Page 44 of Given to the Fae (The Dark Realms #3)

‘Come.’

I walk across the room and wince at the soreness between my legs.

‘Is something wrong?’

‘No, my lord it’s just, I’m sore.’

Why am I telling him? I don’t know that either, but something inside me wants him to know.

‘Here.’ He takes a pot of salve and gives it to me.

I stare at it in my hands. ‘Would you like me to rub this on you, my lord?’

He huffs. ‘No, Bryn, it’s for… Oh, never mind. Give it here.’

He snatches it back and opens it, taking out a good amount of salve on two of his fingers.

‘Widen your legs.’

I do it and I wonder why I’m not getting upset. I don’t like masters touching me.

His fingers delve under my dress carefully and then between my legs. I gasp as he touches me, my eyes flying to his and getting ensnared in the deepest blue depths of his.

He draws away and I frown.

‘Do we know each other, my lord?’

‘No,’ he says briskly. ‘It’s time to leave.’

He leads me out the door where some wooden steps lead to the ground.

I walk with him and then follow him closely as he takes me to a barn where I’m urged into a paddock with a few other human females.

Their eyes follow the fae master who brought me back, and I frown at them, not liking that but not sure why I care.

I sit apart from the others. I don’t know them and they’re giving me nasty looks, talking about me in voices I can just about hear. But I don’t need to be friends with them. The fae master said we’re leaving today.

It’s not long before he comes. The fae and the other one. I’m told to come out and a thick, uncomfortable collar is fitted around my neck.

I don’t like it, but the fae master leads me out of the barn into the bright sunshine and biting wind of the street. I shiver as I walk with them to a Ring.

We’re traveling the Breach. I watch with wide eyes as it opens with a roar. It seems familiar, but I can’t really remember having gone through a Gate before.

I’m pulled in and darkness whirls around me.

I hear whispers and I turn when I hear my name.

‘You’ve forgotten something.’

‘Need to remember.’

‘Remember.’

‘Remember.’

I frown at the echo, but before I can think on what the whispers are saying, we step out onto a stone platform.

It’s a dark cavern and I can see the red light of coals and the shadows of flames dancing from fires on the walls.

I’m pulled along, my heart thumping. Why are we here? I have a bad feeling. I swallow hard as a huge orc steps into our path. I know his eyes are on me.

‘Bere, old friend. So this is the female you promised. She don’t look like much.’

Bere chuckles. ‘She’ll fight the others well for her scraps and she ent frail. She’ll last you until I come back through, I expect.’

The orc snatches the rope from Locke’s hand and yanks me to him. He takes my chin and raises my face to see me more closely. His gaze lingers on my scars and I cringe.

‘Chain her here while we talk price,’ he says to a nearby guard with a helmet on so I can’t see what he is. But he’s large, so he must be a demon or an orc.

I’m taken in a sure grip and my rope is attached to an iron hook on the cave wall. I’m being sold to this place, I realize, rearing back. But I know it’s already too late. There’s no escape.

His task complete, the large guard leaves me alone in the cavern except for the fae who brought me.

I look at him with wide eyes. He stares back at me, and I get that odd niggling in my mind again.

I know him, don’t I? And there were some others, weren’t there?

Our eyes meet and I silently beg him. He’s meant to save me.

He wasn’t supposed to bring me here. Deep inside, I know that.

He takes a step toward me, his fists clenched, and I think for a second he’s going to do what I’m silently pleading him to do. That maybe he’ll free me and take me with him through the Gate.

But then his body relaxes and he gives me a slow smirk before he turns on his heel and leaves me alone. I listen to his footsteps get fainter and fainter, straining my ears and hoping he returns.

‘Didn’t think you’d see me again, did you...’ a voice asks from the dark.

I squint at the figure that comes out of the shadows. He’s a fae male dressed in black and there are small, jeweled knives at his belt. The fact that I know him cuts through the fear and despair, but I can’t remember how I know him.

‘I’ve been waiting here for you. Knew they’d bring you sooner or later. Bet you thought I was dead after what that cunt, Morgan, did to me in Dead City, eh?’

He moves his head. His neck clicks as he stretches it, and I see that it’s red on one side as if he’s been burned.

‘But he’s not the only fae with a Dark Realm bloodline. It’s a bit harder to kill me than that.’

His grin is nasty as he comes closer.

‘Don’t worry. You aren’t going to die here. As soon as I give that tricky bastard, Locke, what’s coming to him, we’re leaving, you and I.’ He caresses down the side of my face. ‘With my own little Fate Touched, I don’t need Bere anymore. I have such plans for us.’

He knows what I am, I realize with a jolt, but I don’t know what he’s talking about and my confusion must be evident because he frowns.

‘Who am I, Kismet?’

‘I don’t remember, my lord.’

His face twists into an annoyed sneer as he leans in closer, pushing me gently against the cavern wall and holding me against the rock by my throat, but then he laughs as he takes hold of my chin and tilts my face up toward him.

‘You will,’ he whispers.

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Get yourself ready for book four! It only gets better…

Order Book Four: Courted by the Fae

Need a little something more right now?

How about a FREE novella featuring Gwennie, the slave from rondorai in booms 1 and 2?

TAKEN BY THE ORCS : A FREE DARK REALMS NOVELLA

A slave pushed too far. Two orcs who need her help. Will they save each other and find love, or have the brutal Dark Realms left them too broken?

Gwennie has been a slave all her life, but when her master begins to take his bad days out on her, her life goes from just about bearable to not worth living.

She has a choice. Allow her body, mind, and soul to be destroyed, or do the unthinkable and become a free woman.

Drakar is an orc with a secret. His best friend, Grim, is dying and when he finally found a healer, he was turned away because of what he is.

When a small human female turns up at his door and wants to make a deal while their lives hang in the balance, can they trust each other enough to get what they want?

Or are they too broken to have the futures they dream of?

this dark realms novella takes place during sold to the fae with some cross-over characters.