Page 64 of Given to the Fae
Hope.
That’s what she feels, I realize with a jolt. When has she ever had that? Maybe never before. That’s what Locke has given her. Awful, awful hope.
Then she turns into me and buries her face in my front as I rub her back soothingly. I don’t look at the others. I can’t.
I hear them muttering to each other, likely about my closeness with this girl and how they need to pull me backfrom her, but I don’t pay attention to their words. I’m too busy basking in the warmth of her body pressed against mine, and feeling terrible about that as well.
‘Thank you for coming for me,’ she whispers so low that I doubt she thought I’d be able to hear her.
Gods, I’m such a cunt, I may even rival Warrior in cuntiness.
I finally look at the others. Jak is sitting down. He’s watching me, but where I thought I’d see judgement, I only find a grim resignation. Locke still stands in the same place and I can tell he’s at war with himself as he watches her, listens to her quiet, hiccupping sounds.
And I see the moment he tells himself that the mission is paramount. He straightens and his demeanor shifts from pity to severity. His eyes darken and grow cold.
He steps forward and I shake my head at him. She’s been through enough today. But he ignores me.
‘You’ve had quite the ordeal this morning,’ he murmurs over her sniffles. He touches her shoulder in almost a caress, and I glower at him, but he doesn’t care.
‘Close your eyes and rest for a bit, girl.’
She yawns against me, her eyes fluttering as she succumbs to the conjured sleep he’s forcing onto her.
Her legs give way and I hold her up, scooping her into my arms and cradling her gently.
‘This is wrong,’ I mutter to him.
He looks surprised and then angry. ‘I’m the leader because I make the choices that are difficult to make. So that you and Jak don’t have to.’ He looks down at her in my arms, his eyes now merciless black pits. ‘You’re too close to the opportunistic little thing. You know you are.’
I say nothing.
‘What happens when we meet up with Bere? What happens when I’m forced to touch her against her will?’ His façade cracksfor just a moment before he shores it up with anger. ‘What happens when we don’t take her with us, Morgan? Will you feel the guilt forever, or will you remember that we work toward a distant future where no humans are slaves? Will you remember that this one girl is nothing and no one, that there are thousands of them living half-lives?’
‘Why did we even bother to save her this morning, then?’ I spit out at him.
He sighs and looks at me as one would a child who’s asked a silly question.
Jak’s the one who answers. ‘Because we needed to find out what happens in those places so that we can better prepare for the day that they inevitably go underground, Morgan,’ he sighs. ‘It wasn’t for her.’
I scoff. ‘You were both as angry as I was,’ I accuse.
‘I was angry on behalf of all of them,’ Jak answers.
I shake my head at their lies. ‘Do you really expect me to believe you didn’t feel anything when we arrived in that room and saw her bent and vulnerable in that block while that demon stood behind her, the lash marks painting her flesh, his taloned claws parting her so that he could shove that phallus into her as Warrior looked on with his tented breeches?’
Jak is the first to look away, shifting on his feet. ‘I would have felt the same if I saw any female being treated thus,’ he says, his eyes on the floor.
‘As would I,’ Locke mutters.
‘You’re both fools if you think I don’t see the way you look at her, the way you yearn for her.’
Locke’s laugh is biting. ‘Don’t confuse us with yourself, Mount Morgan. I do not look at her, nor do I yearn for anything other than getting this mission done.’
I roll my eyes. ‘You’re going to regret your lies. The ones you tell yourselves...and the ones you told her.’
‘Perhaps,’ Locke murmurs, ‘but if the mission is a success, it won’t matter.’
I turn away with a grunt, anger coursing through me as I put her gently on the bed in my chamber and cover her with the thick blanket to save her from the chill.
