Page 56 of Rook of Ruin
“Mate, it’s a good deal. You run off, tell the Spider, and he will come running after her. We kill him. You can have her backintact. No harm. She isn’t the one we really want. But if you stay, we kill you, and me and the boys might have a little party with her, do things to her that would make you blush. Pass her around the Stocks. You’re from Bethal, mate, you know what that place can do, especially to someone like her. The flesh traders will receive good coin for someone like her.”
I can’t see a fucking thing between the horses. I try to mount Sal, and another arrow lands at my feet in warning. Seething and trying to come up with a plan, I break off the head of the arrow sticking out of my calf, then gently attempt to pull the bloody shaft back through my leg, clenching to stop the scream as it’s taking longer than normal. If Salann wasn’t such a good girl letting me lean against her, I would be on the ground.
Simon stalls for time, the arrow still lodged in my calf. “How do I know you will keep your word?”
Admiration fills the man’s voice, clearly able to see me, though I can’t see him. “Fuck me. She’s a tough one. You see her boys? If that isn’t a woman.” He whistles. “I might be falling in love.”
Simon snarls. The arrow shaft is well and truly stuck. If I rip it out quickly, I’ll have to dig out pieces, and then I really will pass out.
The man sighs. “You don’t know if I’ll keep my word, mate. You just have to know wewillhurt her if youdon’tgo. Won’t be able to heal herself if she is too full of arrows.” The men laugh.
Simon looks down at me. I’m healing the wound as I cautiously pull out the shaft, breathing through it, trying to not pass out. “You know she is the future queen’s sister.”
A few male rumbles. “We do. That’s why wearen’tgoing to fuck her senseless if you leave. No Stocks, no more arrows, nothing. If you stay, you die . . . or maybe we will get a good ransom for you while we’re at it.” Male voices chuckle. “I’ll give you to the count of three, mate. One . . .” Men laugh cruelly.
“Go Simon. Just go. Take Salann with you please.” He glares at me as if I’ve asked him to do the impossible.
“Two . . .” Men laugh harder.
“Simon,” I beg. He looks at me helplessly. Either he fights and condemns me to a body full of arrows and possibly worse, or he leaves and hopefully I live, “intact.”
“Thre—”
Simon deflates in defeat. “Stop. I’m leaving.” Fury bursts from Simon’s voice. “You fucking break your word, and I swear to you—”
“Yeah, yeah. You’ll find me and kill me. Heard it all before, mate.”
Simon regretfully takes Sal’s reins, and I watch them go. I fall down and continue gently pulling the shaft and healing.
“Fuck me, Rook. You sure do know how to lure a man, with your skirt all around, pulling an arrow from your leg.” I squint up and see a man with ruffled black hair and mismatched leathers. His mischievous face and twinkling brown eyes are so unlike Simon’s. “You smell like urine though, so that does give the cock a tiny wilt.”
I pull the rest of the shaft out, blood gushing only for a moment, and heal myself. Standing slowly, aware that they are crowding me, I make a big deal of fixing my skirt, bending slightly to shield my hand, and carefully pull out my dagger. I lunge forward, using my shoulder and connecting my daggerwith flesh. Wrapping myself around the man’s body to his back, I straighten myself and hold the dagger to his throat.
“I’ll show your tiny cock how to wilt with the slice of my dagger,” I growl in his ear. He is taller than me, but I know I can take him.
“Boys, it’s official. I’m in love.” I dig my dagger in deeper. He laughs. “I’m going to marry you and fuck the living sass out of you.” The men laugh, but their eyes are wary. To them, I’m a feral animal.
“How about you shut the fuck up, since we all know you’re not going to have a cock to fuck anything with when I’m through with you.” Blood drips down my small dagger as I force him to walk backward.
He holds his hands up. “Okay, okay. But if your mate was more of a man, he wouldn’t have left a woman like you. You’re the fucking Ruby—many men would die for you, Spider included.”
I laugh at him. “If you know how the Spider feels about me, then you already know you’re dead men walking. He won’t come for me, he will come for all ofyou.”
“I have it on good authority that he will fucking come for you.” He snickers.
My voice drops low. “Whose fucking authority?”
If I weren’t so afraid of being murdered, or worse, married to the prick, I would have keeled over from the sheer shock of her voice. “Mine. Drop the dagger, O.” She looks so different from when I last saw her. I laugh bitterly as her brown hair waves around her face.
I curl my lip. “Come fucking take it, Nora.”
She sighs, pointing her index finger, and I’m shot in the side with an arrow—not too deep; my thick black leather bodice stopped it from going too far. My grip falters, and the man grabs my wrist, forcing the dagger out of my hands as I kick him tomake him stumble. I pull the arrow out, heal myself, and stab him in the hand with it. He laughs like I just shook his hand.
“Nora, I swear to you, I’m going to marry this woman.” He pulls the arrow out of his hand, grinning. “I’m smitten.”
“Are you done?” Nora narrows her eyes at me, as if I’ve just been wasting time rather than fighting for my freedom.
I lower my chin and grin. Kicking the mischievous man in the side of the knee, we watch him go down. “Am I fucking done, Nora?”
