Page 23 of Hunted By Fear

In Hell?

A castle in Hell—is that what he just said?

No, that can’t be right; it must be a joke or…

Nobody corrects him, but he’s on the receiving end of more than one glare, and suddenly the air feels too thin, like I can’t get enough.

Dots dance in my vision, and if not for someone's hand on my arm, I would have hit the floor.

“I want to go home,” I hiss, yanking my arm free from whoever it was and stumbling back a step.

“You can’t.”

I look up and find Bast in front of me. He’s been nice, nice enough to make me feel like I was losing it. His eyes are sad, his hand still outstretched from where he must have held me a moment ago, and I suddenly feel bad for shoving him off like that.

No!

He deserves my anger; they all do.

“This is illegal. You can’t just take someone because you want to.”

“Trust me, if we could just send you back, I would be the first to agree with you, but it’s not safe.” I glare at Kai because that sounds like something a kidnapper would say to try to get me to stay and behave.

Jokes on him, I never behave, not since I was a teenager and ran away from home…

A sudden pain shoots through my head at the memory, but I shake it off. I ran away from parents who didn’t care and found Rome, my now husband, and my life has never been better.

That is, until a man with green eyes walked into our shop and ruined everything.

“Why me?” I ask, my voice quiet, barely audible, but they seem to have no issues hearing me.

“It’s hard to explain.” Again, it’s Bast who answers, and I get the feeling that’s not a coincidence.

“Try,” I bite out, nearly begging.

His lips pull down in a frown, and he looks around the room, no doubt looking for help, but he doesn’t find any. His friends look just as solemn, unable to so much as meet his gaze.

“Aeri,” he starts, but I cut him off.

“No! You don’t get to call me that. I don’t even know you.” He looks like he wants to argue, but he nods before trying again.

“Your husband isn’t a good man, Aerilyn.” I’m shaking my head even before he’s done speaking because he’s wrong, but he keeps going. “He’s dangerous and manipulative and…” he trails off, squeezing his eyes closed as if he can’t bear to look at me anymore.

“No…” My protest is weak, just like my knees.

“He’s hurt you before, and he’ll do it again.” I hear the venom in Kai’s voice, but I can’t make myself look at him. I want to shout at him that he’s wrong, but the words get stuck in my throat.

“Send me back,” I demand, looking to the tall, scary man who brought me down here. I’m not sure how, but somehow I know he’s the one in charge.

“No.” He doesn’t even consider it, and that only serves to piss me off.

Who the hell are these assholes? They don’t know me or my husband.

“Send me back.” I hiss, trying to keep myself under control. I feel the tears well in my eyes, but unlike before, it’s because I’m angry this time.

He looks down at me. His wings and horns make him even more terrifying than his large frame, but for whatever reason, I’m not actually afraid of him. He cocks his head at me, his jaw set in a way that tells me he isn’t going to dignify me with a response again, but he doesn’t need to. I knew what the answer would be even before I said something.

Fine, I’ll leave myself.