Bound by the Fae: A Fated Mates Romantic Fantasy: Magic Bound Book 1

by Allie Santos

  He left me alone to my thoughts as he picked up speed, tightening his hold on me again as if he sensed I needed a moment. I held my breath, realizing he was about to take off at super speed.

  Then something clicked.

  “Hey! You smeared me with Taurus shit,” I exclaimed.

  A smirk edged his lips. Good. I hadn’t liked the menacing expression on his face. Without another word, he took off. Everything blurred around me in flashes of color, and my stomach pitched. I kept swallowing even as I felt like I was being torn into two. I knew Roark had been running for a while when my vision started darkening at the edges. My head lulled onto his shoulder. I heard his voice call to me, but I couldn’t reply. The world spun as I was placed on the ground.

  “Rae,” a deep voice intoned, and I felt a slight nudge on my cheek.

  I moaned and swatted the annoying hand away.

  “Rae,” the voice said in a harsher tone. I finally recognized it as Roark and pried my eyes open. It took a second for my sight to focus in on him hovering over me, a worried look on his face.

  “Are you with me?” He grasped my jaw and gave it a shake. “Rae!”

  “Ow,” I exclaimed, swatted his hand away, and groaned as I sat up. I looked around with a scowl. “Why am I on the ground?”

  “I ran too long for your human body,” he said, dropped my face, and reached for my hands. “I should have been aware.” He brought my hands up to his face.

  “It’s no big deal. We’ll just take breaks,” I said, trying to ease that worried look in his eyes.

  The corner of his lips quirked as if he realized what I was doing, and he stood up with me in his arms. He started walking at a steady pace. “We advanced toward the camp greatly.”

  Smiling, I nodded and concentrated on regulating my breathing. When I finally felt my heart and muscles relax, I exhaled. “Okay, I think I’m ready for another supersonic round.” He looked down, unconvinced. “I’m serious. How long does that water give you a boost against the poison anyway?”

  His gaze flicked away. I was starting to recognize his ticks. They were slight, but definitely there. I gave him a look. “Cough it up, Roark.”

  “I feel myself beginning to weaken already.”

  I knew what he meant because a little tinge in my ankle told me the same thing.

  “Well, what are you waiting for? Get going.” When he didn’t and looked off silently, I nudged him. “I’m serious. There’s no time to lose. You could lose the juice at any second, and I doubt my limping leg and I would be able to get you to Hag in time.”

  At the mention of my leg, tension rolled up his body, and his lips tightened. I wanted to believe he cared. That he regretted not stopping the psycho, but he said nothing as the familiar cold mask slid on his face, and he picked up speed again.

  I concentrated on him as his face grew increasingly haggard. The changes were rapid. Roark’s breathing grew labored, and I almost felt the strength seep out of him as fast as he had gained it in that lake. Then his pace slowed, and he toppled forward. He clutched me to him, and we rolled. His grip loosened, and I went in a different direction. He lay on the ground groaning as I sat up.

  I wasn’t too beat up, thanks to the protective hold Roark had me in. His head and shoulders rose as he struggled to get to his knees. Ignoring the twinge in my ankle, I got to my feet and stumbled to his side.

  “Are you okay?” I gasped and fell next to Roark.

  He groaned in answer. “We are close.”

  I saw nothing but a multicolored forest. I really didn’t want to ask him what he considered close. “How much more do we have to walk?”

  “Three more miles,” he said and fell back onto his stomach.

  Shit, that was going to be hard. I looked down at his depleted body and felt a renewed sense of determination. He was facedown, but I managed to roll him over and grip his arms. My stomach dropped at the purple lines spreading beneath his skin and up his neck, steadily growing.

  “Get up, Roark. We have to get going if we want to reach this Hag person before night.”

  He groaned, but together, we managed to get him up and leaning against me. I clenched my clammy hands around his waist.

  The pain in my knee screamed in protest as we hobbled forward. I didn’t know how long we walked, but the air soon began to chill. I forced myself to ignore the pain in my ankle that had grown to a dull ache.

  He had been quiet, so when he tilted his face and said, “We are close,” it surprised me.

  “I guess there’s one thing to consider. We made it an entire day early,” I tried to joke.

  In the next instant, he pitched forward, taking me with him. We landed on the ground with a hard thud, and pain rocketed through my body.

  “Dammit,” I grumbled, the sound muffled by the leaves in my face.

  “Look what we have here,” a voice said gleefully from above me.

  I tensed, wanting to shove my face deeper into the dirt. A foot lightly met my side in a slight kick, so I forced my head up before the slight kick turned into a full-blown one. I took a deep breath, bracing myself, and forced myself to look up at the nightmare of a bitch Sabine.

  15

  Her smile was pasted across her face, giving her a sinister look. My mouth went dry with fear. When her gaze flicked to Roark’s still body on the ground, her smile wiped away. She focused her narrowed eyes at me accusingly.

  “Help him,” I rasped, my fear for Roark overriding my fear of Sabine.

  She flashed to his side and turned his body, holding him up. She slapped his face, and I couldn’t help the raspy “Stop” that escaped my throat. Her head whirling to look at me, she dropped him and slinked to me with a glare.

  “What did you do, vermin?” she hissed. Did she not see the inky purple veins beneath his skin?

  I couldn’t think through the fear for Roark, so the question confused me. He was a Fae, ten times stronger than me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was asking something different as jealousy flared in her eyes.

  “He was poisoned when he tried to get that girl. Iron,” I stuttered.

  “Why didn’t you say?” she sneered and shot to him. Sabine grabbed his arms and tossed him over her shoulder fireman style. My mouth popped open at the show of strength. Before I could even blink, she was at my side. She managed to reach down, grab my healthy ankle, and started dragging me behind her.

  I scuttled to find purchase, but before I could, my arms were swept out from under me. I grunted as I hit the hard ground and bit my tongue. Knowing I’d just have to take it, I braced myself as she dragged me. The rough ground tugged my shirt up until my skin was exposed to the elements. Random pebbles and the uneven floor scratched my skin, and I whimpered.

  Over the sound of my pain, I heard Roark groan. Sabine stopped, and when I rolled sideways, my ankle turned in her grasp. A cry passed my lips, and Roark groan again. Sabine said his name, and I heard a dazed muffled word escape. Sabine tensed and mercilessly squeezed my ankle, giving me a hateful look. A look that said I was going to be in a world of pain. What had made her react that way?

  She took off again much faster. Fae-level fast. I had airtime with the speed she was going. My stomach dipped with anxiety the way it did on a rollercoaster. My ankle creaked in pain from the place she held me, and it was only distracted by the occasional touchdowns my body made with the ground. Everything was blurring, and the air in my lungs was lessening. When I was able to make out that we broke through the edge of a clearing, I realized it was because she was slowing.

  She came to a full stop and released my ankle, and my body careened to the side. I went with gravity as I twisted through the air. Rolling twice, I came to a stop with my face buried in the dirt. I groaned, and the sound of multiple voices came into focus.

  Sabine barked out, “Bran, take the vermin with the others.”

  I tilted my head to the side, spitting brown dust out of my mouth in time to watch her disappear into a medium-sized… house? If yo
u could call it that. I blinked, making sure the dust in my eyes wasn’t making me see things. It had wooden boards for walls and slabs of what looked like stones, and there were vines everywhere. They curled over the whole building, so much so the walls could barely be seen through the growth.

  Before I could take more time to observe it, I was grabbed by my arm, my poor abused shirt stretching as I was pulled up. I squealed and turned to find myself looking at a tall male.

  His face seemed chiseled with granite as he coldly looked down at me and handled my weight as if it were nothing. The slight curl to his full lips indicated his displeasure and sent genuine fear through me. A level of fear I’d never felt with Roark, regardless of how many times Roark glared at me. Even though my shirt sleeves, I could feel Bran’s icy temperature.

  He tightened his hold on my arm and jerked me forward. Really fast. At the speed he strode, it took everything for me not to face-plant. Again.

  Mustering up some nerve, I managed to formulate words. “Where are you taking me?”

  He grunted in reply as we walked by several large dome tents. Tents like Sabine had put up that day. The day she took me. The day she screwed Roark right in front of me with only the thin screen of the tent between my eyes and all of that.

  I stumbled past the house and saw multiple Fae staring at me in… disgust. They were mostly male, and they sneered and looked down their noses at me as I was pushed past. Not one friendly face could be seen in the bunch.

  This was just too much. I needed Roark in a way I’d never needed another, and that need only mixed with my fear for his well-being. That Hag better be all healing and more because I needed Roark to stride toward me with that expressionless face of his to feel even remotely okay.

  Otherwise, I’d slowly be eaten by the knot in my stomach that was building with every second he wasn’t in my sight. A few more grouped tents were illuminated from the inside, showing multiple people in them, and were those cots? I turned away from the full tents and tried not to think about the amount of Fae contained within each unit. I shivered, and it was a mix of the encroaching cold as well as the thought.

  We approached what looked like a small barn I could barely make out in the falling light. The building stretched up and sat within a fenced border. Gravel crunched under our feet as we crossed the fence door that was swung wide open. The pressure Bran had on my arm tugged backward, and I followed the lead of the direction the hard grip guided.

  Moving to the side, his hand reached over, and the metal hook holding the door screeched as it was pulled up and unlatched. A rancid smell wafted out and smacked me in the face. My nose scrunched, and I turned my head so it wouldn’t sear off my face. Of course, instead of acknowledging my discomfort and turning me away, the evil Fae walked me into the smell.

  Four points of lighting came from old-fashioned lamps. The ones you had to light with a candle. I squinted, barely able to make out the shapes in front of me. Bran walked me to what looked like the kind of long fence you would tie a horse to. I gasped when my eyes finally adjusted.

  There, cuffed to the fence, was a row of girls. Smudges marred the faces of some, indicating they had been there long, while others looked in better shape.

  Bran pushed me forward, and I bumped into a body that grunted. A clamp closed over one of my wrists. Gasping, I looked down and tried to tug the cuff off. The dark metal lay against my skin. But this one felt uncomfortable pressed against me. It was similar to the uncomfortable feeling when Evan pressed the iron to my head, but this time, my hair wasn’t shielding me from the sting.

  “Bran, really? Another one? How far are those lunatics going to go?” one of the girls said, her chains rattling as she stood and went as far as she could to approach Bran, who stood next to me.

  I turned to look at Bran’s reaction, hoping he wouldn’t attack her, knowing how quick the Fae were to hit. I braced in case I had to do something to stop that, but when I turned, his lips were pressed together, head tilted down, his body turned away from her. Almost as if shamed.

  Looking down, I saw his hands clench as she continued. “When will it be enough, what more do you want? I’ve been here for months. What do you want with us?”

  Her tone was a mix of desperation and pleading. There was such heartbreak in it that it sent kindred feelings in me. A sniveling started up in the lineup, and I wanted to check on whoever it was but stayed standing in case Bran tried anything. He flashed the girl a glance from the corner of his eyes and then straightened and turned away.

  “You coward! You coward,” she repeated, her tone lowering the second time, defeated.

  Without Bran’s massive form throwing a shadow over the girls, I was finally able to see them. The girl standing was tall. She had tan skin that reminded me of my own. Her arms wrapped around herself as she looked off in the direction Bran had disappeared.

  My gaze traveled all over the other girls, and at the end, with her knees pulled up and arms dangling off her knees, was a familiar face.

  “Jasmine,” I gasped, a mixture of shock and excitement running through me.

  Her eyes slowly slid open, and she threw me a glance from the corner of her eyes without turning her face. She said nothing as her eyes slid closed once more.

  “Don’t take it personally. Jasmine’s not very chatty.” The girl who was standing said, finally looking away from the barn doors that had shut with a hard bang. “I’m Thea.”

  “I’m Rosalind,” the girl closest to me said in a soft tone, the one I’d bumped into. She put her hand up, and I shook it. I looked down to find a sweet, rounded face looking up at me.

  The girl to her side stood and saluted me, the way she moved almost seductive. “I’m Selina. Nice to meet you. To catch you up, you can’t screw your way out of this place. Just for your information.” She grinned, her naturally full lips upturned at the corners.

  Next to her was the standing Thea, and right past her was a younger girl with her head buried in her hands as she cried.

  “That’s Karen… She’s taken all of this”—the girl on the other side of Karen waved her hand around—“pretty bad. I mean, who wouldn’t be depressed in this shithole? I’m Eliza. Next to me is my bestie Camilla.” She waved to the girl next to her.

  Camilla raised her hand and wiggled her fingers at me, giving me a slight smile before looking away quickly. I knew the next girl, Jasmine. I knew better than to say anything to her. Thea and Selina sat back down and leaned against the fence post like the others. My cuff was connected to the end of the chain, next to Rosalind, so I followed their lead and we all sat staring at the opposite wall.

  “Any of you guys know what we’re here for?”

  “We’re obviously cattle. For whatever plan they’ve cooked up. Who’s to say they aren’t going to eat us,” Eliza said from her spot in the line, shrugging.

  Dear Lord, I hoped she was exaggerating.

  “Don’t listen to the pessimist,” a southern voice drawled from the other side of Eliza. Camilla. “A better way to say that is to tack on ‘we are worried that’ and then insert what Eliza said.”

  “Yeah, Eliza. Don’t scare the girl,” Thea said, exasperated. Karen’s crying started up again at Eliza’s words.

  “Karen, relax. You’re dramatic. I told you I’ll get us out,” Selina barked. It was harsh, considering the circumstances.

  Selina kept scolding her as Rosalind leaned close and said, “They’re sisters. Karen is only sixteen. The youngest out of all of us.”

  My mouth opened in understanding and sympathy for both of them. Especially Selina. I couldn’t imagine my sister being trapped in this hellhole with me. I was supposed to protect her as the older sibling. I could only imagine the pain of that. I tried to change the subject.

  “So, you think they nabbed us specifically because we’re brunettes? Maybe it’s like a fetish,” I said, partly joking.

  “Um, excuse me, but I’m more of a light brown variety. I’ll forgive you because of this amazing li
ghting,” Thea snarked.

  “Over there, Debby downer, Eliza is a carrot top.” Selina giggled.

  “That’s offensive,” Rosalind said primly, but you could hear the edge of laughter in her response.

  “Life’s too short to be offended, so chill. I’d thought we’d already made progress,” Camilla said. Her thick accent made her words sound funny. We all cackled at that.

  Suddenly, Jasmine shot up, rage on her face. “You see what that psycho bitch did to me?” Jasmine bit out, staring straight at me. Across the corner of her mouth, there was a jagged still-healing scar. I gaped at the wound that hadn’t been there when I’d last seen her.

  Oh, no.

  16

  “Jasmine, I’m-I’m so so—” I stuttered but couldn’t get the rest of the sentence out. The sneer she shot me was made more pronounced by the scar curling her lip down.

  “I don’t need your empty words. You did what you did, and it can’t be changed. Just know it was your fault,” she hissed.

  I sat up straighter as the guilt hit my gut. I turned away and took deep breaths so I wouldn’t start crying.

  It was my fault.

  God, how had I been so stupid? But I hadn’t been able to help myself. She had been ready to plunge the knife into Roark. The very thought sent shivers of pain through me. I couldn’t regret it regardless of the shitty outcome, and that made me the worst type of person.

  “I’m sorry, but I couldn’t let you kill Roark. I know you think that knife would have done the trick, but you heard Sabine. It wouldn’t have hurt them. Just know that I’m sorry for your pain.” I couldn’t help but try to spin the circumstances with logic, but the fact was that I only looked out for my feelings in all of this and someone got hurt in the process.

  “Roark.” She spat out his name. I was ashamed to admit a little part inside of me rose in anger at her disgust. I held it down because she was right to be angry. “Are you fucking him now or what?”