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My head turned back toward Risa, but the echo of her words stopped me.Run! Don’t look back!
Against the numbness freezing my muscles, I lifted my arm as if in a trance, pushing myself away from the wooden beam beside me. One foot inched forward, and then the other followed, carrying me out from underneath the stable’s overhang.
“Where are you going?” An arm grabbed around my waist, pulling me back against the biting stench of garlic and sweat. “Did we have you already?”
“Let go!” No wiggling or writhing changed how the man easily lifted me, carrying me several steps toward a barrel beside an empty stall. “Unhand me at once!”
“Won’t do no harm to have you again.” He pushed against my shoulder blade until my upper body slammed against the wood, an iron ring digging into my lower belly as he kicked my feet apart. “You’re a young one. All soft, tight skin.”
I bucked against the barrel, trapped between ungiving oak and the weight of this man hunched over my back. “Gods fetch you!”
“Keep fighting, shouting, and I might have to share this little pink cunt.” Rough fingers scratched over my knee and up along my thigh as he shoved my skirts up, exposing parts of me no man had ever seen. “But not until I thoroughly fuck this hole.”
My pulse raged at the way he groaned against the side of my neck, making himself smaller until his groin pressed into my bared backside. His hard penis stabbed against my inner thighs, thrusting and shifting in search of my entrance, spreading something wet and sticky across my skin.
Digging my nails into the wood of the barrel, I fought down the nausea and sealed it behind my clamped lips. If I stayed quiet and endured, I might survive. But survive for what? Without my virtue, I had no chance at a life worth living.
“Get off her!” A violent shout echoed through the now eerily silent village. “She’s the one the fate wants, you fucking idiot.”
The man’s weight lifted off me before he staggered sideways, cursing and pulling his breeches up. “How would I know? Doesn’t look highborn to me.”
“Right. Because peasant women wear gemstones around their clean necks where you come from, don’t they?” A yank on my necklace cut off my air, pulling me up and turning me, bringing me face to face with the green-eyed Raven from my room. He held me in place, chain tight in his grip, mouth curling up on one end as his gaze strolled over my underdress. “Though, the way you got rid of the silk looks rather inviting. Molted your pretty feathers right down to the cotton, huh? Who are you?”
My lips parted.
Nothing came out.
Nothing but a gag as my stomach convulsed, sending a burn up into my chest. Would they take me hostage? Perhaps they thought they could get cartloads of coins and silver out of any highborn woman in exchange for her safe return? Yes, that had to be it.
Human or Raven, wars cost gold all the same.
Except… if they’d come for me, shouldn’t he know who I was? And if he didn’t, was it wise to tell him? If I revealed myself, these savages might rape me, torture me, kill me. Or worse, rape me and keep me alive.
“Swallowed your tongue, sweetheart?” He smirked down at me, his dark brown leather outfit sitting as snug against his broad chest as the bowstring that spun across his tooled cuirass, and eased his grip on my necklace. “Your name.”
Fear throbbed through me, clouding my head. What was I supposed to say? None of this made any sense.
“Aww, look how shy she is, sweet little girl.”
My gaze snapped to the Raven woman from earlier, who walked up beside us, her fingers wrapped around Risa’s neck. Black veins spread from where she dug her long nails into my nursemaid’s mottled skin, wrapping around her throat like a tangle of ropes.
A lump of bitterness clogged my throat.No. Oh, please, not Risa!
“Lorn…” The Raven beside me let go of my necklace, but I sensed him shift closer against my side. “What do you want with the old hag?”
“This one tried to save the girl. Ah, watching it got me all warm on the inside. Maybe it’s her mother? No. Too old. Maid? Lady’s maid? What’s the difference, Sebian?”
Sebian shrugged. “As if I care.”
“Doesn’t matter.” Lorn gave a yank on Risa’s neck, ripping a miserable cry from her that soon turned into a wheeze under the strangle of shadows. “Let’s make this easier. Little girl, who is this woman?”
I looked at Risa, watching her gag and hearing her struggle for air. “My nursemaid.”
“Nursemaid.” Lorn gave an amused scoff. “And who… are… you?”
Risa made a strangled sound. “Naaah!”
I swallowed a gush of saliva, nearly vomiting it back up. Holding back my identity would only buy me time, not change the inevitable. What if revealing it saved Risa? I couldn’t lose her.
