7. Shadows of Captivity

I swallow.

He steps forward, turning the silence between us tense. His sudden movement has me stepping back and my heart jumps in my chest when I feel the edge of the cliff at my heels.

“No!” His eyes widen in fear and he moves quickly to grip my wrist and pull me toward his chest.

I collide into him but when I attempt to straighten myself and step away; he settles himself behind me, twists my arm behind my back and pushes me back into the dense trees.

“Let me go!” I struggle against him.

I reach back with my free arm and try to hit anything that I can. I come in contact with the side of his face.

He grunts and twists my arm. “Stop or I will dislocate it.”

I huff in pain and let him steer me as he leads me through the trees.

“James!” A deep voice calls from our left.

“C’mon.” He pulls me toward the voice and when we reach the man who yells, my eyes widen in shock and my body shakes.

The air turns ice cold, and I fall to my knees. The man lets go of my arm and I reach for her.

“No! Mother!”

Her eyes are still, glazed over and all life gone from them. A blade sticks out from the middle of her chest and blood spills out of her mouth. I run my hand over her face, noticing my ice covered fingertips and I close her eyelids.

I hold her head on my lap as my heart caves in my chest. The men watch me carefully and when the man who took me steps closer, I shoot him a glare that has him wincing.

He exhales, leaving a cloud of condensation in the air.

“We’ve found her,” He whispers.

My chest heaves, and pain radiates from my heart to the end of every vein in my body. Mother is still warm in my arms, but life has left her. Her hands are blue, her lips an unsightly green.

I press her head to my chest, “Wh-why?”

The man eyes me with a tilt of his head, the silence growing until it explodes in my mind. He shudders, shivering as he wraps his arms around his torso.

The second man shifts. “Fuck it’s cold.”

The blond man squats before me, putting his face level with mine. He shakes his head, his eyes running down the side of my face and focusing on the hood on my head. He presses his now blue lips together and rubs his hands to stay warm.

I can feel the magic running through me and I know it is because of me that the air is chill. It’s an odd sensation, but I push down the questions that flood my mind, choosing instead to focus on the danger that faces me at the moment.

His eyes flutter down to my mother before looking back up at me and whispering, “Let her go.”

He reaches for her, and out of instinct, I claw at his hands and jerk back.

I press her tighter to my chest. “No.”

The second man crouches beside me and I recoil away from him, looking between the two of them as if I have a chance of escaping them.

Their broad shoulders strain their cloaks, and muscle is visible even in the chords of their necks. My dead mother is another hint at the fact that I stand no chance against them.

The blond man nods toward me. “Do you not see?”

The other man frowns and grimaces. “No.”

I keep looking between the two of them, fear making the back of my throat itch. I hold on tighter to my mother, looking down at her with trembling lips. She is so stiff, so empty; she’s gone.

The red head shifts between his feet.“I mean , I guess she meets the description, but I swear James, if this is you just throwing away the mission for a pretty face then-”

“That’s not what’s going on here, Zumir,” James growls.

My nostrils flare and I struggle to keep my composure. Not only can I feel the sticky consistency of blood on my fingers, but the smell has become overwhelming. James unsheathes the knife at his hips and twirls it between his fingers until he points the sharp end directly at me.

I tense, leaning as far back as my mother’s body allows me.

He softly presses the tip of the knife to my cheekbone.

I gulp, closing my eyes, trying to decide if I should beg for my life or let him kill me. My exhale trembles and I stay as still as I can.

“She is the mission,” He whispers as he traces the knife up my face and to the fabric of the hood that covers my head.

Do not let them see.

“No!” I cannot let their deaths be in vain.

I let her go and push myself to my feet. I step back, only to be met by the strength of a thick tree trunk. James watches me, amusement in his eyes and a smirk on his lips.

He exhales a playful chuckle and pushes his hands off his knees to stand. He twirls the knife in his finger and sheathes it again in its place.

“Huh,” Zumir tilts his head as he stands, his eyes trailing down my body.

I tremble, not liking the curiosity in their gazes.

James steps toward me and I move, reaching behind me for a branch that I rip from the trunk. I grip it and stab him in the arm, and he hisses and steps aside as he tears the branch from his skin.

I step away, ready to take off in a sprint when I feel his hand around my neck. I yelp and he presses me against the bark. It digs into the skin of my back and I hiss. Blood drips down his arm and a frown mars his brow.

He inhales with his nostrils flaring and he looks down at his arm with a scowl while twirling the knife in his hand once again.

Zumir chuckles, shaking his head. “Get on with it, James.”

My eyes widen in fear, imagining him shoving the blade into my chest, killing me just as they had killed my mother.

Instead, he wedges the blade under my hood, tipping it back until my hair falls in front of my face.

Zumir pales, his eyes widening. “Fuck. Dammit James! Put the knife away and let her go.”

James puts the knife away and gently releases my neck before slowly stepping away. Shrugging, he gives Zumir a playful glare, “I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

He raises his eyebrows at me, shooting me a wink, but I return a scowl and press myself closer into the trunk, and farther from him.

Zumir paces for a moment, running his hands over his temples before grunting and making his way to his horse. He digs through a pack and uncurls a length of rope.

“I thought he was crazy,” Zumir mutters as he throws the rope at James.

James lifts an eyebrow, and I watch him as he unfurls the rope.

“When he said he felt her, I thought- I thought he was losing it,” Zumir shakes his head. He reaches for me and I recoil back. He shoots James a glare and scoffs, turning to tend to the horse.

James looks at me. “Put your hood back on.”

I lick my lips, my mouth dry and swollen. “Where are you taking me?”

He frowns. “To the King.”

The King who dreams? The one my mother told me about? My eyes land on my mother and vomit surges in my throat.

“The King? Why?” I shake my head.

He drops his hands and sighs, pity in those dark eyes. “You have no idea who you are, do you?”

“I-” I press my lips together, panic clamping my mouth shut.

How is it that a stranger knows more about me than I do?

He steps toward me and I only have enough energy to flinch. He places the rope between his teeth, using his hands to lift my hood back up on my head. He tucks my hair behind my ears and he slows his movements, letting his thumb caress the side of my face.

His eyes turn somber and his gaze oscillated between my eyes. He pulls the rope from his lips. “Your skin is awfully pale.”

“The sun makes me sick,” I whisper.

A slight smile lift his lips, but Zumir shifts behind him and he tenses removing all kindness from his gaze.

He drops his hand down to my wrists and I jerk them back. He tilts his head as if knowing the challenge and presses his chest to mine, trapping me between him the tree.

I struggle for breath, trying to push against him but he only presses his thigh between my legs, messing with my defensive posture. I shudder down to the pit of my stomach and it flips violently. He presses his thumbs to the soft skin of my wrists, keeping his eyes locked on mine as he ties the rope around them.

He doesn’t even look down when he knots it.

I hiss, trying to pull my hands away from him when he tightens the rope in a painful burn. He tests the strength of it by pulling it and I crash against his chest.

He trails his nose down my neck, inhaling. It increases the burning in my stomach and my skin breaks out in goosebumps. “There’s so much you don’t know.”

I exhale, feeling utterly lost. I never felt as if I belong and now everything that I know is gone. I thought this was what I wanted. I thought I needed to leave, to start over and find myself without the anchors that held me back.

But mother’s stiff body and the stranger before me have me struggling to breathe. I have no one and I do not know who I am.

He wraps his arm around my waist and lifts me until my feet are off the floor.

I shake my head and flail my legs. “No, please. Let me go. You’ve got the wrong person. Please.”

I struggle against him but he moves without a struggle. I kick his shin but he only grunts and lifts me higher, throwing me over his shoulder.

I punch his back, screaming at him to let me go.

“No! Let me go! Please.” My vision blurs with my tears and I shake my head, reaching for mother’s stiff body as James carries me further away.

He grabs onto the saddle of his horse and grunts as he lifts me higher and drops me on it. I lean down, trying to climb off. “Please. you’ve got the wrong person. I’m no one!”

James splays his hand on my waist, keeping me on the horse as he climbs on behind me. Zumir has already mounted his horse and nods to us before leading his horse into the thick forest.

James grips my waist with one hand and holds onto the reins with the other. He presses his face to my head, and whispers.

“You are everything, Raven.