Page 8 of Moonlit Guardians

I look at her exquisite body and at the idea that these assholes would force themselves on her… I can’t complete the thought.

“You killed my men,” Father says. “And you will pay for that, whore.”

She sits back on her heels and lifts her chin defiantly. Her voice is thick, accented in a way I don’t recognize, but she speaks our language easily.

“I shall slit the belly of kings who rain their fists on me. And I’ll wash in the blood that spills like the River of Sorrows until you gasp for your last breath.”

Her words cause me to shiver. Not a monster, but deadly, nonetheless. The Unseelie soldiers seem taken aback by her brazen oath, though they’re much larger and older than she.

Eilish meets my gaze once more.

“You dare look into the eyes of a prince!” my father yells at her.

I bite the inside of my cheek as my father’s hand slaps the girl across her face. She lifts her chin again and he rears his arm back for a second blow, but I shove him aside before I have time to consider my actions and decide against them.

My father spins on his heels and grabs me by the throat. I see the magic dancing in his eyes, the bloodlust that causes his nostrils to flare. He would like nothing better than to kill me here and now, where my mother can’t intervene…

“Please,” I gasp. My father drops me as if he’s bored with squeezing the air from my lungs.

He strips me of my gear and orders his men to tie Eilish and me to a tree. Of course we are both helpless as there are far more of them than us. We might fight against them, but eventually they win. The only difference in our treatment at their hands is that they touch her breasts and the flesh between her legs. My father among them.

“I will be back for you later,” he tells her as he eyes the triangle of white hair between her legs. He sickens me and I hate him. Detest him.

Though our night is filled with tears of pain and shivers from the cold, it’s the start of a beautiful friendship. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, I manage to free myself and I free Eilish, in turn. And from that moment on, I return tothe Delendren Glade each day, visiting the girl with the broken smile and the heart on her sleeve.

She’s near once more. I feel her presence like a siren’s call and look up at the ceiling where a drop of water falls from a crack in the stone. I was asleep for most of the journey to the mercenary stronghold, so I don’t know its location. But the warmth that radiates from the terracotta tells me it’s in a place washed in sunlight. There are no windows in my cell. I don’t know if it’s day or night, but I stand up without much pain in my body.

At least, not as much as there should be. I don’t know whether it’s the work of exceptional healers or simply time that’s healed my wounds, but I’m grateful.

“So, you’re awake.”

My gaze shifts to the dark corner near the stairs.

Baron.

He stands and unlocks the cell, but I make no move to leave just yet in case this is a test. I imagine it probably is. The vampire chuckles and gestures for me to follow.

“Where are we going?” I ask quietly, as though I’m required to whisper when walking down a dark corridor.

“You’re going to bathe and get dressed into something that doesn’t reek of sweat, blood, and whatever other bodily fluids you were spewing up before we found you. You look like hell, by the way. Those pretty elf features don’t hide the blood magic that’s wafting off you. Makes my stomach turn.”

Baron shudders in mock repulsion as he leads me out of what appears to be a barracks of sorts. He’s changed. Of all of them, Baron was always the most compassionate, the most understanding and the slowest to move to anger.

This man before me might wear the same face but he’s different. I imagine being killed and brought back to life will change a man, most likely for the worse.

The walls are sturdy, and the training grounds are swept clean of debris. Dummies line the left side of the corridor, next to a door I’m assuming leads to an armory.

Guards walk along the walls and patrol the streets. The flickering lights inside the windows look like thousands of stars that blend with the night sky. Baron leads me along the cobblestone road that unites the boroughs of the stronghold, to a place that bears the crest of the Vindication on the gate.

Eilish has already made her mark here. I wonder what she can do with the world at her fingertips. I hope I’ll find out.

The vampire opens the gate and escorts me into the main building. Inside, my surroundings have a warmth to them, despite being the headquarters for a rebellion, as if someone designed this space to be a home rather than a place to discuss war.

The bedchamber I’m given is beside Cambion’s. Its walls are lined with wood and a stone hearth sits along one wall, unlit even in the chill of the night. The bed is large and draped with emerald linens. Black silken blankets, along with plush pillows, cover the mattress.

“This is more than I deserve…”

“Yes, it is.” The vampire turns to leave but hesitates at the door. “Eilish is across the hall, if you wish to talk.”

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