Page 48 of Wings of Lies
“But it wouldn’t damage her too much. Just her ear?” Bael supplied, hopeful. The thing sounded like a little kid begging for a second cookie after dinner. They were insane!What were these things?
The guy behind me snorted with disgust. “Sheis not foryou.Find a snack in the forest, or next time, I’ll take the teeth you cherish.”
He jerked me around to face him. But my focus lingered on Cacus’s and Bael’s hissing. Pointed black tongues came out of their mouths and wrapped around the wounds on their arms. I shuddered.
“You.” A calloused hand came up and gripped my chin, forcing me to look at the guy who held me, shocking my skin with pinpricks of electricity.
Full lips pressed into a line, right at my eye level. His grip on my chin tightened, and the pinpricks of electricity increased. I dropped my gaze from his grimace, finding a bright red scrolling scar beneath his chin. I followed his chiseled jawline up his sweeping cheekbones and landed on his pissed-off bright blue eyes.
“Try something like that again, and it’ll hurt you more than us. Understand?” He punctuated his question, which wasn’t a question, with a shove, pushing me away like he couldn’t stand to touch me.
Unbalanced with my restrained arms, I fell into the wooden wall. Stunned, I leaned there, flickering my eyes between the bulky black beasts and the guy with the indifferent expression.
“Did you hear me?”
My fingers dug into my palms. The cords in my center hummed, plucked by his domineering tone.
“Go to hell.”
Cacus and Bael snickered to the side of us, shutting up quickly with a jerk of the male’s head. I guess my new jailor was an asshole with authority. From the way he not only bruised my chin but shoved me into the side of the carriage, I knew he was as bad as Marcus and Oliver. A wash of betrayal and defeat struck.How would I ever find Magda and my mom now?
Oliver gave me up. He was the first person I trusted, and he placed me back into their arms. Now, here I was—cuffed, with two creatures who looked like nightmares and a guy with a penchant for rough handling. I had no clue where Marcus and Oliver were. Maybe this was their hired help.
Was this what she meant when she said to come to Elora?A weight settled on my shoulders and burrowed into my chest.Was this all one big ploy?
“Get out. It’s time to set up camp,” snapped an older man from behind the bulbous bodies of Cacus and Bael.
Graying hair and a long beard peeked through the small gap between the creatures. From the wrinkles on his forehead, he appeared to be in his sixties. A gray cloak flowed behind him over a gray tunic and pants, dull and different from the casual, more modern clothes I wore. Even the full garb the younger man wore was different.
Carriages, old clothing, stiff leather uniforms, strange creatures—Thiswas Elora?
The older man stood chest-level with the carriage. One long scar ran from the start of his nose to the middle of his cheek. It moved as he pursed his lips impatiently, watching the younger man grab supplies in the back. The creatures pushed each other, hunched and shambling the few feet to the back opening.
I thought about refusing to leave the carriage, but the empty, enclosed space brought back memories of my cement closet. So, I followed behind thethings. Weak and unused to the weight of the chains, I tripped out of the carriage. I squeezed my eyes shut and braced for another crack on my skull. But before I could suffer another head injury, a shot of electricity hit my bicep, and my descent stopped.
What the hell was that?
I narrowed my gaze on the tingling hand.
“You know, you squeal like a little female,” Blue-eyes remarked.
Did he mean little girl?
The sensation of skittering bugs replaced the odd tingles. “At least my face doesn’t look like one,” I said, cringing. That was the worst-timed impulsive comeback I’d ever said and a complete lie. I wished he looked like a little girl and not like some male model or handsome storybook prince.
His face turned cold, or colder, and he let go. The electricity and itch disappeared, and I landed in a painful heap on the ground, my left hip taking the brunt of the fall.
“Ouch.” Wincing, I lifted my torso, brushing off as much dirt and gravel as possible, which wasn’t much with my wrists locked behind my back. Gravel dug into my tricep.Great, more scrapes and bruises.I couldn’t brush it off, so I left it between my dirty, ripped skin, glaring at the stupid pebbles.
That annoying itch started back up, growing when I glared at my blue-eyed jailor, who had the audacity to smile smugly as he jumped gracefully to the ground. I wanted to grow claws like the beast unpacking our gear and wipe that smile off his perfect face.
I stood, looking around. White trees about two feet wide bordered the clearing, wrapping around us. Their peeling peach flesh and golden leaves were similar to the trees I left on Earth. The only difference was what hid underneath. Instead of another layer of white or tan bark, iridescent scars reflected off the lowering sun.
Strange.
“Where are we?”
When I first got to Elora, it was night, which meant by the light shining through a cloudless sky, I had been knocked out for… I didn’t know. Long enough for it to be afternoon again, but that could’ve been hours, days, a week. Based on the state of my clothes, I assumed it was through the night and the better part of the day.
