Brennan narrows his eyes, and that subtle movement snaps me back to reality – reminding me that it’s not just three statues I’m staring at.
A wicked impulse surges through me.
“You warned me? Isthatwhat you tell yourself?”
I’m shocked at how calm my voice sounds as I challenge Brennan.
To a casual bystander, you’d have thought Brennan might not have even heard my words – he stands implacable and silent.
But I saw more than the casual bystander. I saw the slight tightening of his eyes. The slight stiffening of his posture. I saw his surprise in being challenged…
But challenge him I must. If Brennan doesn’t admit what he’s doing – if I don’t make him think about the consequences of what he’s about to do – he could slip. Punishment could turn to much, much more…
A voice inside my head demands:Is that a threat? Or a promise?
Gulping dryly, I turn my gaze to Otho – and my anxiety steams to the surface.
Otho doesn’t have any of Brennan’s veneer of civility. He’s standing there like a ravenous animal, straining at a leash.
As he stares hungrily at me, Otho licks his lips – as if he’s devouring me with his eyes.
I shiver.
Otho might be the most brutal and beast-like of the three, but he’s undeniably handsome in his own way. That scarred face is honest and strong. He might be a beast – dangerous, and unpredictable – but if there’s one thing I can trust in him, it’s that he will always act in accordance with his nature.
Only, it might be a nature that has more in common with beast than man.
My brain whirs like an overactive computer. I’ve read all about the mating frenzies of Aurelians – read again and again, until the ink at the corner of that page ofOn Aureliansfaded to almost nothing.
Long before I met these three, I’ve thought about their species late at night – wondering with the fervid, feverish intensity of a sheltered virgin how it might feel to be the woman at the center of a triad’s raging desire.
I’d always felt so deliciously tiny when I’d read those passages. Now, those same feelings are crashing down on me again – but amplified to a deafening intensity; pushing me smaller and smaller.
For a second, there’s silence – and then Brennan composes himself, and sneers.
The sneer contorts his beautiful face, and I both hate it and can’t stop staring.
“What I tellmyself?” He challenges me. “You nearly got killed last night. You cut your leg open in the first ten seconds of your escape. Tell me, Natali, what was your plan? Where were you going to run to?”
I force myself to step forward, just as Brennan did when he first addressed me.
The floor is bare concrete. There’s nothing blocking my path except Brennan’s shadow on the floor.
However, it’s like walking through a bog as I cross it.
My mouth is dry as I croak: “My plan was to walk two hours north and get to freedom.” I straighten my spine, and thrust my chest forward. “You would have done the same in my circumstances.”
All this time, Lazar had been standing there like a hawk – motionless, and staring.
Suddenly, he shifts – cracking his knuckles. The sound is as loud as gunshots in this dark and gloomy basement.
“Even if you hadn’t nearly vivisected yourself climbing through that window, you wouldn’t have got far. I cleared out a camp of cutthroats ten minutes north of here. That’s where the raiding party that attacked us last night originated from.”
So, that’s where Lazar was last night, while Brennan was guarding me, and Otho was managing supplies.
“They had a jail under their camp – in a basement just like this.” Lazar’s eyes narrow. “I found three prisoners in there – prisoners just like you.” He snorts bitterly. “All dead when I found them.”
Prisoners? Other unfortunate strays like me?