Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Very true. She took another slow, deep breath. The hood slid against her face, the musky, stale scent nearly making her choke.
Give them what they expect. Weakness can be your greatest strength if you use it properly.
Her feet remained close together and slightly askew, a stance no fighter would use. Fae thought humans were frail and useless. Less than. She’d play that part for now.
He yanked her around and pulled her forward. She half tripped, forced to stutter-step, and made herself shake even more. Dimming light appeared in the slice of visibility at the bottom of her hood, night falling.
Murmured voices lowered in volume the closer she got. People—or beings—stopped their conversations as she appeared in their midst. The animals had been grouped off to the right, judging by the souls, probably tethered for the time being. The crackling of flame accompanied an occasional pop of burning wood, a fire probably newly started. They must’ve stopped for the night. Unless she was somehow already in a different realm, she’d lost a day from when she’d crashed until now.
“Seat her there,” someone said, and the being directing her shoved her downward.
She crumpled with a whimper and started pleading for her life. She babbled about rewards for returning her, how young she was, and anything else she could think of, most of the words lost to terrified-sounding sobs.
A hard object crashed into the side of her head to shut her up. Daisy grunted as she splayed onto the ground, her head pounding from the impact. Fuck, that hurt. Fuck those fucking fuckers! A boot, most likely. These assholes meant business.
She gritted her teeth against the pain throbbing within her cranium. Fae were supposed to be ruthless, but her kissing assassin had never laid a hand on her. Not in violence, at any rate. Only magic to keep her put. She’d misjudged how much she could get away with. Another mistake like that might cost Daisy her life.
“Get up.” The rough hand grabbed her by the hood and hair, yanking her to sitting and making her squint with enhanced pain.
“Take off her hood,” the voice said, the one who had indicated where to place her.
She flinched when the top of the hood was pinched, and winced again when some of her hair was ripped away with it. The scene revealed itself within the folds of early evening, and she drank it all in as fast as she could.
You need to be ready at all times. You’ll never know when you’ll have to move.
Horses were tethered to a nearby tree. Covered wagons were stationed in a semicircle. They cut out some of the breeze flowing from…the east, if she had to guess. Eight guys with pointed ears all gathered around the modest fire. That was all as expected…except for how strange the guys—or possibly male creatures, in this case—looked. She’d get to that in a moment.
Trees scattered around with ample space between them. Away right, a meager dirt road cut through their thick trunks, sparse with branches. A smattering of stars were just making their night’s debut overhead, the same pricks of light that would be hidden in a city’s bright landscape. Night birds called out their presence, and off in the foliage, small critters worried the grasses. The area was remote, offering a sense of isolation. That wasn’t ideal. If she were to escape, she wouldn’t have a lot of cover or anywhere to actually go.
She might’ve lost a day from when the SUV had gone off the road, but if they were going by horse and cart, they couldn’t be too far ahead of Lexi and the others. Lexi could find her in the spirit realm and direct the others to where she was.
There is no worse pastime than waiting to be saved.
Yes, fine, Daisy thought in annoyance. She had to help herself. She knew that. But still, Lexi and the others weren’t the types to rest when one of their own was in danger. They’d come for her. If nothing else, there was that to look forward to.
What was likely the leader of this crew stood on the other side of the fire, and when she took him in, her breath escaped her in a slow whoosh. Very strange. Definitely not human.
He stood with his chest bared, his skin the color of seafoam and with the subtle markings of scales running along his breastplate, over his shoulders, and down his arms. What looked like kelp mixed with branches and twigs twisted in a rope and encircled his neck and left upper arm, just above the lanky muscle. His long hair was partially tied up, disappearing within a headdress of twigs and leaves lined with shimmering green metallic kelp and silver-tipped feathers. The hair flowing down around his shoulders was stringy and gray-black, with plant matter that looked like ribbons flowing within or sticking out.