“Release me, I beg you. I would rather suffer.”
My movements weren’t my own as I removed the key from its hiding place and slid it into the keyhole on the right shackle. This wasn’t the first time a creature had compelled me. Pushing through the fear, I fought to regain control of myself while my pulse thundered in my ears.
The lock snapped free, and the metal ring fell open.
He lunged forward with his fingers curled. Instead of grabbing for my throat, he snatched the apple from my palm and shoved it into his mouth.
“The other lock, too, please,” he said while he chewed, sending bits of apple flying.
Once the other one fell free, he lurched to his feet, finally breaking eye contact, and attacked the food on the table. He shoved it down so fast, I didn’t know how he managed to swallow without choking. After several bites, he would throw aside whatever he was eating and grab for something else. The partially eaten loaf of bread hit my bare shoulder.
I slowly straightened and edged for the door, not starved enough to risk the creature’s attention again. And without a doubt, it was a creature. Nothing else could steal a human’s will like that. I needed to leave before it decided I was a better morsel than what the table offered.
Before I made it halfway around the table, the door banged open. I froze and, from the corner of my eye, watched the dark-haired man enter. The torch light gleamed on the golden skin of this broad chest as he paused. His tousled inky hair moved as he took in the room. Was he shaking his head? Why?
I could feel crazy-man’s gaze lock on me for a moment before he turned toward the man who hadn’t even paused his gluttonous consumption.
“Shackles,” he said, making the single word a command.
“No. I don’t want your help,” the creature railed.
In a frenzy, the starved man ate faster.
Crazy-man snarled and stalked toward him. The starved creature didn’t stop eating even when crazy-man’s hand closed around his throat.
He did struggle against crazy-man’s hold, though, fighting with more strength than he’d shown when I’d entered. Not that it did him any good. Crazy-man plucked him away from the table like he was holding a kitten rather than a man wildly struggling to escape.
I lifted my gaze just a little so I could see more.
The starving man’s once sunken belly now swayed grotesquely with his movements. Thrashing and reaching, his gaze remained locked on the food as crazy-man strode to the wall and pinned him there. With his free hand, crazy-man reached for the first open shackle. The muscle on crazy-man’s back rippled in a beautiful, mesmerizing way, a hazard to the unaware. Thankfully, I was aware even while not understanding what was happening.
No, that wasn’t true. I had an idea, and it was a frightening one. It seemed crazy-man, the one so very interested in my skin, might be the most dangerous creature of them all. He held the others at bay with his mere presence and seemed to be some sort of jailer, too.
The click of metal against metal rang in the room as the first shackle returned to its place around the glutton’s wrist.
Unwilling to hang around and see how this would end, I slipped from the room.
“She freed me. She freed me!”
The glutton’s mournful wail followed me into the darkness.
I hated this place. Not only my current location but all of Uttira. I hated the creatures. I hated the daily fear. I hated that I was trapped and unable to live a normal life. Freedom. That’s all I wanted. Freedom to go where I wanted to go, do what I wanted to do, and not have to answer to anyone. Or worse, constantly look over my shoulder for some lurking danger. I wanted to lay outside on the grass and watch the clouds or the stars without thinking something was going to eat me. I wanted to know I was safe.
Tired and hungry, I moved forward with little thought of where I was going. One foot in front of the other. How long would I be able to keep going like this? Just how big was this place? I would need to stop to rest, eventually. Then what?
A scuff of noise sounded behind me. Before I could freak out that it was one of the creatures from that medieval dining hall, my follower began to mutter.
“Cruel game. Pain is better than nothing. I understand. I—”
My stomach growled aggressively.
“She hungers. Provide for her. Tempt her.” He sounded almost giddy at the prospect.
I heard him move beside me and hurried to lower my gaze.
Two heartbeats later, a door banged ahead, and a bright light streamed from the opening. The scent of hot food teased my nose.
With my mind already set that I would ignore whatever trap he’d set for me, I edged forward. When I walked past the opening without pause, he wailed out a tormented sound that almost had me feeling sorry for him.
