescue,” I snapped back.
“You’re under his spell at the moment,” said Vorst. “You think he’s a good man. Well, he’s not. Look at the way he cut me an’ Buck an’ the rest out. Thieving bastard. You shouldn’t trust him. I’m the one who’s set you free.”
“What about Uther?” I asked sharply. “If you were really rescuing me, then you’d have taken him too.”
“I can hardly carry the both of you.”
