Page 29 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

‘I take it back,’ Locke mutters with a snort. ‘You’re much more intelligent than I gave you credit for. We can make a deal, you and I.’

I watch him. Could it be as easy as that? Of course not. Locke will never bring her with us. But she doesn’t know that.

‘You tell Bere our version of events and we’ll deliver you to the Light Realm as soon as we can.’

She nods. ‘Deal.’

‘Good,’ Locke murmurs, looking down his nose at her.

‘You understand that if you don’t hold up your end,’ he leans down, his eyes searching hers, ‘we can still make your life a misery. While we may not be masters, you’ll find that hardly matters, and I’ll personally find the worst of the worst to sell you to next. ’

‘I understand,’ she says.

She believes Locke, believes in the bargain he’s made with her.

I don’t.

My heart lurches in my chest as I silently hope she’ll make him say a vow, a binding one. Any fae would know this, but she, in her ignorance of our kind, does not. My stomach sinks as she visibly relaxes. She thinks she’s going to be free.

But she won’t be. I close my eyes for a moment, so she doesn’t see the pity in them if she looks at me.

But she doesn’t look anywhere but at Locke, and when my eyes find her a moment later, tears are flooding her eyes and she’s sobbing into her hands.

Mortification has her trying desperately to stop, but, whether from the horrors of her morning, or the relief she’s feeling, she can’t seem to make the tears cease their flow.

She lurches from the chair blindly, but I stop her. I put my large hand lightly on her shoulder and knead it gently, not caring that the others are watching me.

I draw her close to me. ‘It’s all right,’ I murmur. ‘No one will harm you.’

She cries harder, wanting so badly to believe and my heart breaks because my words are hollow.

Hope.

That’s what she feels, I realize with a jolt. When has she ever had that? Maybe never before. That’s what Locke has given her. Awful, awful hope.

Then she turns into me and buries her face in my front as I rub her back soothingly. I don’t look at the others. I can’t.

I hear them muttering to each other, likely about my closeness with this girl and how they need to pull me back from her, but I don’t pay attention to their words. I’m too busy basking in the warmth of her body pressed against mine, and feeling terrible about that as well.

‘Thank you for coming for me,’ she whispers so low that I doubt she thought I’d be able to hear her.

Gods, I’m such a cunt, I may even rival Warrior in cuntiness.

I finally look at the others. Jak is sitting down. He’s watching me, but where I thought I’d see judgement, I only find a grim resignation. Locke still stands in the same place and I can tell he’s at war with himself as he watches her, listens to her quiet, hiccupping sounds.

And I see the moment he tells himself that the mission is paramount. He straightens and his demeanor shifts from pity to severity. His eyes darken and grow cold.

He steps forward and I shake my head at him. She’s been through enough today. But he ignores me.

‘You’ve had quite the ordeal this morning,’ he murmurs over her sniffles. He touches her shoulder in almost a caress, and I glower at him, but he doesn’t care.

‘Close your eyes and rest for a bit, girl.’

She yawns against me, her eyes fluttering as she succumbs to the conjured sleep he’s forcing onto her.

Her legs give way and I hold her up, scooping her into my arms and cradling her gently.

‘This is wrong,’ I mutter to him.

He looks surprised and then angry. ‘I’m the leader because I make the choices that are difficult to make. So that you and Jak don’t have to.’ He looks down at her in my arms, his eyes now merciless black pits. ‘You’re too close to the opportunistic little thing. You know you are.’

I say nothing.

‘What happens when we meet up with Bere? What happens when I’m forced to touch her against her will?

’ His facade cracks for just a moment before he shores it up with anger.

‘What happens when we don’t take her with us, Morgan?

Will you feel the guilt forever, or will you remember that we work toward a distant future where no humans are slaves?

Will you remember that this one girl is nothing and no one, that there are thousands of them living half-lives? ’

‘Why did we even bother to save her this morning, then?’ I spit out at him.

He sighs and looks at me as one would a child who’s asked a silly question.

Jak’s the one who answers. ‘Because we needed to find out what happens in those places so that we can better prepare for the day that they inevitably go underground, Morgan,’ he sighs. ‘It wasn’t for her.’

I scoff. ‘You were both as angry as I was,’ I accuse.

‘I was angry on behalf of all of them,’ Jak answers.

I shake my head at their lies. ‘Do you really expect me to believe you didn’t feel anything when we arrived in that room and saw her bent and vulnerable in that block while that demon stood behind her, the lash marks painting her flesh, his taloned claws parting her so that he could shove that phallus into her as Warrior looked on with his tented breeches? ’

Jak is the first to look away, shifting on his feet. ‘I would have felt the same if I saw any female being treated thus,’ he says, his eyes on the floor.

‘As would I,’ Locke mutters.

‘You’re both fools if you think I don’t see the way you look at her, the way you yearn for her.’

Locke’s laugh is biting. ‘Don’t confuse us with yourself, Mount Morgan. I do not look at her, nor do I yearn for anything other than getting this mission done.’

I roll my eyes. ‘You’re going to regret your lies. The ones you tell yourselves...and the ones you told her.’

‘Perhaps,’ Locke murmurs, ‘but if the mission is a success, it won’t matter.’

I turn away with a grunt, anger coursing through me as I put her gently on the bed in my chamber and cover her with the thick blanket to save her from the chill.

I pace the room for a few minutes before I can’t take it anymore. I leave the room, ignoring Jak when he asks me where I’m going.

I go out to the courtyard and see one of the serving orcs standing to attention by the wall.

‘Where are the nearest black pit fights?’ I snarl.

‘To watch?’

I bare my teeth. ‘No,’ I growl.

His lip curls at one end ever so slightly. ‘Two streets down. There’s a bridge. Under it you’ll find what you’re looking for.’

I leave without a word and follow the directions, finding a black bridge a few minutes’ walk later. There are no sounds, and I decide that if that orc was lying to me, I’m going to take out all of my anger and frustration on him and not some seasoned fighter in the circle.

But as I pass into the bridge’s shadow, I realize there’s a conjure placed upon it because I can hear the yelling and the betting and the steel on steel of a fight going on.

I press further into the darkness, my body already humming at the familiar sounds, the memory of my fists hitting flesh, scales, thick hide.

I take off my shirt and throw it into the darkness just as I fall through an invisible veil and find myself in a dimly lit cavern. I look up at the cave ceiling and wonder how deep I walked without realizing I was even descending.

The fight in the ring in front of me is over. The small goblin, standing in the middle of the circle that’s been carved into the stone floor of the cave, yells and waves his arms, announcing the winner, a huge orc. I smile darkly. My favorite kind of opponent.

‘Who will fight Morkai?’ the announcer booms. ‘Who has the courage and the skill to beat the unbeatable?’

I step in before anyone else can and crack my neck. The crowd roars. I see now that there are at least fifty orcs, goblins, demons, trolls, and even a couple of fae males who don’t look like the type to consider us brethren.

‘What is your name?’

‘I’m called Mountain,’ I sneer. I’ve hated the name since I was a boy, but when I fight, that’s who I am.

The goblin leaves the circle quickly, and I size up my opponent.

I let out the anger inside me that I feel when I think of Jak and Locke, the fury at the injustice of the Dark Realms, and the horror at how Bryn has been treated, and will continue to be.

And I free that other thing too, the frustration in my body, desire for the human the likes of which I’ve never felt before.

The need I feel to have her under me, to consume her mind, body, and soul, to make her scream with pleasure and desire, and perhaps a little pain. But I’ll never have her.

My roar is deafening, and I launch myself at the orc. The last thing I remember seeing is his eyes widening almost imperceptibly and the cocky sneer evaporating from his face.