My eyes flared. “Don’t you fucking dare—”
“If you can’t behave, you’ll have to be restrained.” Caom effortlessly flipped me onto my belly, making me grunt as my chin hit the wood. I squirmed frantically when I felt him tie my hands behind my back.
It didn’t stop him at all—he had me bound in seconds. I stiffened when long fingers trailed up the sensitive, exposed skin of my inner forearms.
“Maybe when you’ve calmed down, we can—”
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I seethed, trying to buck him off.
Caom sighed and climbed off, then hoisted me up and turned me so my back—and bound hands—were once again pressed against the side of the cart. I panted, glaring at him, tempted to try and boot him in the chest again before he moved back. My heart was pounding too hard with fear.
Idony let out a low snicker. “Tough luck, gancanagh.”
“Shut up,” he snapped, snatching up a new apple and tearing off a chunk with sharp white teeth.
I tried to block them out, straining to slide my hands free of the rope. He’d tied them impossibly tight, almost cutting off my circulation. I panted, gritting my teeth and feeling my skin get raw as I fought against the rough-hewn material.
“Look.” Idony nudged Caom and jerked her chin behind me. “The kelpie’s watching.”
Reluctantly, I looked over my shoulder to follow their gazes. The procession was passing by the edge of a lake nestled deep in the woods. Was this the forest by my house? There was no lake in there. I was sure of it.
But then I noticed the head poking out of the water. Wet, dark hair was plastered to a pale, masculine face with big, solid black eyes. As I stared, the rest of a body started rising from the water until a finely muscled, masculine creature was stalking towards us, dripping wet and completely naked except for a long piece of green pondweed stuck to his skin. It barely concealed anything.
His skin was ghostly white, his lips almost blue. As he got closer to the cart, I could see that his eyes and hair were shiny black with an emerald sheen, like the husk of a rose chafer beetle. The veins winding up his hands and forearms were a dark green too.
He was beautiful. More beautiful than Caom. But he was also scowling.
“Get back in your lake, water horse,” Caom drawled.
“This is a mistake.”
The voice that came from the creature was raspy, like when someone spoke just after choking on water.
Idony’s sharp teeth flashed. “Watch your mouth, kelpie. If she hears you talking like that, she’ll cut out your tongue.”
“Just because you choose to live out here doesn’t mean you’re not one of us,” Caom snarled, that lazy tone gone. “Your loyalties are still with us. With the Carlin.”
The kelpie scowled again. “This won’t do what she hopes. And if the Brid finds out—”
“The Bridwon’tfind out, because no one will tell her.” Caom flashed him a rabid grin. “She lost. She always loses.”
“She will send her court looking—”
“She won’t know he’s here. Not unless someone tells her.” Caom’s voice hardened. “Are you going to tell her, Odran?”
The kelpie crossed wet arms over his chest, black eyes flickering to me as he walked alongside the slow-moving cart.
“No,” he muttered.
“Help me,” I rasped to him, twisting to try and lean closer, over the edge of the cart. “Where the fuck are they taking me?”
Odran’s beetle-like eyes saddened as he looked at me. His arms fell back to his sides.
“I cannot.”
“Don’t talk to him, water horse,” Caom snarled. “Or I’ll come over there and cut out your tongue myself.”
The kelpie’s face remained expressionless, his endless eyes shifting to Caom behind me. “I’d like to see you try, gancanagh. All you’re good for is fucking, and from what I’ve heard,youare not even very good at it.”