Page 11 of The Faebound Trials (Mates and Madness: The Phantom Prince and The Bloodweaver #1)
Smoke popped in front of my face as if a small bomb exploded. My throat burned as well as my eyes. It was worse than choking.
I coughed and felt the burn in my lungs. My eyes welled with tears.
I panicked. I couldn’t breathe for a moment. I took deep breaths and adjusted my sight.
“What is wrong with you?”
The Etaran just blinked at me, confused.
We were in the middle of the forest. The light was directly hitting us from above creating an ethereal ambiance of a hidden place. It casted the morning glow of a looming spring.
My mouth was agape. I was in awe when I took in the beauty of the place.
The tree trunks were twisted, creating an image of an old and noble spirit. It towered us like four corners, like four pillars of a colosseum, the tree trunks were about fifteen feet high.
The faint glow of magic danced in the air and it swayed with the hum of the water surrounding the forest.
I’d never seen a place like this. The air felt alive, so did the trees and the branches and roots were flowing in a spiral motion across the walls. The moths with pairs of blue wings were flying above hundreds of light pink flowers sleeping beneath the ground.
The soul of the forest was beating. There was a heartbeat hidden in the core of the forest.
It was deep within the roots of the center tree that boasts wildly across the center stone of the forest. Layers and layers of wild leaves protected the beating core of the forest and I could hear it loud in my ears.
But a chain surrounded it. It was hidden away and locked. But why? My brows furrowed in confusion.
I was sitting on top of a big stone. My hands were bound by blue material laced with magic and I hissed when I tried to peel it off. Electric shock jolted my body, wild and angry.
“Where did you bring me? Where am I?”
The Etarans didn’t bother to speak. They were deaf to my questions.
I didn’t see the boy who found me lying on the ground gasping for air. I didn’t see any human workers like I did when I first stepped foot on the lands of Enoranthas.
The Enoranthas I saw before had the modern twist that belonged in my time. This Enoranthas reeked of history and secrets of the past.
An Etaran walked to where I was bound.
And when my eyes grazed the silhouette of his beautiful shadow, all I could do was watch him as if I was a woman, entranced.
I couldn’t tear my eyes off him when he entered the forest.
He was wearing a black robe fitted to his slender body, it trailed behind him as he walked, he stood tall and elegant as if he bowed to no one.
He had the air of a high ranking Etaran. His eyes were rimmed with caution. He looked young, maybe just a few years older than me.
His hair cascaded down his back and it was long and white, almost silver when the shadows fell right beneath his silhouette.
The Etarans I met before mostly had brown or black hair cropped in different styles.
But the ancient Etarans commonly had this long luscious beautiful straight hair that sways with their movement.
He was beautiful beyond comprehension.
He was almost majestic, until I saw his lips curled in repulsion.
“Tell me human. Where did you come from?”
I looked around because I couldn’t meet his stare. Ancient Etarans were intimidating.
This fae’s eyes were ocean blue, clearer than the skies. But somehow darker than the depths of the sea.
If I tell him the truth, would he help me go back?
But my mind was everywhere. Even his gait screamed danger. My gut was telling me I shouldn’t tell him more than he should know.
“I…”
I was about to speak but I was too stunned to utter a single word when he cut me off.
“You want the long game then.”
My mouth was left agape in shock and an attempt to speak.
He hated humans.
He turned his back on me and a few waiting Etarans bowed to him.
Where else would I find a fae who would listen to me? He might be able to help me go back.
“No! Wait! Wait!” My voice was croaked and it echoed. My heart took a leap when he turned his head in an elegance resembling a snake.
“When an Etaran gives you a chance, you take it.” His every word was laced with venom and contempt.
“I don’t belong here. In this place. I don’t know how I got here. Is there a way I can go back to where I came from? Can you help me?”
He plastered on a sickly-sweet fake smile. His eyes burned with anger and repulsion.
“Bring her to Thorsmora. She would be a perfect test subject.”
“What? I said I need help!”
He angrily snatched my jaw and made me look at him. And I almost let out a moan. His delicate and bony fingers were cold against my skin. He held me roughly against my will.
I saw the raw anger in his eyes, his fury for mortals was unmistakable and the weight of my fear was heavy against my shoulders.
“Humans rarely stumble upon here like you claim you did, you would have still wished upon the forests to take you in. You would have still let the magic lure you in.”
His lips were so close to mine. He was looking at me as if I was this vile and repulsive thing that he couldn’t wait to rip apart using his bare hands.
His touch might be cold but the intensity of his eyes burned at the back of my mind.
“Stop lying to me, Corrupt Mortal. You begged the forests to let you slip.”
I felt warm as his cynical eyes travelled down my body in a way a man would love to do.
But he was no man. And he was no lover.
He was fae. An Etaran. A dangerous one.
I blinked when I almost leaned into his touch.
His charm was callous and brutal.
His eyes, his touch made me want to kneel down, and it made my insides curl.
My brows furrowed at the thought, in confusion, of how I felt my skin crawl at the intensity of his hate and his repulsion. But all of that seemed to entrance me, as if I was in a hazy dream. I should be thrashing around but I could feel my clothes soaked beneath my skin, pooling and sticky and all I could do was bite my lips.
And when his skin once slipped into mine again. I was losing it slowly, carefully, and cruelly.
He was making me want to beg. To keep touching me. To do me as he wills it.
Beg for what?! Let him do what?
I was breathless, writhing under the smallest of his touch. I was panting for air, as if I was catching my breath.
“What are you doing to me?” I gritted through my teeth, snapping out of my madness but my eyes were still like marbles, cloudy thoughts rimmed my eyes.
What the fuck just happened?
What was he doing?
Why did I lean into his touch?!
Were those even my own thoughts?
Was I enchanted heavily by this fae?
This was dangerous. I need to get away from him. But my body was responding to his touch, responding in a way only I would under Asael’s hand.
He chuckled as a wicked smirk slowly formed in his face.
I tried to catch him using my leg, but he moved swiftly away from me.
I tried to kick him but he mockingly smirked my way.
His eyes were wide with fascination as he watched me wriggle out, I didn’t know what to do, but my hands were like claws wanting to make his beautiful skin bleed red.
But all my attempts made him look at me in a twisted way.
As if I was a toy worthy of his attention.
“You’re lively for a human.” He looked into my eyes and down the rest of my body. “Are all humans like you? Bold and somehow riveting?”
There was something in the way he tilted his head, showing me his bare neck.
He reminded me of a snake with the way he moves, he was all slippery and graceful, his movement slow and yet hypnotic, there was unpredictability in the way he carried himself.
He was this mesmerizing danger that lures you in his enigmatic beauty and effortless control.
“Did you lose your tongue? Why are you not speaking?” His forbidden charm was getting into my head.
I breathed out.
“Are you going to keep me here?”
His eyes darkened a few shades deeper. And the sharp intensity stretched the thickening tension between us.
“Yes. You have kept me entertained. I would love to watch you squirm a little bit more trying to break free.” Then he leaned away from me, now standing tall before me. A sly grin lit his face. “And I will have you play my games. Prove to me how mortals can withstand the very place you so desperately wanted to get in.”