Page 57 of Given to the Fae
‘Please! I’m telling the truth,’ I cry. ‘If you do this, fate will kill you!’
He pauses, clearly looking back at Warrior who laughs. ‘Hush, female. You’ll be bred well today, and that’s the end of it. You have my permission to gag her if she speaks again.’
The phallus is lined up, the cold head pushed against my entrance, and I whimper, my body sagging in defeat.
I hear a loud bang that reverberates through the building, and at first, I assume fate has intervened, but then I hear the demon exclaim loudly.
‘Who the fuck are you? You can’t just come in here and?—’
I hear a commotion but all I can do is hang in the block, my legs no longer able to support me as I stare at the floor.
When will these horrors end? With my death in the pits under some brutal fighter?
My mind and body blessedly begin to go numb and my sobs quiet. My death will be welcome when it comes.
But then the block is opened. Hands try to help me out of it, but I slap them away viciously and scramble to the wall, huddling against it.
Locke, Morgan, and Jak are here. They’re staring at the scene before them. The demon has a dagger embedded in his back, and so does the remaining bull.
Warrior is being held by Morgan by the scuff of the neck like an errant kitten. He struggles. He’s still smiling. He looks so small and insignificant next to the giant. I look away and close my eyes, waiting for Warrior to convince them all that I deserved this, or worse, an excuse I’ve heard many times before to explain away the things the masters do, that, as a human female, Ineededit.
‘I did this for us,’ Warrior begins. ‘She’ll be worth more in the pits if she is breeding when we get her there. Babes are valued in those dark caverns. They’re trained as soon as they can walk to be great warriors.’
None of the others speak.
‘This is the finest breeding establishment in the city! They only take gold! The bulls here are strong and virile and always seed the females brought to them well. If you’d have let them finish, the slave would be on her way to being released and happily subdued with a bull rutting a babe into her belly, not sobbing on the floor!’ He scoffs loudly. ‘She isn’t even hurt. That blood isn’t hers. You know how hysterical the females can get when they aren’t released regularly. Let me release her now and I’ll show you.’
I cringe at the words, hugging my knees tightly and trying to hide my body from their eyes, even though they’ve all seen it before.
‘Morgan,’ Locke’s low, rough voice rings out in the quiet room and I steel myself for the next words he utters, the ones that will congratulate Warrior’s foresight and make me out to be the deceitful villain...or the foolish girl who doesn’t know what’s best for herself. The ones that will have me back in the block to be tormented by the bulls and the masters until they understand what I am.
‘Do it.’
Morgan
‘No! I?—’
The snap of the evil cunt’s neck might be the most gratifying sound I’ve ever heard.
Bryn’s dull eyes, which were on Locke, snap to mine and widen. Her face is blank, as if she doesn’t know what to think.
She’s huddled in the corner, naked. There’s blood on her. There are lash marks on her arse and the backs of the thighs.
Locke approaches, and she scrambles closer to the wall with a low cry.
I let Warrior’s body fall just as a human male enters the room. His eyes widen when he sees us, and he turns to run.
I grab him with a snarl, wanting him dead as well, but I settle for hitting him on the back of his skull with the pommel of my short sword, and letting his limp body slide to the floor like the sack of shit he is.
I remind myself that he would have been ordered to rut the females in the block, that if he didn’t, he would have been punished for it harshly. But it’s not a comfort when I look at the broken girl in the corner who’s pressing herself into the cold stone wall so that Locke doesn’t touch her.
‘We need to go,’ Jak says, edging toward Bryn as well.
She begins to cry again.
‘Gods,’ I mutter.
I stride forward and pull Jak away. ‘Does this place have another door?’
