It'd be a while before she managed to loosen it enough for her to slip out, but it was something. Not that she could go anywhere even if she did get free.
There were far too many men standing between her and the cave's entrance. They'd catch her long before she escaped.
Her only option was to bide her time and hope they dropped their guard.
When they did, she wanted to be ready.
Hushed whispers from the mouth of the cave attracted her attention.
"Where are they? They should have returned by now."
Eva paused in her movements, holding still as one of those talking looked her way.
She glanced down, trying to seem defeated. If they knew she hadn't given up, they would watch her much closer.
It wasn't hard to pretend to be cowed. Eva's body shivered from her wet clothes, the cool damp of the cave not helping.
She knew she looked bedraggled. Her hair trailed over her shoulder, half out of her braid.
Her clothes were muddy and ripped from all the falls she'd had. There was also blood staining their front—from Drake and Brisa.
All in all, Eva had seen better days.
"We should end her. She's too dangerous to keep alive and she'll just slow us down." The blond sent a hard look in her direction.
"The Whisperer wants her alive."
Eva assumed he was the leader because of the way the others seemed to defer to him. He had an apathetic look on his face as if he didn't really care one way or the other what happened to Eva as long as it didn't interfere with his plans.
His eyes were dead when he looked at her. "He has plans for her."
Eva couldn't help but shiver at his gaze, his expression making her blood run cold.
Mythologicals might have been thought of as monsters by generations of those living in the Broken Lands but Eva was of the mind this man was something far worse.
"The Whisperer has been waiting for you," he said, speaking directly to Eva.
The mood in the cave changed.
Eva had been stared at by predators before and called some of the deadliest her friends. None of them sent fear whispering across the back of her mind like these people did.
What was scarier was the look of pleasure on their leader's face as he noted her discomfort.
"Who are you talking about?" Eva forced herself to ask as the man crouched in front of her.
Eva's instincts screamed at her to get away from him. There was something she couldn't put her finger on about him. Something awful.
"Don't you remember me? I remember you."
Eva fought not to show any fear. There was a voice in her head that said if she did, things would go very badly for her.
She forced herself not to look away, keeping her eyes trained on his face. There was nothing familiar about him. He was a stranger she would have sworn she only met today.
"Perhaps if I do this." He closed his eyes and when he opened them again something was different.
He no longer read as human. Darkness lurked deep inside, hidden until now. It was a much larger patch than was present in these others. So big that almost nothing of the man's original self remained.
Her breathing sped up as that darkness reached for her.
