Page 14 of Taken By Shadows

“Well, say something, damn it.” His face was like glass, cracks forming but not yet shattered.

No words came though.

“Isn’t this what you want? To belong? To be part of a family.”

A thud in my chest answered his question.

It was.

But was this it?

I did want to belong. Was belonging to Bray what I wanted?

Was it enough to belong to someone? Anyone.

He’d care for me. His family were capable of love.

“I don’t care that you’re different. I don’t care that you’re fae. No magic. Whatever.” He dragged his hands across his face. “I don’t care. Our children will have brown curly hair, with your nose and my eyes.” He laughed softly. “They’ll be happy with a mother and a father who love them.”

I paused at his words. The warmth of the sentiment lost on me. “What if they have my eyes, Bray? My ears. My hair. What if they’re different like me?”

“They won’t be. They wouldn’t.”

My mouth hung open as I tried to find the words. “And would that be so bad if they were like me?”

“Gen. That’s not what I meant.” He reached for me. “Please. This is all wrong.”

“At least you got that part right.”

Without much care or thought, I picked up his bundle of clothing, boots and all.

And dumped them in the river.

Chapter four

The clearing was still when I made it back, save for stray embers of the dying fire rising and snuffing out in the gathering darkness of the evening sky, smoke billowing upwards.

In my fury at Bray’s half-shouted proposal, I’d stumbled a few times on upturned branches and loose rocks.

I swiped at my eyes as the hot, angry and salty tears came.

Damn Bray.

He wasn’t even supposed to be here. Damn him and his ideologies.

I shoved things into my pack, not caring what landed where. What crushed what. With a jagged exhale, I tried to hold back more tears.

“Those eyes are far too pretty to be weeping.”

My spine straightened at the slithering voice.

A man with greasy hair and a dishevelled beard stood before me, viciousness plain across his face. His hound was practically rabid the way its teeth were bared, the foam and saliva flowing freely from its maw.

Five other men—all human with rounded ears. I couldn’t help but notice—stood behind him. I hardly had the wherewithal to take them all in, but I forced my mind to wrap around the situation.

One had wild ginger hair like a bonfire that had burned through the night. A scrawny man clad in dirty black clothing. His body was gaunt, but his eyes looked mad. Like he survived by devouring fear alone instead of bread and meat. A set of twins had matching tattoos on opposite sides of their necks. And towering above them all was a brute—a giant of a man—that might roar and thump his chest. He must have been eight feet tall and fully muscled.

Terror gripped me but I ran, even as my legs trembled.