Liam. Where was he? Never in her life had she been so conflicted. She was torn between wanting him to stay away from whoever was stepping into the living room and wanting him next to her with such desperation she could taste it.
Gripping the poker with both hands, she watched them as they snuck around the space. Once she saw their silhouette, she knew exactly who had been stupid enough to trespass into the lair of a dragon.
Cliona.
She wasn’t alone. Flanked by at least five men, they entered the bedroom, holding crude weapons in their hands. There was no way Heidi was going to be able to get out of this alive with just a fire poker, but she’d be damned if she allowed them to take her back to their hellhole village to be burned at the stake.
She’d happily die before she ever returned there.
Her only other option was to get around them somehow. One of the men had remained in the living room but he was watching the other fae. He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. If she was going to try to make a break for it, now was her chance.
Moving as fast as her feet would carry her, she charged the fae head-on, poker raised. He shouted as soon as he saw her but he wasn’t fast enough to move away. She swung the iron rod, connecting with his head. He fell to his side just as the others burst from the bedroom with Cliona in the lead.
Heidi didn’t wait for them. She ran from the cave with them close on her heels. Even when she reached the stairs she didn’t slow. They scrambled behind her, but they hadn’t anticipated that she had heard them coming. They assumed they would take her by surprise.
She darted through the cabin and pulled open the front door. And stopped dead.
In front of her was Liam. Liam, surrounded by a dozen fae, all of whom had their weapons trained on him and their eyes on her.
They were fucked.
“Well, well,” Cliona said stepping out from behind Heidi. “When we came for him, we didn’t expect to find him mated. And to a witch, no less!” Her laughter pierced the air, rattling Liam’s eardrums.
Never had he believed they’d attempt this. They had been waiting for him when he landed and had sprung on him as soon as he turned back into his human form. He hadn’t smelled them coming, but the wind had been in his face. A tactic the fae had used to their benefit.
Spears had been thrust against his chest. If he had still been in his dragon form, one fireball would’ve taken care of them. Or a deadly swing of his tail. But they had been smart enough to wait for him to change back. He could maybe spit a small flame at them, but nothing that would do any real damage.
There he stood, in front of the cabin with the knowledge that there were fae already going in after Heidi. Why they wanted her, he didn’t know. It was him they were after. It was him who had broken their contract and him who they would exact revenge upon. Perhaps that was why they went for her.
Her surprise at seeing him surrounded by the sharp-toothed fae warriors caused her to come to a dead stop. Fear etched her beautiful features as she looked at him, the point of a sharpened spear tip digging into the skin above his heart.
His body rigid, he met her eyes. Lifting his chin, he didn’t fight as a fae warrior bound his arms with rope. It was neither the time nor the place. He wouldn’t go down easily, but an escape attempt now would be futile. He wanted to know what they were after.
They weren’t there to kill them. If that had been the case he’d already be dead. They wanted something. And they wanted something badly enough to be stupid enough to come after him.
“Roarke will love this,” Cliona said as she snapped her fingers and pointed at Heidi.
Two fae males grabbed her, pulled the iron poker from her grasp, and jerked her hands behind her back. Liam watched helplessly as they bound her in the same fashion as they had him. Shoving her in front of them, they descended the cabin’s front steps and met the awaiting fae in the yard. Heidi’s bare feet crunched over the ground as they approached the waiting group.
The spear the male held dug into Liam’s chest. “Turn and walk,” he bit out and Liam complied, glaring at him.
He didn’t have to memorize their faces. When this was over, he’d kill them all. They threatened his mate and they threatened him. Heidi would never be safe with them so close. How he had managed to live within their proximity for all these years without a fight was beyond him. But then they had never been as much of a threat as they were now.
Liam hated himself for the fact that he hadn’t dealt with them previously. Hated himself for the assumption that they wouldn’t brave attacking them. He had been wrong and for that he’d never forgive himself.
The ten mile hike through the woods in the dark as they made their way to Péine was slow moving. They kept Heidi out of his line of sight, marching her behind him. He couldn’t look at her, couldn’t meet her eyes and see the look of disappointment in them for his inability to keep her safe. What kind of mate was he if he couldn’t protect her?
Every time he heard her stumble, he clenched his teeth and marched on. He didn’t speak to the fae, nor did they speak to him. A few had taken to the skies, circling over the party as they went, their arrows at the ready in case he were to try something. He didn’t.
Three of them held their spears to his back as they continued on, the deadly tips nicking his skin every time he didn’t place his feet just right on the uneven ground. Blood dripped from his skin, the coppery smell filling his nose. He was lucky they weren’t using poisoned spear heads or he’d be suffering greatly. Another point that sealed his belief they wanted him alive.
The sun was creeping over the horizon when they stopped in front of the massive pine tree. Magic radiated from its trunk, stronger than it had before. They had increased the protection around Péine. It was impossible for him to change into his dragon form within their borders and now it would be impossible for him to change even close to the perimeter around their village.
Cocking his head, a thought entered his mind.
He knew why they wanted him.
How Heidi managed not to burst into tears was beyond her. As she stumbled her way through the darkness, her feet raw and bleeding, she watched Liam’s back. Blood trailed over his skin. It pained her that he was injured. It pained her even more when he didn’t turn his head back to look at her.
She stared at his back as she followed behind him. Spears were pointed at her, as well as him, preventing their escape. But in her mind, she knew. She knew as soon as they crossed the portal into the fae village, it would be over for them. There’d be no hope for their escape and they’d be at the mercy of the fae.
But now? Now they were outnumbered. They had neither weapons with them nor shoes on their feet. There was no way she could talk to him without having to shout, no way to devise a plan. She waited for him to do something. Anything. She waited for the moment when he would spring on them, so she’d be ready to react.
But there was nothing. All he did was go where they wanted him to go and do what they wanted him to do. But why? Why wasn’t he fighting his way free? The least they could do was try, for he had to know what waited for them in Péine.
Then the realization hit her. He wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize her. If he believed that they would hurt her if he swung on them, then he wouldn’t do it. He’d willingly walk to the fae village with spears at his back and arrows overhead. They were walking to their deaths.
She groaned when a sharp rock jabbed the already sensitive and aching sole of her foot. They’d walked for miles in a slow moving parade. She didn’t know how much further they had to go to get to the village, but she knew it couldn’t be too much longer. She didn’t have all night to figure out what she was going to do.
Going back to the village was out of the question. She’d rather die than go back in. Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she tried to squelch the panic she felt rising in her chest. No, she couldn’t go back. She was lucky to get out alive the first time. She couldn’t count on being that lucky a secon
d time.
“I’m done,” she said suddenly, surprising the fae men who stood on either side of her. “I can’t go on any further.”
“Hold!” The fae who shouted the order to the moving party in front of them turned to her when she dug her feet in and refused to take another step. “Move, witch.”
“No.”
A spear tip jabbed her bicep and a stinging pain radiated down her arm. “Move.”
“No. I told you, I’m done. I’m not going.”
“You do not have a choice.” The men in front of them turned to watch the spectacle. Liam turned at the same time they did, her voice loud in the relative quiet of the night.
“I can’t go any further. I’m tired and my feet hurt.”
“We do not care,” the fae on her other side said. “Walk.”
“No.”
“Move or we’ll kill you here.”
“Then kill me here because I can’t go on any further.”
They appeared perplexed. Their brows scrunched together in obvious confusion. If she had any doubt before, it was gone now since it was obvious they couldn’t kill her. If they wanted Liam to cooperate then they needed her as collateral. And she wasn’t going to play by their rules.
“Heidi, please,” Liam said but she could almost see his mind working. His words felt limp.
It was Cliona who stepped forward. “Drag the witch if she won’t walk.”
“No,” Liam snapped. “You will not drag her. You will not harm a single hair on her head.”
The crazy redhead’s laughter sounded almost like a cackle when Liam spoke. “And what will you do, dragon? How will you stop us if we decide to drag her back? Or if we decide to start removing appendages if she does not cooperate? Or how about we remove some of your own?”
Cliona laughed again and stepped toward Heidi. “Would you like your mate to lose his finger? Or how about a toe? We can always start there.”
“You wouldn’t,” Heidi snapped. “You wouldn’t do that because if you did, I’d kill you.”
“You think you could kill me, witch?” Cliona laughed again, pulling an arrow from her quiver on her back. She stood came forward until she was almost nose to nose with Heidi, but Heidi refused to look away. She refused to lower her eyes or show for even a split second the fear that she felt deep in her gut.
Cliona lifted the arrow and pressed the sharpened stone tip against Heidi’s cheek. “Do you truly believe you could kill me?”
“Yes.”
It was the wrong answer. Cliona snapped her wrist and a sharp stinging pain bit into her cheek. She sucked in a harsh breath, but refused to cry out and refused to shed a tear. If Cliona and the rest thought they’d get her to follow their orders, they were mistaken. They could cut her apart, piece by piece, but she wasn’t going back to that village. Warm blood dripped down her cheek and dropped onto the shirt she wore.
She didn’t look toward Liam, but she could hear his growl. She could smell the smoke that must have been curling from his nostrils. Cliona whipped around when he let out a deafening roar.
“Restrain him!” she screamed.
Heidi didn’t wait to see what he was doing. While Cliona and the two fae males next to her were distracted, she slammed her body into the one on her right. He stumbled, caught off-guard by her sudden attack, but righted himself just as she took off. The tips of his fingers scraped her forearm just as she twisted away from him.
Heidi didn’t wait for Liam. She knew he’d find her and she’d find him. Instead, she just ran. She didn’t go back the way they’d come, she went straight into the thickest part of the woods and away from anything that resembled a man-made path. Feet pounded on the ground as they stampeded after her.
Having her hands tied behind her back made it impossible to stabilize herself when she tripped over the uneven ground or to keep the branches from hitting her face and body. She ignored the discomfort and just ran, carefully listening to the yelling behind her.
Why hadn’t they caught up to her yet? She didn’t dare look behind her or look up. Her oxygen starved lungs threatened to burst and the muscles in her legs burned as the ground went from a flat surface to a steep incline.
The yells from the fae turned into screams, but with every step she took, they sounded farther and farther away. That was when she realized she no longer heard them behind her, no heavy foot falls and no grunted breathing except her own.
She glanced behind her, but didn’t see anything except darkness and the thick mass of branches and leaves. When she looked up, she saw no fae hovering through the holes in the canopy. There was nothing except bright stars above her head that peered down at her through the trees.
Heidi was utterly alone.
14
Liam saw Cliona drag the arrow’s blade down Heidi’s cheek. Even in the relative darkness, lit only by the torches the fae carried, he saw Heidi’s dark red blood well up in the wound before sliding down her pale cheek.
She had refused to take another step. He heard every word she had said and he realized instantly what she was doing. She knew as well as he did that if they crossed the portal into Péine the chances of them getting out again were slim to none. Only he had yet to come up with an idea that would get both him and Heidi safely away from the fae.
He had spears poking his chest just as Heidi did. Both of them had bound hands. Fighting them off without the use of his hands and the inability to change without her being hurt was nigh impossible.
The rivulet of crimson had him gnashing his teeth. Before he realized what was happening, smoke blew from his nose. He’d kill Cliona. He’d kill them all. She’d laid her hand on his mate. They’d threatened his mate. Seeing Heidi’s blood was too much for him.
Liam snapped.
It happened so fast, he couldn’t control it. He couldn’t stop it nor slow it down. Just as he saw Heidi slam her body into the male next to her, his bones cracked. Scales erupted from his skin, deflecting the spears the warriors held.
“Restrain him!” he heard Cliona shout in the distance, but the woman was nothing to him. Her orders were nothing to him.
The fae gasped at his arms but they changed underneath their desperate hands. He felt the annoying prod of spears, but none pierced the scaled armor. His wings burst from his back, unfolding above him and causing the torches to waver and so to extinguish completely.
Heidi was running. He could make out her form as she ducked beneath branches. Two fae were on her trail, but they wouldn’t be for long. Whipping his tail around, he impaled the first fae warrior to get in the way.
Arrows bounced off his side and he sucked in a deep breath. Fire churned in his gut and he spewed it in the direction of the hated Cliona. He should have taken care of her the first time she pursued them when they left Péine instead of letting her go. That had been his mistake and one he wouldn’t make again.
But he didn’t have to. Just as the dragon fire reached the heels of the fae who were pursuing Heidi, Cliona fell to her knees. Her hands clenched over her heart, she screamed in an agony that he hadn’t caused.
The fae who had been fighting him off were now distracted by their leader’s suddenly pale face. She fell to her hands as she lost her stomach contents on the ground. Blood gushed from her mouth and her nose.
“My mate is dead,” he heard Cliona say, gasping. “Erasmus is dead.”
As the fae who had been circling above descended to her side, Liam lifted his body in the air and flew in the direction he’d seen Heidi go. He left Cliona, surrounded by her men, to die.
Every little noise made Heidi jump, from the hoot of the owl to the snapping of twigs from a wandering opossum. The woods were alive around her and she just prayed she didn’t step on anything that would leave teeth impressions in her leg.
When she was convinced she was alone, she stopped and sat on the cold ground. Trying to get the ties off her wrists was going to pose a challenge, but she’d wiggled out of worse. The fae underestimated her strength. Sh
e underestimated her own strength. She never would have believed it was possible for her to outrun the fully grown and trained warriors who had pursued her.
But then she probably hadn’t. Catching her should have been easy and would have been if not for Liam. She was convinced he had done something that called the fae back and prevented them from chasing her.
Curling herself into a ball, she strained to get her arms around her bottom and her legs. Just when she thought the muscles in her shoulders wouldn’t stretch another fraction of an inch, she managed to get her hands under her butt and around her short legs. With the ties now in front of her, she gnawed at the leather knots.
Just when she was about to give up on the ties, she felt the knot loosen. With renewed hope, the leather fell away. Heidi rubbed her wrists in an attempt to ease the sore skin and revive the circulation in her hands. Shivering, she climbed to her feet, and continued on through the woods in an attempt to put as much distance between herself and the fae as humanly possible.
She worried about Liam, wondering where he was. Was he still their captive? Or had he managed to free himself just as she had? She didn’t know how she was going to find him, but she knew she had to. In fact, she had no real plan, except to keep moving. Once she found New Freedom—if she could find New Freedom—she would find Maggie. Maybe Maggie would be able to help her devise a plan to rescue Liam if he was still in the hands of the fae.
Heidi felt like she was walking in circles. One tree looked exactly like the next. Every fallen log looked like every other. Unable to see more than a few feet in front of her wasn’t helping speed up her progression through the woods. She had no flashlight. She had nothing except the clothes on her back, and even they weren’t in the best condition anymore. The low hanging branches had caught her sleeves more than once resulting in jagged tears and she was covered in both dirt and small splatters of blood.
Up In Flames (Netherworld Series Book 2) Page 18
