Page 74 of Given to the Fae
‘Who said?’
‘Ogdan and Sio. Some of the older goblin guards who remembered.’
Finished with the skin, I hand it back to him.
He frowns and opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, Locke appears out from under the black bridge with Morgan just a step behind.
I gasp loudly at the state of him. He’s covered in shallow cuts and blood pours from his nose. His tunic is splattered with mud and soaked in crimson.
Before I know what I’m doing, I’m in front of him with my hands on my hips. ‘You said you’d keep me safe,’ I hiss,remembering his words from last night. ‘How are you meant to do that if you’re dead?!’
His eyes widen, well, one of them does. The other is almost swollen shut.
My hand clamps over my mouth when I realize how I just spoke to him, a master, as if I was his equal, and I take a quick step back. I haven’t made a mistake like thatever.
I hear a noise and turn back to see Jak sniggering. Even Locke looks amused.
‘My apologies, Bryn,’ the huge fae in front of me rumbles. ‘I won’t fight in the pits again.’
His apology even soundsgenuine, and he says he won’t go back.
I stand and stare, not knowing what else to do, and not quite able to understand that what I said to him has made him promise not to do something, as if he cares what I think.
I shake my head a little. Ogdan would have had whichever one of his guards was in disgrace that day beat me, thereby punishing us both at the same time. Sio would have made one or more of the new slaves do it because he liked to watch it dawn on them that every strike caused something painful to happen to them as well. He’d laugh and wouldn’t let them stop until Fate had broken at least one bone in their body.
‘It’s time,’ Locke says from behind me and I gratefully hand Morgan his horse’s reins and turn away from his eyes that haven’t left me once. He seems to be considering something and it’s making me anxious.
We leave the bridge and continue down the wet cobblestone road.
‘How long do we have?’ Morgan grunts.
‘Not long,’ Locke replies. ‘I’ll give you a beating of my own if we miss the Breach because of you.’
Morgan snorts. ‘You can try, my friend.’
Jak rolls his eyes at them both from next to me and I can’t help my small smile, but it melts from my face only a moment later as we enter the outskirts of a market that’s reopening after the storm. The first thing I see is an old woman being pushed to the ground by an irate goblin. She’s a slave, a very old one, her head balding and her weathered skin like that of a sun-dried plum.
‘Pathetic old crone!’ he shouts at her as he picks her up, only to throw her down onto the hard stone street again. He kicks her in the belly, forcing a pained cry through her tight lips.
Her eyes lock with mine, one milky and unseeing, and she stares at me in surprise. Her lips form a word. She knows what I am, I’m sure of it, and I’m between her and the master before I can think the better of it, sinking down in front of her. I yelp as he kicks me hard in the side.
‘Whose slave is this?’ he bellows, grabbing me by my plait, pulling me up, and punching me in my middle.
He hauls me forward as my stomach cramps and I double over, winded.
‘Ours!’ I hear a very angry Locke snarl.
The angry goblin lets me go, throwing me down roughly at Locke’s feet at the same time, and then he steps back, looking at me gasping for breath with a shit-eating sneer on his face.
‘You should keep your slave out of the affairs of oth?—’
A cart laden with vegetables going too fast careens into him and he goes under the wheel with a scream.
It’s as quick as it always is.
I take a breath and look back at the old woman to find her eyes creasing with mirth while passersby try to pull the goblin out from underneath the heavy vehicle. I hear mutters of ‘He’s alive.’ and ‘Not for long.’ I see the goblin’s hair matted with the blood that’s bubbling from his mouth.
‘Been waiting for that cunt to get what’s coming to him for a good long while,’ the old woman cackles loudly as she gets to her feet with a wince.
