Page 41 of The General’s Captive (The Rift #1)

I was frozen to the spot at just the sight of him. I couldn’t help it. Ot was like he had me caught in the net of his spell, one that had been cast around my very soul. I even found myself taking a step toward him, when Riley grabbed my hand and shouted,

“Alex! Come on, we have to run!”

This did the trick and I nodded before we ran toward the cover of the trees once more. The fields around us were too vast to run for cover, making me grit my teeth.

“We’re not going to make it!”

“Trust me, come on!” he shouted, grabbing my hand tighter in his as we changed directions.

I knew that my limp made us slower, and I hated that I was the cause that he couldn’t run as fast as I knew he could.

He turned his head every so often just to make sure I was still keeping up.

The concern for me warmed my heart but also flooded me with guilt.

My heart lurched the second I looked back.

“They’re coming!” I shouted, though my lungs were tight with anxiety and my endurance was waning.

We sprinted through the grove of trees, branches reaching out to us, tearing our clothes and scratching our skin as we hurtled through.

My hip throbbed and I was starting to feel more nauseous by the minute.

But we kept going, digging in our heels as we sprinted across the park, our feet pounding against the hard soil beneath the grass.

“They are gaining on us!” I shouted the second I looked back over my shoulder.

“Look, over there, the bridge, we can get to the river and jump in.”

“Riley, are you crazy?!” I cried, despite knowing how good a swimmer he was. Especially after all the stories he used to tell of summers spent as a lifeguard.

But as for me, yes, I could swim but with my hip the way it was, I was getting to the point where I wouldn’t be able to walk soon. Let alone swim in a river. But as soon as the small, red metal suspension bridge came into view, he pulled me toward it.

“Riley!”

“Come on. Not much further now,” he replied, and he was right, because we quickly made it to the middle of the bridge.

The view of the river either side welcomed us, as well as a jump that we could survive. But as I looked back at The General and his horde, I grabbed hold of Riley and told him, “You have to go, leave me behind and they won’t follow you.”

His face twisted into disbelief before he shook his head. Then he framed my face with his hands and told me, “We jump together.”

I tried to shake my head, but then he kissed me, and although it was quick, I had a strange feeling that it would be our last.

“Come with me, Cute Girl,” he pleaded, and it was something in his tone that had me nodding.

He sighed in relief before climbing up over the railings. I did the same, hissing through the pain, until we both had our bodies facing the river. Our feet remained on the ledge beyond the railings, with our hands holding on behind us.

“Together on three… one… two… three… JUMP!” Riley shouted, letting go, only I clung on when I heard the sound of The General’s horse neighing. I turned to see him jumping from his steed and then looked back when I saw Riley had landed with a splash.

“ALEX, JUMP!” he bellowed, now swimming against the current waiting for me.

I nodded once, took a deep breath, and prepared myself to fall forward. Then I closed my eyes as I took the leap. I fell forward, but was stopped with a sudden jerk, and I soon found out that there was no way to escape my fate and with it…

The General.

The second I didn’t feel the icy cold-water envelope my body I opened my eyes and screamed. The drop below was one I was suspended above, and my clothes were tight around my body.

“ALEX!” Riley screamed my name because he could see what was stopping me from falling.

“Not today, Little Bird,” The General said as I looked behind to find he had reached out and grabbed me.

A fist full of my clothing was held tight in his fist, as he held me back with one arm. I then watched as Riley was pulled under the water, unable to fight against the current any longer.

“NO!” I shouted as I was pulled back, The General using his other arm to swipe up my legs to he could lift me over the railings. Then as soon as my feet were on the ground, I slipped free and ran to the other side, shouting his name.

“RILEY!”

I waited on bated breath until finally… fucking finally…

I saw his blonde head pop back up from the water.

I watched the way he fought the current and hated the way he looked around frantically.

As if desperately trying to see if I had made it in the water with him after all.

But then his eyes finally found mine in the distance, seeing that I was still on the bridge.

My shoulders slumped as I let my head hang in defeat.

“You brought this on yourself, Alexandra,” The General said, making me grit my teeth in anger before whipping around to face him and lashing out.

“You… you… did this!” I shouted on a broken sob, despite knowing deep down that he was right.

I had brought this on us all. I could have just broken Riley out and refused to go with him.

I could have told him the deal I had made with The General and kept to it.

I could have made so many decisions that wouldn’t have ended this way.

But I hadn’t.

And now I had to pay the price.

He took long strides toward me and didn’t stop until he was right in front of me, my back pressing into the railings.

And when I turned my head away, refusing to look at him, he took hold of my chin, the leather on his gloves groaning.

Then he tipped my head up so I was forced to look up at those dark eyes that haunted my dreams.

“Your tears say differently,” he stated, before using his thumb to wipe a single tear away, swiping it from my skin gently. And for once there was no arrogant mocking like I had come to expect.

“Come, I have something to show you,” he told me, taking a step back and offering me his hand.

But when I refused to take it, he reminded me, “Do not mistake this for a choice, Alexandra. Not when there are still parts of our deal I can revoke,” he said, reminding me of the protection he agreed to provide for people at the base.

So, knowing all the terrible decisions I had made so far, I placed my hand in his. Watching as he curled his fingers around it, the sight more than symbolic, like bars of a cage closing in around me.

However, the second he took a step toward the enormous steed of his, this was when my body hit its limit, because I cried out. But before my legs could crumble, dropping me to the floor, The General acted. He swept my body up in his arms, his cloak bellowing out behind him from the action.

I swallowed hard as he carried me toward his horse, making me protest.

“No, wait, I can walk!”

He huffed and told me, “A bird with a broken wing doesn’t fly.”

And before I could reply, he lifted me up to his horse that looked impossibly tall.

I reached out and grabbed the saddle horn, before I could slip back down.

Then he reached up, put his foot in the stirrup and heaved himself up behind me.

I swallowed hard when I felt his muscular arms come around me, making me feel trapped.

The way his strong legs pushed my own forward, so as I was soon straddling the very front of the saddle.

He took hold of the reins before giving a stern command in a language I didn’t recognize. The Myths waiting beyond the bridge separated to allow him through before falling in line behind him.

The feel of his chest against my back was one I tried to put distance between, now holding myself ridged.

Only, the second he had the space to do so, he dug his heels in and whipped the reins.

The horse sped up into a gallop, making me jerk back against him as if he had done this to prove a point, counteracting my own.

His other hand came to my belly to hold me close to him, as if he feared I would fall.

And I hated it! Hated how it made me feel!

Hated how my heart started to speed up to match the horse’s pounding hooves.

Hated how I didn’t hate it at all.

“I can feel your warring emotions,” he said, after finally slowing the horse once we were back on the road that led to the prison.

I didn’t answer.

“How is Aster?” I asked, instead.

He scoffed.

“Feeling foolish for being bested by a human half his size,” he replied, making me sigh and, for some reason, this made his fingers flex against my stomach.

“Yes, well he isn’t the only one who feels foolish,” I admitted, regretting it instantly when his arrogant reply came.

“Foolish indeed if you believed you could escape me… could escape your fate.” He whispered the last part after dipping his head closer to my ear, making me shiver against him.

But after this he didn’t say any more as we continued toward the front of the prison. The same building he had shown me in my dream.

He stopped his horse right in front of the doors before he dismounted.

“Swing your leg over and I will catch you,” he said.

I purposely looked down at the other side of his horse, making him snap, “It would be foolish to try and would only hurt your hip further.”

This told me that he knew I was injured, thanks to Aster. But of course, he would have told him everything.

I released a sigh, and with little option I swung my leg over toward him. This prompted him to reach up and catch my waist as I slid down. A gentle motion as he lowered me slowly down the front of him.

To save myself the shame, I closed my eyes until I was on my feet.

But then he whispered down at me, “Do I make you nervous, Alexandra?”

I swallowed hard and forced my eyes to open, braving to look up at him. His dark eyes were strangely hypnotic and drew me in. An impulse I quickly denied myself, now taking a step back.

“No,” I lied, and it was one he scoffed at.

“Your lies are as weak as the bargains you make,” he added scornfully, making me recoil before scowling up at him.

A look he matched before a smirk emerged, as if he enjoyed pissing me off.

“Now do I need to carry you?” he asked, and I gritted my teeth.

“No. I can walk.”

He grinned at my stubbornness, and I didn’t want the arrogant asshole to think I needed him.

“Then, shall we?” he said, holding out his arm, his cloak falling back over his shoulder.

I looked behind me, seeing the way his army had slipped away, leaving us alone. Of course, he took my reluctance for what it was… fear of whatever lay waiting for me behind those doors.

“I think you know by now that you wouldn’t get far, even if you weren’t injured,” he stated, giving me cause to straighten my back and force myself to walk toward the doors with a facade of bravery.

I hated the way his hand rested at the small of my back. Hated what his touch did to me. That this was no longer a dream and there was no escape from him by simply waking up. But what I hated more was the reason he did this and lingered so close to me.

Because as I limped forward, he wanted to be at the ready to catch me. I could feel it coming from him, this need to protect me, despite no doubt loathing our connection as I did. One made the moment he touched my scars, tethering us together, and only he knew why.

In fact, I was just about to ask him when we walked through the prison entrance and straight into the last thing I expected to see. A beautiful rose garden. But it wasn’t just the pretty flowers that had me dumbstruck.

No, it was all the people.

Humans.

Laughing, looking happy and healthy. Conversing with one another as they walked the pathways like life was… well, just rosy!

“What is this?” I asked in bewilderment, making him scoff.

“What did you expect? Human slaves all in chains and each of them half starved?” he snapped, and I would have answered had it not been for my shock.

Shock that not a single person seemed to cower away from him or try to hide in his presence. Some even nodded toward him in a silent greeting.

“I don’t understand,” I admitted.

“No, you never did,” he remarked, somewhat bitterly.

“Are these people not your prisoners?” I asked, looking in awe at the little oasis in the middle of this apocalyptic world he brought upon us.

“I think you will find yourself being my only captive in this prison, Little Bird.”

I lifted my wide eyes to his, but then something must have caught his eyes because he shifted to stand behind me. His fingers curled over my shoulders before he lowered his head to my ear.

“Although even a captured bird deserves a gift, and I have been waiting to give you yours,” he whispered, before raising a hand up and pointing down the pathway.

I followed his line of sight and the second my eyes landed on the man ahead of me, I cried out in utter shock. His face turned toward me; the same astonishment mirrored in his features.

“Impossible.” This single word slipped from my lips like a dream.

Only this time it was one that The General had made a reality, making me question everything I thought I knew about him.

Because this wasn’t just a gift, it was a lifeline.

It was family.

It was my…

“Uncle!”

To be Continued in Book 2…