by Gaia Octavia
Hidden Gem
⸙
The Travelers
Book One
Gaia Octavia
For Walter, who never stopped encouraging me to write.
Contents
Trigger Warning
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
Author’s Note
Trigger Warning
Please be aware that this book includes references to past trauma, including child abuse, rape, and sexual assault, which may be difficult for some readers.
Acknowledgements
First, I would like to thank my amazing beta readers: Katie (OG), Wendy, Tia, Arizona, Lauren, Kristi, and Wania for their feedback. I especially want to thank Maureen, who provided tireless support and encouragement along with her amazingly detailed and intuitive feedback. I would also like to thank Brooke for editing and proofreading my rough draft and Jaycee (www.sweetnspicydesigns.com) for creating such a beautiful cover for me. I couldn’t have done it without each and every one of you and your generous, thoughtful feedback and support. Thank you.
CHAPTER ONE
⸙
JADE
I was older than the rest of the boys. Normally, by my age the raiders had already killed us, or if we showed promise, had added us to the groups of raiding parties that lived on the outskirts of the camp. But I wasn’t like all the other boys. I wasn’t lucky enough to be rotting in the ground, and I wasn’t ever going to leave this camp. Most nights I wished for death, but no matter how many times I had the chance to take matters into my own hands, I was too much of a coward to go through with it.
As the man met with Kyto, a leader of one of the raiding parties, to discuss their spoils, I knelt docilely in the exact spot he had ordered me to. My eyes unfocused, my hands resting in my lap. I barely heard the conversation they were having but was ready to snap to attention at the mention of my name or at the next command the man would eventually send my way. While he preferred me to fight when we were alone at night, I was to be nothing but obedient at all other times. It had taken years to earn my way out of the restraints he’d used to hold me in his tent. And while I still had to force myself to return to his tent each night, every moment I was able to breathe outside of that canvas prison was the only thing keeping me going after all these years.
At the mention of my name, my stomach twisted in knots. A quick look proved that the man had only been mentioning me to Kyto, not calling me to attention. I was about to tune them back out when the tail end of his question caught my ear.
“So, you think you deserve to have a pet as well?” He challenged.
“Of course not,” Kyto said dismissively.
Despite his bravado, the retreating step he took wasn’t lost on me.
“He just needs to be taught,” Kyto spat, “I simply ask for time to let the boy’s face heal a bit from his first lesson before I have my fun schooling him further. I have no interest in keeping him beyond that.”
“It’s your own fault he was able to get a good kick in,” the man sneered, “especially in such a vital…” His voice trailed off as he glanced below the raider’s belt. Kyto growled but didn’t argue the point.
Bile rose in my throat. I tried not to wonder how young the boy he was talking about was, or why Kyto was going out of his way to ask the man to keep the boy off limits to the others as his injuries healed. I forced my thoughts away from the questions, closing the door on the emotions that threatened to surface. I had learned years ago that the only way to keep surviving was to feel nothing. When I heard the screams and cries of the endless boys paraded through the camp, I felt nothing at all.
Liar.
I tried to tune the men out again, but when Kyto started describing his plans for the boy once his face healed, I had to fight to remain ambivalent as I realized that when death finally did come for the boy, it would be welcomed. The man stared at Kyto for a long time as Kyto held his eye. Finally, the man dismissed him with a wave.
“Very well. Your cut of the raid spoils goes to me and you can keep him tied in the center of camp, where I can see him, until he suits your liking. No one will touch him. But you will have him once, and that is all.”
“Of course.” Kyto nodded, turning to leave.
Yes.
Of course.
Because the man wasn’t about to allow anyone else the same luxury he’d had for the past seven years. While the raiders were free to satiate any desire on their young captives, the man was the only one who had his own personal pet to do with as he pleased.
Night after endless night.
Year after agonizing year.
“Boy!” The man barked.
I immediately stood, keeping my eyes trained on the ground.
“Ready the ale casks to be filled and then bring the raid spoils to my tent.”
Nodding, I urged my feet to carry me past the man and toward the side of the covered area where the casks were stored. As he reached for me, I forced my body to still. The man was tall, his arms almost as thick as my waist. His dark brown eyes sparked with wicked enjoyment as he grabbed my arm and twisted it painfully behind my back. He leaned down until his mouth was level with my ear. He smelled of dirt and sour sweat and his breath carried the stench of his rotten soul.
“I am going to make you beg me tonight,” he promised, making my insides roil. “You will try to fight it, but tonight will not end without you begging.”
He let go of me, laughing cruelly as his hand slammed against my ass, dismissing me for the second time. I urged my body to continue moving away from him, knowing that if I stayed any longer, he wouldn’t wait until nightfall to begin fulfilling his promise. With sick, heavy dread, I knew exactly what that promise meant.
An hour later, I finished rolling the casks out and opening them to the air. Once all the spoils were brought back to camp, I would fill the casks with whatever alcohol the raiding parties were able to get their hands on. In the meantime, I’d sort through the jewelry, fabric, and other goods the raiders had stolen from the camps, so the man could have his pick before distributing the remainder amongst the raiding parties.
Heading toward the center of camp, I stopped to gulp down a few mouthfuls from my
waterskin, wiping the sweat from my brow. I was thankful that the physical labor had at least allowed my body to forget what was coming its way tonight. When the center of camp came into view, I located the stash of goods and made my way over to them. As I rounded the corner of the tent next to where they had been piled, my eyes swept the area and settled on the profile of the most beautiful creature I had ever seen.
The boy’s hair was a deep, rich mahogany that was haphazardly arranged, as if he’d just woken from a fitful dream. His nose sloped down toward full lips, which perched delicately above a square chin. The boy’s frame was larger than mine was and his beautiful body, much fuller. His olive-toned skin looked as if it were made of silk. He turned his head–his startling green eyes meeting mine as the swelling and deep bruising on the side of his face came into view. I knew at once exactly who I was looking at. At least, I knew of him. Had just been listening to the raider speak about him. I almost cried out at the sight of him, something deep within me seeming to break, making it impossible for me to move.
It wasn’t the fact that the boy’s injuries marred his beauty. It’d been the way that his eyes had pierced right through me–into me–and down to my very soul that had stopped me in my tracks as I struggled to understand what the hell was happening. I was dressed as a raider, standing with the raiders, but something in his eyes was crying out to me for help. As if he believed I wasn’t what I seemed. As if he could see that I hadn’t yet been turned into an empty, ugly shell of hate like the rest of them.
Of course, if he really could see into my soul, he’d know that I would be the last person to risk helping him. If the man ever found out that I’d done anything against his rules… I couldn’t even finish the thought without wanting to vomit. I forced myself to turn away from the boy’s gaze and hurried to the pile of spoils. Filling my arms, I turned toward the man’s tent, careful not to look at the boy even once during the rest of my many trips.
⸙
I spent much of the next day filling the casks. Tonight, there would be another celebration where the men would enjoy the fruits of their stolen bounty before setting off for the next week of raids. While not every raiding party would be returning by nightfall, the weekly occurrence ensured that the men never went long between their indulgences.
The only time this routine was broken was when the camp had to pack up and move after they’d wiped out enough of the camps and settlements within a certain radius. The entire camp would walk until the man told them they’d traveled far enough to set camp again. The camp would move every month or so, depending on the size of the hauls, traveling north until they reached the vast desert that stretched between this land and the next. The camp would then march south, raiding the areas that had replenished and rebuilt until they reached the Southern Ocean. It was a never-ending cycle of violence and death.
I went through the motions, barely noticing how exhausted I was as my mind raced with the thoughts that had been plaguing me for the last twenty-four hours. Last night, after the man finally let my bruised body crawl back to my pallet, I hadn’t been able to fall asleep. I couldn’t close my eyes without seeing those piercing green eyes staring back at me. I’d never had anyone look at me the way that boy had. As if he could see inside of me and still thought I was good. That I was someone who could be trusted.
Of course, I knew better.
But those eyes.
I couldn’t get those eyes out of my head.
I kept picturing all the things that were going to happen to that boy once Kyto got his hands on him. He was too old to be molded into a raider. There was only one reason Kyto was keeping him around–to force his evil desires on the boy before disposing of him. And while the boy had looked at me with a desperate urge to live, I knew that once Kyto was finished with him, death would be a sweet release. The thought made me shiver as my stomach turned. I had seen countless boys come through this camp for the very same purpose. I had been one of them. I was one of them. Why hadn’t I reacted the same way to any of them? I fought with myself the entire night, questioning why everything in my body was screaming at me to save this one.
The terror that the man had buried in me all those years before–and had nursed into a living, breathing thing beneath my skin–was still there. But those eyes. That look. It was as if they eclipsed everything. I knew that I was powerless to save the boy. I’d spent the previous night telling myself that, even if I somehow managed to help him escape, the softness of his body and the utter panic in his eyes were proof that he wouldn’t make it far. And then what? If they caught him, they wouldn’t stop until he told them who had helped him. Even if they didn’t catch him, the man would figure it out. He’d know. Somehow, he would know it had been me. I hadn’t been able to think about what he would do to me then. Still, inconceivably, as the raiders prepared for their feast throughout the day, I found myself secreting supplies into not only one pack, but two.
Even now, after waiting a few hours in the man’s tent as the raiders drank and fucked their way into obliviousness, I still tried not to think about what I was about to do. Tearing through the contents of a drawer, I quickly glanced behind my shoulder. The man wasn’t due to be back to the tent for hours, but my skin prickled as if I wasn’t alone. I had to find the necklace. There was no way I could leave without it. Trying not to think of the torturous night when I’d last seen it, I doubled my efforts, tossing the contents of drawers and wooden boxes behind me. I didn’t care about the mess; the man would know the moment he walked in that I was gone. I had never not been here waiting for him after a celebration.
I felt the beginnings of panic sweep through me. Wiping the sweat from my brow with my forearm, I tried to ignore my thundering pulse and to focus on finding the necklace. I was running out of time. I had to get the boy and get out of here with enough of a head start to give us a chance. I knew the man would follow us, and I knew there was already no going back. But how could I leave without my mother’s necklace?
An insect buzzed in my ear as I continued to paw through the man’s stored belongings, and I swiped at the air as I looked around the tent. There had to be a place I wasn’t looking. Maybe somewhere hidden, somewhere I wouldn’t normally think to look. I hurried over to his pallet and lifted, finding nothing under it. An exasperated noise escaped me as I turned in a circle, willing the necklace to appear.
I didn’t want to think about what I was about to do, but I knew I was out of time. Feeling sick, I forced myself to the flap of the tent, only pausing to glance around one more time.
This was it.
I vowed to myself that I would never again lay eyes on the inside of this tent. From here on out, I would either be free, or I would be dead.
I made my way through the camp like a ghost, heaving a deep sigh of relief when I saw the boy. His hands still tied to the post behind him, his head was hung low in hopeless resignation, and I desperately wanted to lift his chin and tell him that everything was going to be okay.
What the hell was wrong with me?
I shook my head, forcing my focus back to my task. I knew that while I freed him, I would be out in the open and powerless to hide from anyone who happened to come by. I was going to have to make it quick. I’d already taken longer than I should have to slow my panicked breaths, so after quickly glancing around, I forced myself to leave the safety of the shadows. Placing myself in fate’s hands. I was either going to cut him loose and drag him to the safety of the shadows or I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. Hell, perhaps I was about to do both at the same time.
I didn’t run. I walked quickly to the boy, holding the man’s small folding knife in my hand. I had the boy’s hands cut loose before he even realized I was there and then I was dragging him up and hurrying back toward the darkened side of the tent, where I had left the packs. I didn’t say anything, and he thankfully followed my lead. He looked at me with raw, naked hope in his eyes and the sight of it almost knocked the breath out of me.
E
ven though I never planned on trying to escape, after so many years in the camp, I had come to know the ins and outs of it. I knew who would be on watch and how well they did their jobs. I knew that by now, on the nights when the raiders celebrated, most raiders left on watch had been slipped some ale and food and that they would have grown a bit lax in their duties. So, after handing the boy one of the packs–and against everything my brain was screaming at me–I carefully lead him out of the camp.
Once I got us out of the main camp and past the outlying raiding camps, I started to breathe somewhat normally. I carefully hid our tracks as we went, doubling back and sidestepping off the parts of our tracks that I didn’t hide, in hopes of throwing the raiders off our trail. While I had no clue about what was going to happen to us from here on out, I was certain about one thing–that the man would never stop looking for me and his thirst to punish me would never be slaked until he had me under him once again.
⸙
We sat against a large rock, jumping at every little noise we heard. The boy had kept up with the punishing pace I’d set. He’d had no other choice. We still hadn’t spoken a word to each other before collapsing against the rock for a short break. Luckily, the moon was almost full. But I understood that we were still in a lot of danger. Even without the worry of the raiders, traveling at night was almost suicidal; it was far too easy to fall prey to the endless dangers that filled these woods. We didn’t have a choice though. We had made our escape in the dark and needed to keep moving away from the camp.
Once we pressed ourselves against the unforgiving slab, I took the waterskin from my pack and drank deep before passing it to the boy. He did the same, and as he passed it back to me, our fingers touched for the briefest of moments. I panicked and snatched my hand away, spilling water down my arm. He didn’t say anything about my reaction, but before the silence between us could continue unbroken–as I had hoped it would–he looked at me.
