Page 1 of Mystic Justice
Prologue
Moss Hollings didn’t truly start to panic until the slap of cold water struck her. Until that point she’d been quietly optimistic that she would escape somehow or be rescued in spectacular fashion. In the moments when hunger gnawed at her insides, she’d fantasised about a white knight rescuing her, or maybe a sexy ogre – or even a griffin. Someoneripped.Someone strong. Someone who could tear her captor apart with their bare hands.
She was bound by rope, but that bitch had been smart and used some sort of man-made synthetic fibre. If only she’d used hemp or jute or cotton, Moss would already have been free and darting into the nearest tree. Even though she was blindfolded, the trees would have called to her dryad nature and she could have escaped and freed herself from this fresh hell she’d found herself in.
It would have been a grand moment; she could almost hear the orchestral score, the triumphant swell of brass fanfares, rolling timpani and soaring strings as she burst free. In her head the moment was so vivid that, for a second, she could believe it was happening.
But then the bindings bit into her flesh as she was dragged forward. She couldn’t see anything because the mask completely obscured her vision, but she knew up from down. She dug her heels into the earth and threw herself backwards. Wherever her kidnapper wanted her to go, she didn’t want to be. ‘Let me go!’ she yelled.
She heard swearing, then more hands gripped her.
It was okay. Any minute now the Connection would arrive. Theyhadto.
Cold hands grasped her arms, their combined strength too much for her despite the adrenalin jolting through her. Unable to resist with her body, she fought with her voice instead. She loved to sing; it was her raison d'être. Time and time again she’d imagined raising her voice to countless crowds – but never like this.
‘Let me go!’ she screamed. ‘Help! Someone help!’
A voice chuckled close by, low and distinctly male. ‘No one is coming for you, little weed. Scream all you like.’ Something rubbed against her. ‘I like it.’
Bile rose in her throat and a whimper escaped.
‘Ready?’ he said, his tone business like.
‘Ready,’ his partner replied.
They grabbed her arms and her ankles, and suddenly she was airborne. ‘Put me down!’ Moss yelled. ‘Put me down!’
The male laughed again. ‘As you wish,’ he mocked.
They released her and for a split second she thought she had a chance, a moment to run to safety into the nearest tree. She’d laugh about this one day when the nightmares stopped.
For a moment, unable to see and with fear hampering her remaining senses, it was hard to tell what was happening. Then she realised she was falling.
And after that she hit the ice-cold surface of the water.
Terror tore through her. Shehatedwater, had always hated water. She couldn’t swim a damned stroke.
Even in July it was breathtakingly cold. Moss gasped involuntarily then panicked even more as water filled her nose and mouth. She threw her head back with all her might out of the water towards precious oxygen, coughing and spluttering as she sucked in welcome air.
‘For fuck’s sake,’ the female voice said, clearly annoyed. ‘Hold her under!’
No!Not like this.She didn’t want to drown. Anything but that!
She struggled with renewed force against the ropes but the damned things didn’t shift an inch. She reached out with her magic, desperately calling to anything herbaceous. If only there was a tree nearby or some plant life that she could tangle around her captor’s legs…
She felt something around her respond and approach her. Hope – that bitch – flared in her.
He reached her then and the barest touch of his icy hand on her leg had her kicking her feet with all her might, trying to doanythingto move away, but the bindings enclosed her whole body and all she managed were a few feeble twitches from her ankles. Knowing he was near, she took one last desperate breath of oxygen, before he plunged her into the water.
Moss was shivering with the cold but she hardly registered it as his hands landed on her neck and her back andpushed.He grunted with the effort and she sank back until she was fully submerged.
She didn’t stop thrashing. Didn’t stop fighting.Not like this. Not like this!
She called and called to the plant life around her, willing it to help her. Her heart was racing, her lungs burning with the effort of holding that last sacred breath. Her body was screaming ather to breathe and she knew – she justknew– that underwater or not, she’d have to do it.
Her muscles were tiring, her movements growing sluggish.
She inhaled.
