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"I’o, I’m not your wife!"

I was rewarded for ht cheek this tih my lip at the ilared under my lashes at the Mountain Man, and watched incredulously as his eyes followed the blood My heart stopped at the brightness in his gaze The lust had deepened I sed back a rush of vomit

Mountain Man reached out and touched the blood wonderingly "Yerhis face inin my breath so I didn’t have to inhale the stink off him "I find ye Ye be ma wife"

Brint had warned one crazy with the isolation

"I’one a while But I be back, wife I be back and feed ye wife And then ye be seeing to my husbandly needs" He stroked hi back screams and denials Little whimpers escaped between ers soft onmy head around to face him I didn’t have to open my eyes to know his face was inches from mine His lips ca htly closed A large hand encircledhe needed His tongue forced its way into ed on the foul taste of hi my senses No matter how much I jerkedfor air The skin around my mouth was raw fro out of air, close to hyperventilating when I felt his hand squeeze my breast

Fury Fury at myself and ht he could just take h ht th and force into the upswing as I could, and nailed hiled shout and fell back, clutching where onlyI immediately vomited on the crude wooden floors beside the pallet The room now reeked with the vilest of human stench, and I eled to draw breath, the rooet out of here I had to

I thought ofNone of it had been so bad as this Nothing this horrific had happened tocouldmy parents and brother die But if I stayed here If thisme as I drew my tied hands down onto the floor and usedthe wood The door was just there I could get to it

A bellow echoed around the shack and I was jerked back like a rag doll, thrown against the back wall of the hut, a sickening vibration shooting through my body as my head h blurry eyes as the Mountain Man approached er I beca knife in his hand

"Bad wife," he growled, brandishing the knife at me "Teach ye a lesson I will"

I beat at hirabbed me by my shirt front to holdthe curve ofhis jaw The Mountain Man barely blinked

"Yer goin’ to behave" He pointed the knife right inthe hot tears rolling down my cheek I took deep breaths as he smiled at me I let a shaky calive hi my fear I jutted ently placed the tip of the blade at the bottoently drew it downcurve of my left breast The blade pressed deeper and Ithe top ofmy expression the whole time I felt blood trickle fro at what he’d done tothe entire tiht with excitement The knife disappeared into a pouch on his hip and he stood up He was huge Massive His entire shadow cast ed at his trousers and licked his lips "I like red on ye, wife It’s good When I get back, I be bedding yeye with a littleup soear I hadn’t seen before It lay near the door The door opened and I searched it greedily for a lock It slamgling to draw breath I heaved a sigh of relief, not only to be alone, but because… there was no lock on the door!

At his sudden departure, the realisation of what had just happened to et out here, caainst the cliffs in Silvera Terrified sobs broke out ofmy stupid pride and fear that had made me corily, i the tears froers I couldn’t just sit here ing I had to get out of here The longer I stayed the more likely he would return If that happened ere all dooet back to Haydyn And when she ake… I’d tell her all that had happened All that I had discovered That there was good and bad people all over our world; that background, upbringing, proximity to the Dyzvati evocation made no matter I’d lived my life with blinkers on, convinced that my harsh jolt out of innocent childhood somehow made me wiser than the rest But I wasn’t I was still a child who’d only been thrust into womanhood on this journey This journey to save Phaedra froht me – I sucked in a painful breath – we didn’t need the evocation What we needed was a stronger government We needed to take care of our people no ed The evocation wouldn’t change the issues that th waned But perhaps a better governing of the closer to ridding the world of men like the one who had come upon me and taken me as if I were a body without a soul…

All this I’d tell Haydyn… if I ever got out of this

With renewed deternoring the bites and splinters froround I didn’t have great upper body strength but Ipain ofto slowwith sweat It took me another five minutes to wobble up onto my feet so I could pry the door open As soon as it opened and the fresh air of the forest rushed against ed in dizziness I leaned against the doorfraic reached out to e to hobble far enough away, perhaps I could find so, I balanced ht and hopped down onto the first step out of the shack I wobbled a little,I took another breath and hopped again This ti with a painful oo stared up at rowled in fearful frustration and tried to pullposition Five falls later and I was back up

That’s the pattern of how the day went I couldn’t even reedat every sound in the forest, trying to hear over the blood rushing in htfall, I was covered in sweat and mud and forest But with no coat and a ripped shirt, I was thankful for the heat of the exertion The shack felt long gone now, but still I reht had fallen a few hours past when I heard a loud snap of a tree branch I stilled, lanced around sharply, trying to see e plant rustled and I whirled around I could feel eyes oninside ain, another crack of tree

Beady eyes appeared in the dark, low to the ground I let go ofas some kind of possum darted out of the bush and away from me Realisation dawned and I looked down in the dark at my trousers Already I could san to cry