“Yes,” I answer, simply tilting my head to the side slightly.
His casual mention of having no sway over me makes goose bumps rise on my arm, and I don’t like the boulder of unease that now sits in the middle of my gut as I think about anyone else other than me having sway over what I do or say.
“So how do you explain your presence before us now then?” he queries, his tone skeptical.
“I can’t explain how I’m here,” I answer. “All I know is that one minute I was in a clearing in the world where I’m from, and the next minute I’m waking up in a land I’ve never seen before...with abilities that I never knew I had.”
The male with the blue and purple eyes, sitting to the left of his brother the Syta, scoots forward in his seat. “What abilities?” he asks, naked interest in his tone and unusual eyes.
The Syta’s stare narrows slightly, and then they flick briefly in the direction of his brother. I get the impression that he doesn’t like that he was just interrupted, but I’m too focused on the fact that I just won an epic staring contest to pay much attention to the undertones of sibling rivalry. I turn my attention to the familiar little brother, and then a bitch-slap of recognition finally hits me.
He’s the soldier I attacked. He’s the one who called me flower.
“You look very different from the last time I saw you,” I state, the comment half question and half exclamation.
“It wouldn’t serve for the Avowed Altern to be roaming around enemy territory without a good disguise, now would it?” he tells me, a sly half-smile turning up the corner of his mouth.
“Enemy territory?” I ask, feigning confusion.
I’m tempted to blink a lot and play with the hem of the tunic shirt I’m draped in. Maybe it will up the poor me damsel thing I’m hoping they’re buying, but I think the growling might have fucked up my chances of really pulling it off.
“Yes, Falon Solei Umbra, it seems you’ve landed yourself in what’s about to be a war zone,” the Syta announces, leaning back in his soft moss covered throne.
Do not look at Ryn. Do not look at Ryn.
“A war zone?” I repeat as if I’m some dumb broken parrot and haven’t heard all of this before.
“Don’t worry yourself about it, there’s no doubt that we’ll be victorious,” the Syta declares arrogantly as he inspects his cuticles. “Back to the matter at hand, I believe my brother asked you a question.”
Confusion takes over my face, and I rewind the conversation, trying to recall what I was asked.
“You mentioned that you had abilities here that you didn’t know you had, I wanted to know what abilities?” the blue- and purple-eyed Altern of the Avowed reminds me.
“Oh right. Yeah, I thought I was a latent wolf shifter before I woke up here. It turns out that I’m neither latent or a wolf,” I explain. I feel like a broken record going through all of this again and have to remind myself that they haven’t heard it before, only the Hidden have.
I catch a subtle hand gesture from one of the scantily clad females to the right. Bingo. Looks like I know who the seer is now. I notice the gazes of several of the other seated shifters go from her back to me. I once again admonish myself not to look at Ryn just to see if everything is going according to plan.
“So you woke up here, and you’ve just been wandering around the Amaranthine Mountains ever since?” an elderly male asks me, his milky gaze soft.
“Yes, I’ve been trying to find my way home ever since.”
I look as the female’s hand goes from a fist to flat, and just like that, everyone in the room slightly relaxes. They believe me.
“Well, Falon, I don’t know what act of fate brought you here, but now that you are, the Avowed claim you. You will now be one of us and enjoy all the protections and advantages that come with the Vow. I am Lazza, the Syta of the land and all of its inhabitants. My brother, Treno, who you’ve already met, serves as my Second and the rightful Altern. My Third and Fourth are Commander Ryn and Commander Voss.”
Ryn nods at his introduction as does another female on the right, who I wouldn’t have suspected as being a leader of any kind.
“The rest you’ll meet as you adjust here. Saner will take you to get your mark. Once that’s done, you’ll be free to make a life for yourself here,” Lazza tells me, like he’s doing me some massive favor.
It’s all so casual. Like he finds people all the time and just marks them and puts them to work. There’s no discussion, no explanation, no concern over whether or not I want this or even understand what any of it means. It’s like he expects me to fall at his feet and thank him for taking me in. Like I’ve been wandering through the mountains for days just hoping someone would claim me.
“But I don’t want a life here; I want to go home,” I interrupt, and the Syta’s bemused gaze turns just a touch colder.
“And where is home? How do you propose to get there?” he asks flatly.
“I…” I trail off, biting back that I know enough to try and wing it. “I don’t know,” I finally say, and he smiles arrogantly at me.
“We can’t have you wandering around. It’s a surprise you even made it alive as far as you did. There are savages out there in the mountains. Be grateful that we were the ones who found you and not them,” he snaps, and the room falls eerily silent once again. It’s like the water doesn’t even want to draw attention to itself, so it hits the mute button.
“Your place is now with us...as it should be,” he adds, his aqua stare running over my tangled white hair and landing on my lavender eyes.
I see a glint of something in his gaze that I can’t quite place, and unease pools in my belly.
“Saner, please escort our guest to receive her Vow and then to her new lodgings so she can clean up.
Fear breaks open inside of me, and I look around panicked. The Vow. That’s what the Hidden have spent their existence avoiding. What did Tysa say about it? That it allows them to control you? Fuck. I can’t let that happen. I need to get out of here. I back up and slam into a herculean sized guard behind me. I try to sidestep him, but huge hands come down on my shoulders to try to pin me in place.
Terrified, I look to Ryn. Is he really going to let them do this to me? His countenance is cold and disconnected, and I just barely stop myself from screaming out to him for help as another guard steps in to subdue me. This can’t be happening. He can’t just decide to mark me and that’s that.
“Please don’t,” I shout as I’m hauled off my feet and caged in by muscled arms the size of my thighs. “Please, just let me go home! I have a life there. I don’t want to be here!” I shriek as I’m carried out of the room.
Treno, the shifter I attacked, who apparently is the second in command here, shoots to his feet like my terror filled screams just lassoed him and yanked him out of his throne against his will. He looks pained, but I don’t know what to think if that before I’m taken away. The tall iron doors shut behind me, blocking him from view and sealing my fate.
Well, fuck that!
I fight...uselessly. I release a barrage of verbal abuses at the guard carrying me around like a sack of potatoes. I curse him, his friends, his family, and everyone’s children’s children’s children. I get a couple good eye gouges in and am halfway to ripping off his nipple when he just passes me to an even bigger guard. I shamelessly resort to biting.