This is it.
Twenty
Tallulah had beenin this position before, she remembered through her waning consciousness. Her head bobbed and rolled as the men pulled her through the dirt and mud. Through the haze and the blinding pain, Tallulah thought for a moment she heard a voice.
His voice.
But as quickly as it came, it was gone.
Just a memory.
Her eyelids scratched and begged to close. Her vision blurred and quickly she relented. There wasn’t any use to keeping herself awake for whatever happened next. But there it was again.
“I told you to unhand her.”
Tallulah called on every bit of strength she could find to lift her head. She wouldn’t believe it until she saw it.
Saw him.
Her vision doubled and her head swam, but as her eyes focused, she let out a muffled cry.
Evren stepped closer. A short sword drawn. She’d never seen him with such a weapon.
“Do you need me to repeat it a third time, gentlemen,” Evren said, his voice deep and low. “Unhand her.”
His lip snarled, and briefly, his eyes dashed to hers. Rage contorted his features as he noted the blood spilling from her nose. The bruises under her dress would be a discovery for later.
“Evren.” The hunter on her right tightened his grip around her arm. “You know very well what you’ve done. You have no authority here anymore.”
They didn’t address him as captain this time and her heart lurched for all he’d sacrificed for her. All he was willing to do.
“Lieutenant will know, everyone will know.” The man speaking dropped Tallulah’s arm, leaving her with just one captor. Evren readied himself into a fighting position as the hunter drew closer.
“You’re an embarrassment to the hunt,” he spat, completely disregarding Evren’s weapon. As if he didn’t think he’d use it. “You’re an embarrassment to yourself.”
Tallulah’s head was heavy, but she wouldn’t let it fall. She kept her eyes locked on Evren. Watched his every move. His every breath. She waited for him to realize what he’d done. To realize that she wasn’t worth the risk, the sacrifice.
But his face never faltered.
He took a deep breath and peered around the guard again.
And there it was.
All the confirmation she needed lied within his eyes. He didn’t regret his decision. He chose her. And he’d do it again. The look was everything she needed and when he dipped his chin in the slightest; she knew what he asked. She knew what he wanted.
Tallulah closed her eyes, taking a deep but labored breath. She pushed past the pain. Past the fear that had kept her caged in that greenhouse for the last year. She opened her eyes and looked into Evren’s and saw her future. She saw herself. How powerful she could be. How important she was.
The hunter still beside her had dropped his hand, clearly more invested in Evren. So, with his distraction and the man she loved across from her believing in her, she raised her hands.
Bloodied and caked in mud. She raised them higher and higher until she heard the hunter next to her gasp. But before he could make right on his mistake of letting her go, she flicked her wrists upward.
* * *
Tallulah had knownthe moment she gained her magick from Mother Gaia she’d be a disappointment.
A disappointment to her mother.
A disappointment to herself.
