The fourth one had short black hair, and he sat silently on his horse. He was watching me with something that looked like pity in his eyes, but I couldn’t be sure.
Four. There were four of them and I didn’t have any weapons on me. What could I do against four males?
The road gave way to the forest, and soon I was surrounded by trees and bushes once more. Despair threatened to overwhelm me as the elf continued to pull me into the forest. Even the wildlife was silent as I struggled. What had become the familiar call of the trees was nowhere to be found. The bracelets on my arms choked off my connection with the woods, and I felt its absence like a growing hole in my chest.
I was completely and utterly alone.
The elf yanked my arm, dragging us through thick groves of trees. I knew that even if I did fight back, there was no one who could hear me. But that didn’t stop me from trying. Iwould notgo down without a fight.
Yanking my elbow away from the elf, I screamed.
I screamed and screamed until Fenris slammed his hand over my mouth. I tried to bite him, but he wrenched his palm away from my teeth at the last moment.
“Shut up,” he hissed in my ear. “You must be even stupider than I had thought. Are you trying to make him kill you?”
Was I? Maybe. Death would be better than marriage tohim.
I ignored the elf’s question, asking one of my own. I could hear water rushing nearby. “Why should I listen to you?”
Fenris halted, his hand tight on my elbow as he looked around with wide eyes. He dropped his voice, whispering, “Because we are alike, the two of us.”
“I’m nothing like you,” I snarled.
The elf shook his head as he forced me to follow him through the forest. I was still racking my brain, trying to figure out where I knew him from.
“You would be surprised,” Fenris said. There was a tinge of sadness in his voice, but it was hard to focus on that when he was dragging me through the woods.
A branch slapped me in the face and I spat, “You work for him.”
A mirthless laugh erupted from Fenris as he tightened his grip on my arm. I tried to shake him off, but he was too strong.
“What’s so funny?” I asked through clenched teeth.
Fenris just shook his head. “You. You think you’re so brave.”
“And?”
“I have news for you. There’s a reason they call him the Red Shadow.”
Fenris yanked me over a fallen log as I said, “I know who he is and what he can do. He can’t hurt me anymore than he already has. He and his father have already taken everything from me once before.”
The elf sighed. “You sound brave. But around him, no one retains their bravery for long.”
“You can say his name,” I said, trying to rile Fenris up. Anger was easier than fear. It felt safe. Familiar. And if I could make this elf mad, maybe he would slip up and I could get away. So I buried my fear under bravado and hissed, “Remington.”
“You shouldn’t say his name,” Fenris warned as he dragged me through the woods. “You shouldn’t be pushing his buttons. It’ll only make things worse for you.”
I swallowed. There was a tinge of something that sounded oddly like concern in the elf’s voice. “Why are you telling me this?”
He blew out a long breath. “I don’t know.” A long moment passed as the creek I had heard finally came into view. “I suppose it’s because I’d rather not be witness to the murder of the last female of my kind.”
The last female of his kind.
That meant…
“You’re an Earth Elf,” I gasped as he shoved me to the ground. I repeated, my voice gaining strength. “You. Are. An. Earth Elf. And you work forhim?”
“Don’t speak those words aloud,” he said. “Are you stupid? The High King will have us both whipped within an inch of our lives if people know what we are.”