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“Be a good girl, Penny, and you might just survive the trip.” A new voice speaks this time.
On my way around, I snag a few holes in their nets for good measure with my claws before coming up for another glance at the humans.Not yet, I tell myself, knowing that if I attack now, the dark elf in particular will have time to cast one of his destructive spells. No, they need to be completely distracted before I attack.
My first move needs to be flawless.
8
PENNY
“No, stop!”
Malachi’s men ignore my pleas. One in particular, a scarred-up dark elf with a milky right eye, shoves me onto the dock and sends me sprawling against the planks. Pain shoots through my limbs, and I stumble when I try to rise.
The humans avoid eye contact. One catches me when I lunge for the shore and shoves me into their ranks, towards the boat.
“Please! Let me talk with Malachi!”
Someone grabs my hair, and foul breath washes over me. “Shut up, or we’ll grind you into fish chum.” His threat would have scared me if I didn’t already know what was waiting for me out there. I’m shaking so hard that I can’t even rise before I’m yanked to my feet.
I scan the horizon, shaking my head.
The dark elf grins, his teeth too sharp as he waves a welcoming arm onto the small craft. “Milady?” he asks sardonically. The men chuckle and shove me forward, pushing me over the lip of the boat and into the boat’s shallow belly.
Someone grabs a length of rope.
I flinch away from him, but he moves past me to fix the tattered sail. The others seem to ignore my existence as the boat is pushed out to sea. A shudder rocks me from my core, and the sea sickness wells up in my throat.
I clutch the side of the boat for dear life and search the dark waters.
“It’s bad luck to have a woman on board,” one of them says after a while. “Better to drown her now and spare Malachi the trouble.”
“We have our orders,” the dark elf says sharply.
I try to bite my lip but the words burst from me before I realize I’ve said anything. “You’re notlisteningto me. He’ll kill us all!”
“Nonsense, he needs us,” one of the older fishermen says with a laugh. “Now sit down before you topple the boat. We’ve lost enough this week already.”
Not Malachi, you idiots.“You don’t understand –”
White hot light blinds me in the sudden strike. The resulting sting seeps into the skin of my cheek. I rock back on my seat and catch my face in shock, staring up at the man who slapped me as he snarls his next words. “You will sit andwait.” There’s a long pause, one not even the dark elf interrupts. “Malachi made it very clear that you are to be helpful, or we can toss you overboard at our discretion. No one will ever find your body out here.”
My next words dry up on my tongue, and I push down the cold lump in my throat. There’s a lightness in my head that gives everything a surreal feeling. I can clearly hear the waves lapping against the sides of the boat and feel the radiating heat the men’s bodies are putting off in such close proximity.
One of them even dares to drag his dirty fingers up my thigh. “It doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun first.”
I pull away, only to feel the press of another as he grabs my waist and pulls me closer. “Be a good girl, Penny, and you might just survive the trip.”
The dark elf shoots them a murderous look, which is all the more convincing with his damaged eye. “You want to keep your hands, Red?”
The hold on my hips releases, but not before he squeezes my flesh painfully and makes me cry out in pain.
“You’re no fun, Vyrtun.”
Monsters above. Monsters below.
I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to escape them before one of them decides I’ve lived long enough. A chill seeps into my extremities, despite the balmy warmth of the ocean breeze rolling over us. I remember the press of the monster’s wet flesh against mine, the weight of him bearing down on me so that I couldn’t breathe. Before, I was lucky to still be on land.
I don’t think my luck will hold out here.
