Shea was on her knees trying to regain herfeet when she was bowled over by a force that carried her back tothe ground. Her cheek smarted as she once again found herself facedown in the dirt with a man pressing an elbow sharply into herback. Her first captor had her elbow locked so the slightestpressure would break it.
A pair of boots came into view and thenCaden’s cool voice reached her, “This was your last chance. If youso much as lift a pinky, wewillkill you.”
The hands holding her down remainedunyielding while Shea stayed tensed and ready to move.
“I want to hear you,” Caden said.
Oh, so that’s why she was still being pressedinto the ground. Well, he could wait until his balls rotted off,because she wasn’t going to say shit about surrender. They mighthave been able to physically subdue her, but that didn’t mean theyhad won.
As soon as they gave an opportunity, she wasgone. This time she wouldn’t allow sentiment to hold her back.
“Shane, please.” Eamon sounded more rattledthan Shea had ever heard him, even worse than that time he’d rippedher apart after the run in with the revenants. She didn’t like thattone in his normally authoritative voice. The man should neversound like his world was about to cave in on account of her. Itdidn’t sit well with her.
The elbow in her back dug deeper while thehand holding her arm tightened.
“Shane.” This time there was a crack inEamon’s voice that shouldn’t have been there.
Her elbow creaked as it was slowlytwisted.
“Fine. I won’t fight.”
Immediately, the elbow pressing into her backlightened and the hand holding her arm loosened. She was still heldimmobile, but it didn’t hurt anymore. It was just uncomfortable andhumiliating.
Shea was jerked to her knees and forced tolook up into Caden’s unsmiling face.
“That was your only free pass,” Caden warned.“Next time we won’t bother subduing you, we’ll just cut off yourhead.”
Shea bit her tongue against the words thatwanted to spew out, reminding herself that she needed to watch forher chance. Without waiting for an answer, Caden jerked his chin atthe men holding her. They lifted her and force marched her awayfrom the tent and her companions.
They didn’t have far to go as they pushed herbefore them into another tent one row down from the one Fallon hadbeen taken to. They walked her to a heavy looking metal chair andsat her down before forcing her arms to its armrests. Cool metalslid against her skin as they fastened two handcuffs to her wrists,securing them to the chair before repeating the action with herfeet.
Once they had her secured, one of the menleft the tent while the other stepped back and folded his armsacross his broad chest. She twisted her wrist surreptitiously,testing her restraints without being too obvious. Her guard’swatchful eyes noted the movement and narrowed slightly.
She glared back at him. She jerked hardagainst her restraints, giving up on hiding her actions. They weresecure. She wouldn’t be breaking the chair arm to get away, and thelimited range of movement made it impossible to attempt picking thelocks.
As long as she was handcuffed to the chair,she wasn’t going anywhere. Evidently, they’d learned a few thingsfrom last time.
Giving up on escape, for the moment, Shearelaxed into the seat and looked around.
The Trateri had made an art form of turningtheir tent’s into luxurious homes. They were typically betterdecorated than most Lowlander or Highlander homes, containingbeautiful, hand carved furniture made from old oak and rugs dyedthe richest shades of blue, green and yellow that Shea had everseen. As a people, they appreciated surroundings that werecomfortable as well as beautiful to make up for the times when theyhad to live rough.
This wasn’t one of those tents. Empty of allfurniture except the chair Shea was handcuffed to, there were norugs, no tables, no sitting pillows or brightly colored fabrics.The walls were just the unadorned white base canvas over a weedcovered patch of ground. Only two hanging braziers kept the spaceinside well-lit with an orange glow.
Something told Shea this was where theybrought prisoners when they needed to extract information. Itwasn’t even as nice as the area Darius had stuck her in that firstday.
The second man ducked in, allowing a briefglimpse of a campfire before the tent flap dropped. He was in hislate twenties and slimmer than his companion with a leaner, rangierframe. His face was thin and his eyes spaced the slightest bit toofar apart, but their pretty hazel color made up for that. If Sheahad never met Fallon, she would say this man’s eyes were theprettiest she’d ever seen.
They were a dark brown that was almost blackand his skin was darker than most of his companions. His was broadand chiseled out of stone and his body big and filled with muscles.His hands were the size of boulders. One hit from them would crushher.
Shea really hoped they wouldn’t be hittingher before the night was through.
The second man approached, carrying a bag ofwater. He also held one of the meat pastries the soldiers packedwhen heading outside the camp. They were filling and traveledwell.
Her stomach growled, loudly, and her mouthwas suddenly dry and filled with sand. Until the smell of foodtaunted her, she hadn’t realized just how hungry and thirsty shewas. Hours had passed since she’d last eaten.
She eyed the food warily, her mouth fillingwith saliva. Just what was he going to do with that stuff? Maybe heand the other guy had missed dinner too.
He held the pastry to her lips. She moved herhead back.
