The Curse of a Half Blood Princess

Chapter 5

As dusk rolls around, I become anxious. Not only is it getting dark, but Peter told me this is the prime time for critters to come out. I need to stay on my game; that means no resting until I'm safe in the demons' land.

While the sun is setting, I give Troy another water break so he can keep hydrated during the night. I also find him a little grass to feed from so he can keep himself energized. No horse means extra danger and that's the last thing I want, so I must take good care of him.

When Troy has had a fair break, I eat some bread from my satchel and we keep going down the road. It feels like it's lasted forever, but we've only been on it for around five hours. According to the prisoner demon, the journey takes three days on foot, so it must take at least a day if you're on a running horse.

I sigh with relief when I see a glowing light in front of us. It must be the burning tree! We've finally reached it!

"Troy, we've succeeded!" I say, patting my horse on the neck. He keeps galloping, clearly unaware that I'm speaking to him, and as we approach the light, I notice something different about it. It's not a tree, that's for sure.

I slow Troy to a trot as I examine the light ahead of me. It looks like a fire, but why would someone have a fire in the middle of nowhere? Wouldn't they want to warm themselves in their homes?

"And we got 'em!" a voice yells, cracking up loudly. A bunch of other people start laughing and I duck down, getting a sick feeling in my stomach. I'm at a point where I either need to pass or find somewhere else to camp while I wait for them to leave. Really, I don't have a choice if it means survival somehow.

Please, don't let them see me. Please...

I'm practically laying on my horse as we slowly pass the group to the opposite side of the road. It works well until my horse literally whinnies suicide.

"Hey, who's over there?" a male voice calls, making me gasp. I flick Troy's reigns to get him going, but it's too late. Troy doesn't move and all the people from the camp are coming towards us.

"Get the beast!" the other male calls. "Someone grab the person and make sure they don't get away!"

"Go, Troy, go!" I shout at my horse, but he doesn't budge. He keeps going slow and I scream loudly when I watch an arrow go into Troy's side. He starts stumbling and in an attempt to flee, I grab my satchel and jump off of Troy before he falls, starting to make a run for it.

"Someone grab her! She's probably a human!" the female hollers. I hear someone running behind me and it gives me the adrenaline to run more speedily. My legs are moving so quickly that I feel as though I may stumble, but I keep going as fast as I can.

Unfortunately, it's not fast enough.

"Let me go!" I scream as a male throws his arms around me and captures me. I start struggling wildly, knocking the hood of my cloak off, but he doesn't release me. Instead, he holds tighter and I gasp for breath while he carries me back to camp.

"What are you going to do with my horse?" I ask, trying to break his grasp so I can at least breathe. I feel like he's going to squeeze the life out of me if he keeps holding me as he is.

"That's not for you to worry about, sweetheart," the male cackles. "You should be worried about what's going to happen to you. We aren't nice to humans around here."

"I'm not a human!" I protest, trying to get my arms free so I can remove my contacts. That would have been smart to do when I washed the dye out of my hair...

"Oh, yeah?" he scoffs. "Then what are you? An ape?"

"I'm a demon," I struggle, watching in my peripheral vision as the others finish off Troy and start hauling his massive body off the road.