Hunted by a Night Fae

Chapter 13

Ronan and I walked in silence. The trees so determined to keep me trapped before, now moved out of the way, swaying with the wind. He was quick and light-footed, navigating through the trees like a ghostly specter, the forest holding its breath and leaning back to let him pass through.

Other than his one word to me earlier, he hadn't said anything else. I felt like a fool for blindly following him through the forest, but I had no idea where we were going, or where I was.

If I slowed too many paces behind him, he turned and fixed me with a blood-chilling look. It made me wonder what he would do to me if I stopped altogether. I hastened my pace, trailing him reluctantly.

Finally, Ronan started to slow his pace, his eyes narrowing, his hand continually moving down to hold his sword as if he feared a threat. I could hear voices in the trees, some so animal my mind filled with the images of the worst kinds of monsters stalking through the forest.

Ronan turned back to check on me more frequently, though he made no effort to help me along, even as my feet left bloody footprints behind us. I saw his eyes lower to my feet now and then as he checked on me, his nostrils flaring.

I averted my gaze to the trees, my skin prickling. He could smell my blood.

As much as everything in my body screamed at me to stay as far away from him as possible, I clenched my fists and trailed after him. He was deadly—dangerous—but so was everything else. He was leading me somewhere. I just hoped it had nothing to do with the sounds I had heard in the forest.

Eventually, the trees started to thin out, and Ronan unsheathed his sword, holding it at his side. He moved closer to me. The movement was so fast I let out a gasp. He looked me up and down, his lips held thinly in a frown.

He closed his eyes and appeared to sigh, his dark brows creasing down the middle, and then wordlessly, he turned. This time he slowed his pace so I was directly behind him. The effort must have taken a toll on him, his jaw tensing with a frustrated tick.

More glowing orbs appeared, at first as one, then many. I held my breath and focused on my feet. I had learned my lesson the first time. I could hear disjointed whispers, the distant melody of a song.

One of the hovering lights moved too close, and Ronan hissed at it. The sound was completely inhuman, long sharp teeth bared in warning. It floated away, and after that, the rest of the unearthly lights kept a distance.

"What are those?" I asked, once they disappeared. Ronan turned to fix me with a glare that had me considering trying to force the words back into my mouth.

He didn't answer.

Either he didn't understand me, or he was just an ass. I was deciding it was a mixture of both. I pressed my lips closed and didn't ask any more questions.

After some time, we started down a wide well-traveled path that led into a large space beyond the trees. As I glimpsed the fenced-off circular area in its center, I recognized it as the clearing where Marlais had prepared me for the Hunt.

I paused. Marlais was nowhere in sight. Couples—if you could call them that—stood scattered about, standing separate from everyone else.

Tall, willowy figures under a veil made of a shimmering crimson material walked around, stopping before the couples. They were performing a ceremony where both participants drank from a cup. As Ronan and I neared, my steps faltered. I couldn't help but notice each pairing was one faerie and one human, the latter looking like they had been torn through the depths of hell to get there.

Ronan growled a warning, spurring me back into motion.

The clearing was oddly quiet despite the number of people within it. As we stood just beyond the fence, I finally got a closer look at what the couples were drinking.

I watched as one of the veiled figures held a long jewel-encrusted dagger, slitting the palm of both their hands and letting it drip into the goblet they held between them. Then the figure whispered to it in an incomprehensible fae tongue, before passing it first to the male, and then to the woman to drink. A young girl with what would usually be pale blond hair—had it not been covered in dirt, choked down its contents with a sob.

I dug my heels into the ground.

I looked up to Ronan, who had noticed my resistance. I gave him the hardest glare that I could. His eyes flashed with a warning I knew I should heed.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "I won't do it."

Ronan's eyes lit with a fire that came from somewhere within him. I wasn't sure where, exactly, I just knew it was cordoned off deep inside—and it was deadly. He moved closer and was in front of me so quickly I barely had time to breathe.

He curled his lips into a low snarl, revealing his fanged teeth, which were long and lethal. However, Ronan made no move to harm me. Instead, he tried to intimidate me with his feral expression.

He was so close to me I could feel his chest fall and rise. Hot breath heated my face, but I did my best to steady my racing heart. Perhaps I had gone completely insane after that night's events, but I did not back down. I stared back and refused to let it show that he was intimidating me.

Ronan eventually realized what I was doing, his lips lowering to contain his teeth. His gaze turned contemplative. But, when he moved next, it was not to attack me as I had anticipated.

He merely grasped my wrist and pulled me after him, forcing me to follow him or be dragged. With hardly contained horror, I took notice of the long, blackened claws that graced the ends of his fingers. His grip was hard enough to feel the scrape of them over the thin flesh of my wrist.

I protested, trying to pull my arm out of his hold, but it was futile. His grip was tight and as immovable as an iron manacle. Once he had positioned us inside its fence, he didn't let go of me.

I glared at him, continuing to try to wiggle my arm to break his hold. His hand was hot — warmer than what felt normal. It was close to searing me, the heat of it just a few degrees lower than burning. 

I could've sworn something inside me answered it. Ronan's red eyes slipped to me a moment, and then he looked away, his face giving away nothing.

I ground my teeth and stared ahead, my stubbornness the only defiant action I had left—for all the good it did. Ronan didn't seem particularly fond of me, and I could not find a reason in my mind as to why I was now standing beside him in what very well could be our marriage ceremony.

We stood in tense silence, his touch keeping the cold away, but doing nothing to soothe my nerves. 

I remembered my last argument with my mother, wishing I could take it all back. If I never saw Mom again, those would be my last words to her.

As I stood next to Ronan, I considered my options. On the one hand, Ronan took me as his wife, my future with him hazy and unsure. So much could go wrong. On the other, I could find some way to end it. End me. Kill myself and avoid the whole ordeal. But as soon as the option entered my mind, I threw it away. If I were dead, I would never escape. I would never return home, and I would never see my mother or father again.

I wasn't ready to give up.

That left only one option. Survive, and once I found a way to escape...

Take it. By whatever means necessary.