by Tracy Lauren
Slowly, our bodies come to rest and the only sound in our borrowed room is that of our panting breaths. I feel ruined. Brom was right when he said I’d never want a human man after him. In this moment I can’t imagine wanting anyone besides Brom ever again.
Then Brom rises and when he breaks contact with me, his absence is felt in the depths of my soul.
“Where are you going?” I ask, too tired to sit up. He smiles at me, warm and loving, and retrieves his water and a small cloth to clean us with. Wordlessly, he begins to wipe me down and I’m so thoroughly fucked I can do nothing but spread my legs and let him. We share a little water and he lies back down beside me, both of us still nude. He wraps me in his embrace and I reciprocate.
For a long while neither of us speaks. If he’s anything like me he’s worried about breaking this spell between us. Besides, what would we have to talk about? The fact that we only have four short days of each other’s companionship before we part ways in Pontheugh. The fact that we will likely never see one another again. Or would we talk about our fevered confessions, our proclamations of ownership? I shake those thoughts from my mind. He said I was his. I told him he was mine. But people say lots of things during sex. Brom probably didn’t mean any of that. Not really at least.
And what did he really say anyway? That I belong to him. I’ve heard that from him before. Sure, it felt like what he meant was something more…but what do I know? Maybe all I heard was what I wanted to hear.
Brom’s the first one to break the silence. I’m disappointed, though, when it’s with his usual practical philosophy. “You should rest.” My heart sinks, but when he turns to me, I know my fears are unwarranted, because he looks at me with affection in his eyes, pure and dedicated.
“Yeah…” I trail off, reminding myself we only have four days left. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt happy, since I’ve felt cared for. I wouldn’t want to ruin what precious little time we have left with an argument. So for once I opt to not rock the boat.
I trail my hands over his muscled chest, careful of new scars and memorizing the old. I’m surprised when a yawn involuntarily escapes my lips. “Are you tired?” I ask him. “You should sleep too. Maybe we could take shifts?” But then Brom’s caressing my scalp, running his fingers through my hair, and before I know it, I’m in a deep and comfortable sleep.
Chapter 35
Adelaide
Morning comes and I dread leaving our room and facing the witch again. But it’s time to move on from this place. Brom packs our things and he somehow leads us back to the main cavern. He stops at the entry, though, and urges me inside, not without a kiss, of course, and fervent warnings to make no deals with the witch. Then he disappears back into the dark corridor.
I take a deep breath and step into the cold and echoing room, my eyes going first to the witch’s throne. But she is not there.
“Hello?” I call out, looking cautiously into the shadows. I remain in the light the crystals provide and wander the room a bit. I startle when I trip over a large bone and I nearly die of fright when the witch reaches out from some unseen place to steady me.
“GODS!” I exclaim, and though she releases me as quickly as she grabbed ahold, the icy remnants of her touch are haunting. “You frightened me,” I tell her, not knowing what else to say.
“I can sense I have my answer.” The witch frowns. “It’s a shame,” she adds, walking around me again like she did the day before. I have the impression that she’s inspecting me again. And she even holds her hands out as if taking in warmth coming off of me like a fire. I inch away from her.
“I’m sorry,” I tell her.
“May I ask why you chose to refuse such a simple arrangement?” she asks. I don’t want to tell her the truth, that we didn’t trust her enough to not bring us harm. I hardly trust her to allow us to leave. But she watches me, waiting for me to speak. So I give her the only reason I can think of.
“Fear,” I say simply, hoping I don’t offend.
“Fear.” She smiles. “That is an ingredient easy to come by here in these woods. But what you have…” She leans forward, smelling me. “What you have is rare, precious even.”
“What do I have?” I ask, not understanding.
“The blood of a woman in love,” she answers. I baulk at her response.
“Love? I’m sorry, you must be mistaken.”
“I am never mistaken, little one.”
“Nevertheless, there is some kind of misunderstanding here.”
The witch’s mouth curves into a smile and she laughs, coarse and grating. Somehow there’s no mirth to her empty smile and it makes chills runs up my arms. “Will you grant us safe passage from this place,” I ask cautiously.
“You are of no interest to me if there is not a deal to be made. Go, I will not stop you.” She waves me away and her skirt of arms sways with the motion. I cringe, already beginning to make my retreat.
I feel safer and braver with every step that takes me away from the witch. Just before I step into the corridor, I look back on the looming cavern and the cold blue lights reflecting off the crystals. The witch has somehow already made it back to the top of her throne, lording over piles of old bones, all alone in a cave in the heart of the most cursed place in all the world. I can’t help but wonder how long she’s been sitting there and who she was before she found herself in this place. It seems like a very lonely existence.
With that thought in mind I barrel straight into Brom’s chest. I gasp, startled by the sudden presence of another. But when I realize it’s my Brom I wrap my arms around his waist. He hugs me right back, stroking my hair.
“Everything’s fine,” I tell him, knowing he must be eager to hear what was discussed between the witch and myself. I blush at the memory, hardly able to believe she suggested I might be in love with Brom. That’s impossible of course. I’ve never heard of a human falling in love with a troll. Besides, I don’t know how to love. I barely know how to like, let alone love someone. Still, I can’t help but feel something as Brom holds me. I chalk it up to fear and my eagerness to leave.
“Let’s go,” he urges, taking my hand, and I follow him, desperate to get far away from this place and the unsettling feelings it brews inside of me.
Chapter 36
Brom
We emerge from the witch’s den. There’s still a dense fog lingering over this place, a fog that I imagine never clears. The one thing that is clear, however, is a path cut between the gollums. Still, I keep my eyes on them and my weapon drawn, ready to defend Adelaide with my life. But they are silent and still. The only sounds are of dirt crunching beneath our feet and the occasional caw from a crow.
We don’t turn back in the direction we came, back toward my village and home. Instead we face east, toward the human city of Pontheugh. We remain silent as we pass the gollums, listening for any signs of danger, but eventually we do pass them by, and the distance between us and the witch of Briarmere grows with every step. And still, long after we have left the witch’s territory, that silence lingers between Adelaide and me.
The darkness of this wretched place seems to have burrowed itself inside of my heart and I long for the outskirts of the Perished Woods. And yet I don’t. The closer we get to the outskirts means the sooner I say goodbye to Adelaide and nothing could be darker than that.
This is it, I tell myself. We are on the road to Pontheugh and my last four days with the only woman I’ve ever loved have begun. The weight of that realization is heavy on my mind and whenever I glance at Adelaide, she looks as lost in her thoughts as I am.
“It’s different here,” Adelaide points out. There’s no bog in this direction, the ground is dry and there is no mist. By midday we can even see blue sky instead of gray peeking through the canopy of the forest. Still, it does nothing to lighten the mood between Adelaide and myself. Neither of us speaks again until I hear Adelaide’s stomach growl some time later.
“We should take a break,” I realize.
Inwardly, I kick myself. I should have been paying closer attention to her needs, instead all I’ve been doing this morning is wallowing in my own broken heart. I lead Adelaide to a stone, she takes a seat and I pass her our drinking water and some food. I hover over her as she nibbles at her meal and she averts her gaze. A sudden fear washes over me.
“You did not make a deal with the witch, did you?” I demand.
“What? No! Of course not. I promised you I wouldn’t,” she reminds me.
I let out a sigh of relief. “I’m sorry,” I say, scrubbing my face with my hand. “You looked troubled and I…” I shrug. “And I’m a fool.”
Adelaide looks up at me and her expression softens. “It’s okay. I’m used to it,” she teases, melting away at the darkness inside of me and warming me with her light. When we look into each other’s eyes her smile grows. I vow to remember the way she looks right now, her green eyes shining and the sun reflecting off her ruby red locks.
I close the distance between us and press a kiss to the top of her head. She leans into me for a moment before she sets her food aside and wraps her arms around me.
“Brom.” Her voice comes out barely more than a choked whisper.
“What is it, little one?”
“I…I don’t know,” she breathes out, still clutching onto me. I’m hardly fit to comfort her right now, not when I take so much of my own comfort from her embrace. Selfishly I pull her hair back and tilt her face up toward mine, kissing her with desperation.
I had no plan for anything beyond a kiss, but then I feel Adelaide’s hands undoing my belt. It takes only a second to hike up her dress and press her back against a tree. Then we’re panting with need. She wraps her legs around me, clutching me with her thighs. My hands dig into her fleshy hips and my cock settles against her already slick core. All I need to do is pull Adelaide against me and her pussy swallows my cock. She cries out at the sensation, but the sound is smothered by our kisses. I pump into her, desperate for the love her body gives me. I want to profess my feelings to her. With every stroke of my cock into Adelaide’s welcoming pussy, I want to tell her that I love her. She grinds her sex against me as we make love against the tree while I suck on the lobe of her ear, growling and grunting, being pushed ever closer to my breaking point. When she cums, it sends me over the edge. Nothing can compare to the way it feels when my woman cums on my cock.
“MINE,” I snarl through clenched teeth as Adelaide’s moans of ecstasy echo through the trees.
We stay frozen like that for a long while. It isn’t until my cock grows soft that I surrender to the fact that we must move on. Reluctantly I set her down and we both wash up. Neither of us speaks of our coupling. Not last night’s and not of the frantic thing we just did against that tree. I don’t know Adelaide’s reason for silence, but I know my own. Taking her to her new home so that she can be with the only family she had left is the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. Every step we take, every second that passes, it breaks me.
I can’t stop myself from thinking about the fact that soon she will be gone, yet I can’t imagine what my life will be when she is no longer in it.
The rest of the day is much like our morning, filled only with polite small talk and a few short breaks, but for the most part we are silent and I listen to the sounds of the forest, vigilant for signs of danger. I watch the sway of Adelaide’s hips and the shine of her hair. I focus on the way her hand feels in mine and lick my lips in a vain effort to taste her there.
In the evening I build a large fire to keep the wisps away, but they never arrive. We share a meal and discuss the progress we made on our first day. It seems we walk faster when silent. It’s a sad realization.
We tidy our modest camp after dinner and Adelaide asks for the healing cream Davio gave her. I pass it to her and her fingers graze mine. I close my eyes and lose myself to the feel of her massaging the nearly healed wounds on my back. They don’t hurt, but I still find my woman’s touch soothing.
I open my eyes to Adelaide straddling my waist and wordlessly we make love again, just as hungry and frantic for one another as we were a few short hours before.
The next morning is bright and clear I rue the weather for not being analog to my emotions. It should be a day for clouds, rain, and thunder. Instead, the sun shines and birds sing and I hate the world and everything in it. Everything except for Adelaide of course.
Seconds turn to minutes and minutes to hours. No matter how bad I want to slow the clock, time keeps on moving forward and so do we. We don’t talk much and instead fill the space between us with desperate lovemaking every chance we get. And on the third day, just before dusk, we come to the great lake. We have left the Perished Woods and entered the land of men.
I hold back a limb and Adelaide makes her way through to get a better view of the city. Before us is the rocky bank and far in the distance we can see the stone walls of Pontheugh, the bustling docks, and even the castle high on the hill.
Adelaide hugs herself and I place a hand on the small of her back, not knowing what she needs in this moment. I suppose there was a time when she thought she might never see this place and now she is finally here. Somewhere inside the walls of Pontheugh is Adelaide’s last remaining relative. A part of me feels proud that I was able to bring her here. I’d do anything to make Adelaide happy, no matter what the cost.
“I’ve never been here before,” she says quietly. “The biggest village I’ve ever been to is Willowbend.”
I scoff. Willowbend is a tiny smear of shit on a map, with nothing to its name but a small dock that ferries people across the great lake to Pontheugh.
Adelaide elbows me. “Sorry,” I tell her and she graces me with a gentle smile.
“I know Willowbend isn’t anything special. Still, I’d never been farther or seen a place so big…and now here I am in Pontheugh.”
“It’ll take another day before we are inside the city,” I correct.
She shrugs at the technicality. “It’s big,” she states. “Looks intimidating.”
“That’s what you said about me in the beginning and now look at us,” I tease. She rolls her eyes at me and bumps into my side.
“How will I find Ellyn in all of that?” she asks, her eyes grazing over the thousands of rooftops.
“With my help,” I promise, wrapping my arm around her shoulder and kissing the top of her head.
After dinner we make love again by the fire, but before Adelaide can dress, I stop her. “Wait,” I say. “I have something for you.”
I dig down to the bottom of my rucksack and retrieve the heavy package, wrapped in leather and tied with strings. I pass it to Adelaide, who looks nervous and unsure. She reaches for her knife but remembers it was left in the leaves near her old dress.
“I’ve got it,” I tell her, using my own blade to snap the strings. She pulls back the leather to see what’s inside. Her eyes go wide.
“What’s this?” she asks, shaking out the dress I bought her back in my village. It’s midnight blue velvet, making her skin look like the moon and her hair like the rising sun. The bodice is piped with gold and the neckline is any man’s dream. Suddenly I wish I would have chosen something more modest, but I brush away the thought. Adelaide will look stunning. She looks like my dream.
“You got this for me?” she asks, her tone doing nothing to hide her surprise. “When? Why?”
“Back in my village. I couldn’t very well send you to start your new life in Pontheugh looking like a beggar woman,” I say lightly, helping her with the dress. Carefully she steps into it and I assist in lacing the bodice.
“I suppose my old dress has seen better days,” she agrees. “But, Brom, this is beautiful. Too beautiful! You shouldn’t have, I don’t have anything to offer you,” she laments.
“I didn’t ask for anything in return,” I assure her.
She runs her hands over the front of the dress, admiring
the soft fabric. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever owned. Thank you, Brom.”
I nod, unable to speak. She just looks so stunning there by the light of the fire. She’s like a vision and I hope to keep this memory with me for the rest of my days.
“I’m just surprised you got this for me way back then.”
“It was not so very long ago,” I counter.
“A lot has happened since,” she points out.
“This is true,” I agree, taking her into my arms. She certainly wouldn’t have let me hold her like this a few short weeks ago. “A lot has happened, and yet not so much has changed.”
“I thought you hated me then,” Adelaide confesses.
“Hated you?” I ask, genuinely shocked. “What would make you think that?”
“Because of everything that happened, but especially because you wanted to get rid of me. I wager there aren’t many slaves who get fired.”
“Wanted to get rid of you?” I shake my head. “Never. I was only tired of hurting you, Adelaide. I wanted to help you find peace. I certainly didn’t bring you all this way only so I could get rid of you. If I wanted that, I could have dropped you in the stream and been done with it,” I tease, trying to make Adelaide smile.
“And yet tomorrow you will be… Getting rid of me, that is.”
“Don’t think of it like that,” I tell her.
“How…um.” She bites her lip. “How do you think of it?” she asks carefully.
I shrug. “I try not to.”
“Oh,” she says, looking at the ground. Neither of us speaks and the only sounds are of the crackling fire and the lapping of the water on the rocks not far from us.
Finally Adelaide ventures to speak. “I’ll miss you.”
Her words are like an arrow to my heart, echoing my sentiments…the ones I’ve been trying so hard to bury. Adelaide looks up at me and I see tears welling in her eyes. I cup her cheek in my palm and look down at her. She’s beauty, vulnerability, strength, she’s comedy, folly, and heart. Human or not, she’s everything I could ever want in a woman. And while I might not be able to say the words, maybe if I kiss her, she might feel the love behind it.
