Page 85 of Given to the Fae
‘Sleep,’ he murmurs, kissing my lips gently, and I find myself obeying.
My eyes snapopen and I gasp, sitting up and wincing at the soreness between my legs. The night is cloudy and vague, but I remember enough of it to be mortified. I begged them to touch me. I begged Locke to...and then Jak.
My breathing is hard and quick and I struggle to my feet, needing to get out of the cave because it’s closing in on me and I can’t breathe. I run for the light I can see beyond the smoldering fire, but someone grabs me around my waist and pulls me back.
‘No!’ I shriek, struggling fruitlessly
‘Enough, Bryn!’ Locke snarls and I freeze, my eyes swimming with tears.
‘Let me go,’ I say brokenly, realizing that my clothes are gone too, and for once feeling utterly vulnerable without them.
‘Hush,’ he murmurs, his arms holding me tightly. ‘You’re safe.’
But my breathing won’t slow and the cavern is spinning.
I feel his conjure before he’s even finished making it, and I buck wildly.
‘No!’ I scream. ‘Don’t use magick on me!’
His sudden intake of breath, and the dropping of his arms has me pulling away, but he grabs me again before I can escape him, his movements jerky and desperate.
‘Don’t let her out of the cave in case she jumps from the edge,’ I hear him wheeze.
‘Give her to me,’ Morgan demands, and I’m thrust toward the huge fae who scoops me up like I’m no more than a lamb and holds me to him.
When he turns, I can see Locke on his knees on the floor of the cave, clutching his chest.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ I wail.
‘I’m all right,’ he grunts as if in pain, raising a placating hand in our direction as he lowers his head toward the floor and grimaces.
‘Calm, Bryn,’ Morgan says soothingly, holding me tightly.
‘I wasn’t running,’ I say almost hysterically. ‘I just wanted to get out of the cave. I can’t– I can’t breathe.’
‘I understand,’ he said calmly, ‘but you seemed very upset when you woke up and then you began to run for the entrance. Locke was closest, so he grabbed you in case you’d forgotten how high up we are.’
I had forgotten.
Morgan carries me to the mouth of the cave and I breathe in deep, hurried breaths of the fresh air.
Locke gets to his feet a bit unsteadily and gives his head a shake as if to clear it.
‘Are you all right?’ Jak asks, and I cringe deeper into Morgan’s arms as I remember what the former healer did last night, what I begged him for.
‘Yes, I’m all right.’
‘What happened? Did our wayward human get a lucky strike in?’
Our wayward human?
Locke’s eyes find me, and I can’t read his expression. ‘No, it felt as if my magick was sucked from me for just a moment. I’m fine. It was… I’ve never felt such a thing before.’
I feel Morgan’s hand stroking my bare back gently and my embarrassment rises higher.
I look up to find Jak watching us, and I shut my eyes quickly, shame enveloping me.
How could I have done this? Let this happen?
