His hands cupped my cheeks, and he lowered his lips, brushing them gently across mine before he released me. He ducked beneath the water, coming up with a weird-looking shell, his eyes staring at my breast that held evidence of how large Garrett’s hands had been. Knox cupped it with his free hand, and I hissed, pulling back away from him as pain ripped through me.
“Who did that to you, Aria?” he asked, but I shook my head once and turned away from him, hiding the tears that rolled from my eyes, slipping down my cheeks.
The shell slid over my shoulder, and I turned, watching as he slowly scraped the glitter off of my flesh. He was meticulous as he removed every tiny shining fleck of glitter until my arms were cleaned of any trace of it. He moved me to a flat rock, lifting me onto it, then began to clean my legs, finding my sex bruised from where Garrett had dug into my flesh while he’d used his fingers on me.
His eyes lifted, and his nostrils flared. I looked away while tears filled my eyes, and my lip slid between my teeth as my eyes overflowed with tears that trailed down my cheek as I refused to look at him.
He swallowed hard and stepped back, lowering his head. “Aria,” he uttered.
“I’m tired.”
He stared at me as if he’d argue and demand to know more, watching me as if at any moment, I’d break apart. He didn’t push it, sensing I couldn’t speak about it yet. Knox made quick work of removing the glitter from my legs and then carefully followed through with the area where they’d placed more glitter than others to make my cunt sparkly and enticing for the beast that had planned to rip me apart.
Knox didn’t caress me, didn’t touch me more than was needed to finish removing the particles, then he moved from the water and redressed. He picked up the soiled dress and shook it out, moving toward me as I stood on the rock, keeping my gaze on his feet. Knox slipped the dress over my head, pulling it over my naked body before he pulled me behind him, whistling to the men who had hidden in the trees, keeping sentinel. They emerged from the trees like silent warriors, falling into step beside us as we moved through the woods.
We walked back in silence, and Knox pointed to a tent that Brander followed me into. I turned slowly toward him and lifted my dress as he assessed the damage. He was clinical about it, but the moment he touched my breast, I cried out, and he looked up.
“Were you raped, Aria?” he asked, and I shook my head. “Your bruises are consistent with rape victims.” I shook my head again, swallowing bile as he frowned. “Did you eat or consume anything that they provided?”
Again, I shook my head.
“There are things they put into the food…”
“I know.” I gagged as the images of Irina filled my mind. I covered my mouth with my hand, and he bent down, grabbing a jug of whiskey that I accepted, gulping down.
“Slow down, if you haven’t eaten, you were there for three days. I’ll have food brought in for you. The shot they gave you, do you have any idea what was in it?” he asked as the wind howled outside, making the tent ruffle. I shook my head again, and he nodded. “I can’t help you if you won’t talk to me.”
“I’m okay.” I wasn’t, but I would be, eventually.
“I’ll have food brought in, there’s a blanket in the satchel, and the brazier is being readied to heat the tent. Rest, it won’t be long before we have to move again. The new Minotaur King is not happy that you murdered his wife.”
I gagged again, turning away from him. He exited the tent, and I moved to the large bag that was anything but a satchel and pulled out the blanket, moving to the farthest corner before I sat down, wrapping myself in the warmth the clean blanket offered.
I could hear Brander speaking to Knox, and the sound of others joining in their conversation. The thudding of hooves beating against the ground made my head lift, and I tilted it sideways, listening. It was several riders, and no one seemed worried about it, so I pulled the blankets around me and lay my head on the bag, closing my eyes.
Chapter 55
Something touched me, and I screamed, jerking and jolted away from it as I crawled back to escape whatever it was. Knox watched me, his mouth opened, and he growled at my reaction. I fought to control my body, which shook violently, trying to calm myself down and rid my mind of the nightmare that had haunted my dreams. My hands pushed through my hair, and I released a shuddering breath before the scent of food caught my attention.
“Eat,” he said, and I grabbed the plate from him, sniffing it before I forwent the silverware and consumed the meat with gusto. I hardly chewed as I devoured it, and when I finished, I closed my eyes. I hadn’t even realized I was starving until the scent of the meat touched my nose.
Knox grabbed a jug of water and handed it to me, and I gulped it down until it was running down my chin. I swallowed, wiping my mouth off with the back of my hand, and I realized the brazier had been brought in as I slept. Scooting closer, I shivered as the heat warmed my flesh.
“There aren’t enough blankets for everyone, and this forest is rather cold at night. You will share with me,” he said, and I nodded silently.
He sat behind me, pulling me against him. “Can we sleep by the fire?” I asked, unable to stop the tremble that never seemed to stop.
“Yes,” he agreed, scooting his body against mine until we were as close as we could get. I stared into the flames.
We didn’t speak for a long time. We just sat together in silence with his arms around me, reassuring me I was safe. His lips would occasionally brush against my shoulder, where he had claimed me. The flame danced hypnotically as I watched, noting that it danced toward us as if it knew we needed its heat. I replayed what had happened and tried to detach it from my mind, but then my mouth opened, and I spoke barely above a whisper.
“My sister traded me to that monster to be raped and mutilated.”
He didn’t speak, but his mouth kissed the arch of my neck and didn’t pull away; he just left his lips against it as he felt my pulse.
“She planned to give all of my sisters to him as well, and all because she assumed I took her powers from her in the womb. Hecate witches are born unequal. One is always much stronger than the other, like a failsafe in the event it was needed to obtain balance. If one turns to the dark arts, the other one can either pull her back or end her life. It’s just balance, but Amara didn’t care. She traded us as her bride price; her fucking dowry was her sisters. The others were to be used as Gerald deemed, but I was to be beheaded after being tortured and raped. She hated me that much.”
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I said what had been consuming me out loud to the silence in the tent. His arms tightened, and his breathing slowed as I continued.
“She let her husband hurt me. He pushed his fingers into my body as she watched him,” I said as my sob filled the tent. “She fucked him in front of me, and together they stared at me the entire time. He hurt me, and she just watched him doing it. She did nothing to stop him, and I’m her sister. He tasted me as he fucked her, pushing his fingers that had been inside of me into his mouth as he watched me. The only thing that prevented him from raping me was that I was a gift for his father, and they couldn’t smell that I wasn’t still a virgin over the rotting corpses of their other victims. She said I was to be a grand gesture of her devotion to her new life, the virgin witch of the Hecate bloodline as a trophy for his hallway,” I whispered, staring at the dancing flames for strength.