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“Can I visit again?”

She bit her lip for a moment, a hundred reasons for saying no moving through her brain.

“Only between two and four o’clock though, and always knock first. If the chief commander is here and he calls you in, pretend you got lost.” She made her words sharp, eyes focusing on Mina’s to make sure she understood the seriousness of them. The little girl gave a short nod before turning and running out the door.

Sofia spent the rest of her alone time trying to finish her copying, but she kept looking down to notice flecks of blood on the paper from where she’d been picking at her nail beds. She had to start over from scratch again.

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

FOX

Fox’s head was throbbing and he was trying his best to stay cognizant as one of the men held him by his neck, keeping him standing even as nausea roiled through him. He saw the third man return, something slung over his shoulder.

“Look what I found,” he said, throwing whatever it was on the ground in front of them. Only after the others were laughing and tittering over the man’s find, did Fox’s eyes adjust enough to make out the dark curls against the shadowed ground—the Dragonborn woman who had started this. Her eyes were open, but unfocused, and he could just make out the dark smear of something dripping from her hairline.

The sight made his heart rate spike. Being recaptured by the resistance hadn’t been the perfect plan, but it felt like a better option that being dragged away by thesethings. Now his only hope was lying crumpled on the ground looking just about as useless as him.

The man holding him by the throat dropped him. His legs crumbled beneath him before he had a chance to catch himself, and he tasted soil as his hands were yanked behind him. The rope was rough against his wrists, biting into the skin there. He was starting to get tired of being tied up and a small voice in the back of his mind wondered where three naked men had been storing the rope.

They didn’t bother with his comfort, pulling the ropes tight enough to nearly pop his shoulder out of place. But it was least of his problems as he was picked up like a sack and thrown over one of the men’s shoulders. The Dragonborn woman—Sofia—was flung on the back of another, her own arms also tied.

For the smallest fraction of a second, Fox regretted ever escaping from the tunnels. His body wouldn’t ever be found out here in the rainforest. His name would simply be added to the list of those who disappeared in their duties to the crown, another forgotten soldier who didn’t make it. Would his father be disappointed? He was proving him right, after all. He always had known Fox wouldn’t make it. That didn’t even hurt anymore. It was Leon’s face that burned through his chest and made his body ache. If he didn’t escape this, he’d fail every promise he’d ever made to his brother.

* * *

The next fewhours crept by punctuated by pain and cold and fear. The men moved through the forest like animals, bounding more than walking, and not bothering to be gentle with their cargo. Fox felt his muscles aching and his head churning as he bounced across the large man’s shoulders, unable to do more than brace himself. If he’d had any food left in his stomach, it would have been lost quickly. As it was, his head was swimming somewhere between nausea, exhaustion, and thirst. The man holding Sofia ran beside him and he caught occasional glimpses of her curls. He tried to make eye contact, but it was nearly impossible with the jarring bounce of his captor’s gait.

When they were both unceremoniously dropped onto the ground as the men came to a stop, Fox was almost glad to feel his limbs tangling with hers. The three men spoke in low tones and then the smallest of them bolted away.

Too afraid to draw attention, Fox tried his best to turn slowly. He could feel the soft movements of Sofia behind him, but he couldn’t tell what she was doing. He didn’t particularly like her being behind him, even if she was the least of his enemies at the moment. In fact, she was probably the closest thing he was going to get to an ally out here. If they could get freed, they might have a better chance with two against three.

He had just managed to flip himself over, searching out the woman’s eyes in the dark, when the third man returned. Fox looked on in utter horror to see the man dragging an entire elk behind him, casually holding it by the back hoof. He hadn’t even processed the insanity of seeing a naked man dragging his kill—without a single weapon in sight—before all three men were on the elk, ripping and tearing into it with a frenzy.

If he thought he had felt nausea before, this was something new. Fox turned away, not hiding the gag that rose in his throat. He made eye contact with Sofia who stared back, wild-eyed at him. His stomach dropped to see the fear there. It wasn’t until that moment that he realized he’d never actually seen her afraid, even when he’d first captured her. He should have known at that point it had been a trap. But now, there was a true flash of terror in her eyes.

They stayed like that for a few moments, Fox’s own fear reflected back at him. He moved his lips silently, emphasizing each syllable as if it might help her read his words in the dark.

We need to get untied.

She nodded and he could only hope she understood him. They needed to get away from these men. They needed to work together. The tremor in her shoulders told him that she didn’t disagree with his assessment.

He watched her as she squirmed, contorting her body as if she might just slip from her binds. A part of him wanted to laugh at the idea, but he’d underestimated her before. So he watched in silence as she twisted and moved before suddenly going still and letting a smile stretch across her face. Her moss eyes practically danced. Her movements were smaller now, as she continued to stare at him, concentrating on something. He bit the inside of his cheek, trying to stay patient.

But the silence and the waiting only gave him time to focus back on the sound of ripping from behind him. The men were still eating their kill—blood, skin, hair, and all. These weren’t just Dragonborn or forest savages that had captured them. These were something else. And that, more than anything, terrified Fox. He knew the legends of Wueco, but that’s what they were—legends. Myths to scare little children into never sneaking past the wall. Myths that had kept Dragonborn as slaves to the forest instead of progressing.

Before he had time to dig himself into such thoughts, he noticed Sofia looking at him again, mouthing something. He refocused and saw her motioning for him to turn over. With a startled realization, he saw that her right arm was in front of her now, a small dagger the size of his thumb tucked in her palm.

Biting back the urge to flip himself over, he shuffled with care, keeping his movements small and quiet. It took an extra few moments, but the men didn’t even look up from their meal as he rolled to face them. The iron scent of blood hit him as he turned, a perfect view of the massacre happening just a few yards away.

The felled elk was torn apart, a gaping wound in its belly. They continued to reach into the pit, pulling out pieces of meat and flesh, raw as they devoured it. The glow of the forest around them only acted to highlight the gore and horror of the scene, casting their faces in a green hue and making the men look inhuman—witches brought to life from some ancient storybook, casting their spell through some macabre ritual.

The cold blade touched the delicate skin of his inner wrist and he feared she might dig it in deeper, cutting into him. But she didn’t, the blade maneuvering carefully as she sawed at his binds. Even still, he felt the occasional nick and sting of the blade missing the rope.

“Not sorry,” she whispered, nearly all breath from behind him. He scowled, but was careful not to move and give her more of an excuse to cut him.

It felt like hours before the ropes around his wrists fell away, the blood rushing back to his fingers. His shoulders loosened forward and he almost groaned in relief. The men were finishing up their meal, eyes flicking up to them as if remembering they had prisoners thrown off to the side. Before he could move another inch, he felt Sofia pulling his hands back together and tightening the cut rope around his wrists, stuffing the ends in his hands.

“Hold,” she said.