Page 55 of Married By Treachery

The more time that passed and he did not reappear, the more Raquel began to wonder if she was mistaken about him, after all.

She didn’t expect to fall asleep, but then her eyes snapped open and her back ached where a rock dug into it, and when she glanced over, she noticed the fire was gone and the mist had lightened.

She’d also dreamed of Jake again.

Holding her, kissing her. Such love in his eyes as he whispered upon her lips, “I love you.”

That whisper echoed even now like a torment as her body rose to consciousness, andAlmighty in heaven, if it hadn’t felt so real. It made her chest ache, experiencing something so beautiful—this love that could move mountains.

To know that it was not real.

She heard movement and glanced back to see Edom urinating on glowing embers, and she promptly glanced away.

Edom snickered.

And then he was hoisting her up to her feet, holding her before him firmly by the shoulders.

“Don’t worry,” Edom said. “You’ll get used to it soon enough.”

The idea made Raquel want to vomit, and she would have said as much except for the gag still tied resolutely around her mouth. So instead, she glared.

Edom leaned closer. “If we weren’t in such a hurry, I’d make you get used to it right now.”

A hungry breeze pushed at her, and branches snapped and creaked. Edom’s attention shot to the trees. “Time to go, boys,” he said, then tossed her onto the horse, and within two minutes, they were all mounted and riding again through the mist and trees.

Into the unknown.

* * *

Jake followed,never too close but never too far. Always with Raquel just in his sight.

Last night had been…difficult.

He’d fallen asleep to the memories of that kiss—their real, actual kiss—further compounded by the ones from his dreams, and when his eyes snapped open, his chest ached worse than before. As if something were being ripped out of it.

No…

As if something were growinginsideof it, tearing through muscle and cartilage and bone to make way for itself.

However, this time he found himself less concerned with the why of it and more concerned for her.

Raquel.

He’d nearly revealed himself the moment Edom had grabbed her hair. Never in all his life had he felt so fiercely protective over anyone—aside from himself. It was the same feeling he’d had in his dreams, and it took everything inside of him to hold back. To wait. To be patient as the game unfolded so that he might strike when the odds favored him most. It was the only way to deal with Edom, and Jake had perfected it after over so many years.

And yet he’d nearly winked back into existence the second Edom had touched her.

You actually believed my brother felt anything for you.Edom had said.

I know he does.

Jake could not get those words out of his mind. The conviction in her voice. The look in her eyes when she had gazeddirectly at him, which was impossible because there was no way she could have seen him upon that high tree branch. But those eyes had locked on his and skewered him to the core, and Jake had found himself wondering if this mortal possessed magik after all.

But then Edom had stormed off, sparing Jake from acting rashly, and Raquel had fallen asleep against the tree root, though he’d watched her stubbornly fight fatigue. She’d lasted impressively late into the night, but her mortal body had finally succumbed, and her consciousness had drifted.

She turned in her sleep and muttered something he could not make out, not with that blasted gag, but he wondered if she’d been dreaming about him.

He’d seen her reach subconsciously for a rib at her corset, where she—undoubtedly—kept another one of her little claws. Edom hadn’t noticed. None of them had. All too inflated with their own superiority to ever be concerned over a mortal. She hadn’t reached for that little weapon once today, but of course she wasn’t fool enough to try to take on Edom and all his kith alone.

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