"Consider this a hike through the forest on a pleasant day."
I raised an eyebrow. This couldn't be further from being a pleasant day, but I realised I had no option but to keep up with him. My chest tightened as I tried to stay calm, and the ache in my arm was a sharp reminder of my helplessness. But I wouldn’t let him see that.
"Where are you taking me?" My voice barely hid the desperation.
"Please... I promise I won't say anything if you just let me go. You can tell the others I got away, or you couldn't find me."
I already knew it wasn't going to work, but I had to try, right?
Cillian glanced at me and shook his head as if admonishing a naughty child.
"Ah, Tilly, my sweet, it doesn't matter where you were going or who you were going to see. All you need to know is that your old life is merely a memory. You're forever ours now, and we're not letting you go."
The possessive tone of his voice worried me. What was going on? I belonged to him. To them. Was this some type of twisted joke?
I wasn't some kind of stray animal they could just snatch and claim as their own.
Images flooded my mind of kidnappings, cults, and worse. But these were stories found in the newspapers or in television reports from big cities, not sleepy countryside villages. They happened to other people, not to people like me.
I felt eyes on me. Now, I understood how prey felt before they were pounced upon by unseen predators lurking nearby.
"Well, if it isn't the lost lamb, come back to the flock," Torin said, stepping out nonchalantly from behind a tree.
Fionn's darker voice held no lightness as he appeared quite suddenly at my side and looked at me without emotion. The proximity made my stomach tighten, a reminder of how trapped I truly was.
"Thanks to you, the leader of the Gatemen escaped."
I cringed. Fionn frightened me the most. But I wasn't about to show it. I felt the weight of his cold blue eyes boring into me, daring me to crumble. I refused to let him see that I was afraid of him. If they were going to kill me anyway, then I could at least make their lives a bit more difficult first.
"Thanks to me? You kidnap me in broad daylight, then blame me for a fight that's not even mine? That quarrel with those men is yours! How am I at fault here?" My voice trembled slightly, but I steadied it, trying to sound braver than I felt. Their reasoning was absurd, blaming me for a situation they had thrust me into.
Their silence after my accusation was eerie, but nothing prepared me for witnessing Fionn's wound heal miraculously. The sight confirmed what my gut had known all along, they were far from human. But what were they? My mind reeled, rejecting the impossible even as I faced it. I wasn’t supposed to see things like that.
I decided it was probably better not to know exactly what these...these things were. I just had to concentrate on escaping.
Fionn followed my gaze to his fixed hand and smiled faintly, just enough to make my skin crawl. He adjusted his shredded shirtwith quiet precision, smoothing the fabric as if restoring order to something much darker beneath its surface. The gesture was too composed to be vain, more like ritual, a reminder of who he was.
Torin stepped towards him.
"We can discuss this later. Horous will bring others. They won't stop until they find the girl."
Cillian drew me protectively toward him. His touch sent a cold shiver down my spine, and I wondered how I could feel so afraid of him and yet so drawn to him at the same time. Did he really care about my fate, or was he just possessive of his newest toy?
"You must wonder about our intentions, Tilly, but be assured, the Gatemen are not the heroes you believe them to be."
I wanted so badly to believe him, to think that his intentions are pure, but the evidence suggests otherwise, and I can't stop myself from blurting out my questions.
"And you are heroes? Am I supposed to feel reassured? You kidnap me, put the fear of God into me, and then your wounds heal before my very eyes. Do you honestly expect me to believe I should fear those men more than you?" I looked closely at each of my captors. "Who are you? I've never seen you around here before."
The brothers looked knowingly at each other.
"Is silence your answer?" I challenged, eyeing their model-perfect features, sculpted bodies, and unusual wardrobe.
"Did you steal your clothes from a museum? You look like aristocratic toffs dropped into a council estate. You don't fit in with the people around here."
Cillian and Torin laughed while Fionn simply watched. His light blue eyes locked onto mine, expressionless. I think it was his ability to hide his thoughts completely that made me feel more nervous around him, far more than the others.
"Actually, Tilly," Torin began, a smirk playing on his lips, "We were thinking the same about you."
