Ruins of Chaos Read online

  My foot neared the edge, and Andres dove toward me as I spun, leaping blindly into the air. A scream escaped my throat moments before I hit the water jarringly. Pain shot through my legs, and I slowly sank, pushing off the bottom and gasping for air when my head breached the surface.

  Men shouted, and I watched as they ran to a trail that led to the river from the cliffside. Turning in the water, I screamed as the current slammed me into a giant boulder, smashing against my head, causing light to burst behind my eyes. I sank once more beneath the surface, fighting to reach the bottom of the quickly moving river that was turning into raging rapids.

  Something brushed my leg as I shot back toward the surface, and I glanced down as blonde hair became visible through the frothing white water. Nails dug into my legs, pulling me under as I sucked in air, yanked beneath the surface by a nymph.

  My heart echoed through my ears as she smiled coldly, revealing serrated teeth. Once she had me beneath the water, she lunged to tear into my throat, but I was faster. My teeth found her cheek, slicing through it before she pulled back. The rattle that exploded from my lungs sent bubbles moving to the surface, and a burst of energy shot through me as I pierced the nymph’s throat with my fangs, ripping her vein open. Blood pooled around us, and I turned, sucking in water as yet another nymph attacked, using her claws to slice into my stomach.

  I pushed from the bottom, kicking my legs to breach the surface. I gulped in air, noticing the nymph had followed me. I lunged, and we both gasped, crashing into a huge jagged rock that impaled the nymph, leaving her behind as the current slammed me against rock after rock until consciousness faded.

  The sound of more rapids drew my attention, and I shuddered through the fear and chill that rushed through me. I saw movement beside me, and I groaned as I prepared for an attack, only to have something land close beside me in the water.

  My eyes slid to the bank, finding a woman in the water with me. In her hand was a rope, but I couldn’t get enough air through my chattering teeth to tell her my hands were bound. I went below the surface as a rapid caught me, sucking me in without warning. My feet slid over the slippery rocks as I tried to get enough energy to shoot back toward the surface.

  Failing, I blinked past the dark dots that swam in my vision as my lungs released the last of my air. The river tossed my body around its bottom, crashing into rocks and other things before someone grabbed me and pulled me toward the surface.

  The woman stared down at me, slapping my face as I sputtered, expelling water from my flooded lungs. She turned me over onto my side and then lifted her head toward the direction in which I’d come.

  “Get up,” she demanded. “They’re coming.”

  She didn’t wait to see if I did as she’d instructed, leaving me to run from the men chasing me. I rolled onto my stomach, sucking in more air past the pain in my chest as I stood on shaking legs. I started forward, following her into the woods to find a place to hide from Lord Andres and his men.

  The woman turned, staring over my shoulder as others moved in around me. I slowed down, leaning over to throw up water while they watched. Witches had found me and saved me. I stared at one who moved closer with a dagger in her hand, studying me.

  “Thank you,” I whispered through trembling lips.

  “Who is chasing you?” she demanded, closing the distance between us.

  “Witches. Dark witches and the men who captured me for them,” I admitted, foregoing the murderous nymphs in the water that had tried to ensure I didn’t escape a watery grave.

  “They’re coming, Adele!” one of the younger women cried, and the witch moving toward me paused, her eyes filling with regret before they rushed away from me.

  “Don’t leave me,” I pleaded, running toward them until the reality of the situation slammed into me. If I followed these witches, I’d lead Lord Andres and his men right to them.

  I turned, hating the angry tears of frustration that blinded me as I ran in the opposite direction with my hands still bound behind my back. Branches slapped me in the face, scratching my bare arms, and I gasped as something cut my leg. Staring down, I looked at the sliver of wood protruding from my thigh. I lifted my head just as something slammed into my temple, causing my vision to swim before me.

  “Fucking little whore,” Lord Andres snarled.

  Someone grabbed me from behind and dragged me back toward the large boulders that littered the riverbank. They slammed me down over one, my stomach lurching with the need to throw up as I watched Lord Andres slowly removing his armor.

  “You thought I would allow you to escape me?” he chuckled coldly. “I agreed to let that witch slaughter my entire army just to get my fucking hands on you.”

  I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move with the soldier holding me down as Lord Andres finished removing his armor, and I noted the burn marks and loose-fitting flesh covering his body. Tears swam in my vision as he reached into his trousers and stroked his flaccid cock. Fear burned through me, and I cried, knowing that no one was coming to save me.

  Screaming ripped from the forest, and I sobbed when warriors brought the witches who had tried to save me into the clearing as they fought to escape. My heart sank in my chest, bottoming out against the boulder on which I was held. I shouted in denial as Lord Andres snorted, adjusting himself before he retrieved his blade.

  “What do we have here?” he asked in mock curiosity.

  “Witches within the woods, hiding,” a warrior sneered, gripping a witch by the hair before he shoved her to her knees before him.

  “The only good witch is a dead witch,” Andres laughed coldly as his tongue slipped over his lips.

  Fighting against the male holding me down, I watched in horror as another warrior brought more witches from the forest and shoved them to their knees. A scream ripped from my throat as a blade swung, ending the life of the woman who had pulled me from the water. My vision swam as they dispatched each witch until all their headless bodies lay twitching on the forest floor.

  Lord Andres turned, smiling cruelly as he walked over to me. He yanked my head back, and I prepared for the assault that would surely unfold. My mind tried to slip away, to go where nothing could touch me, but teeth sank into my shoulder, and a loud wail escaped my throat, echoing through the forest.

  The wrongness of his teeth against my flesh caused an inhuman noise to escape my lungs in a wailing rattle. I screeched loudly, and it echoed through me into the forest like a beacon sent for someone to find me. I screamed as tears burned my eyes, and the unnatural feeling of the bite caused bile to fill my throat, muting the sound I made, but unable to stop it from building in my throat, escaping through my lungs.

  “Shut up, you stupid bitch!” Lord Andres snarled.

  He ripped me from the boulder, burying my face against the forest floor, which only caused the sound to grow in force. His hands slammed against my ear, and I rattled louder until my body trembled from the strength of the sorrowful noise escaping me. His teeth sank deeper into my shoulder, marring Knox’s bite as he fought to subdue me.

  I felt fingers pushing against my opening as Lord Andres prepared to rape me, forcing them in roughly while he continued biting into my shoulder. I couldn’t stop the noise I made as it grew until it became deafening. I couldn’t fight him with my magic bound and my hands tied behind me. I was powerless to stop what was coming, and I knew it.

  He lifted my head by my hair, abandoning my sex to slam my face into the ground while trying to end my rattles and shrieks. Light burst behind my eyelids before Andres’s teeth returned to shred my shoulder, severing flesh from bone as he tried to subdue me.

  He forced my body upright, moving my legs apart as he snarled against my shoulder. Power erupted around us, and Andres paused, standing as he shouted orders. I sat on my knees; my body propped there at an awkward angle as I tried to catch my breath. No one moved as the power grew thicker around us.

  I blinked several times, trying to clear my vision while forcing air into my lungs. Shadows shifted around us as Lord Andres’s men withdrew their weapons. Still, I wailed, unable to prevent the sound from escaping. Everything inside me ached. Pain wrapped around me as he sent his foot directly into my stomach, forcing me to gasp, which only made the sound more painful.

  “Shut up, you stupid whore!” he shouted, turning toward me. “Kill her if she moves or doesn’t stop that fucking noise!” Lord Andres stepped out from in front of me as someone else took his place.

  “Shut up, woman!” the warrior snarled, and then Lord Andres yelled, causing everyone within the clearing to move into action.

  “Kill her! The king and his men are here!” he demanded.

  The world stopped moving as the warrior’s blade sailed toward my throat. Someone deflected it just before it reached me, and the warrior fell to the ground in several bloodied pieces. I blinked slowly. My rattle grew in volume, unable to prevent it from escaping as dark shadows covered in armor encircled me protectively.

  “I think you have my girl, asshole,” Knox growled, peering over his shoulder through his visor to look at me. His eyes narrowed as the noise I made filled the area relentlessly.

  “Your days as King are numbered!” Lord Andres snarled, taking a fighting stance. “You will die!”

  “Not today, and not by you,” Knox laughed soundlessly. “You touched my woman, which means you and your men’s lives are forfeited.”

  Knox turned, deliberately dismissing the lord while his piercing blue eyes locked with mine. A warrior rushed toward him, and he lifted his blade, pushing it between his arm and body, impaling the man who had thought to stab him in the back. Knox turned, lowering his head, and swung so quickly that my eyes couldn’t follow the movement. Body parts hit the forest floor, painting it crimson
as a river of blood coated it.

  More power entered the clearing as Knox’s men drew their blades around me. Lord Andres’s warriors closed in from the surrounding forest. Knox, Killian, and Brander chuckled, soundlessly watching them circle us. Dark witches with sightless eyes joined the warriors, building a barrier to prevent our escape.

  Relief washed through me at the sight of Killian, hope flaring in my chest that the others may have also survived. Yet Lore was absent, which terrified and worried me. If he’d lived, wouldn’t he have been here too?

  A blade swung toward me without warning, but Brander intercepted it, slicing through a warrior that rushed forward with his sword lifted. The man’s obsidian eyes marred his face as ugly spider webs covered his flesh. Brander leaped into the air, cutting through another male without stopping until he was on the ground. Brander used his arm to swing his blade wide as he severed the head, sending it bouncing across the forest floor.

  Killian angled toward a group of warriors, his blades swinging precisely and adeptly. His swords met and crisscrossed against the other male’s blades, unhanding them before he swung, severing the body at the waist. Killian moved to the next, blindly swinging, or what I assumed had been blind, only to remove heads and limbs from more warriors.

  Knox stalked toward Lord Andres, who wielded dual blades. Andres snarled, cursing the king for being weak, goading him into anger, yet Knox didn’t take the bait. Knox said nothing; his anger radiated from him silently as he held his swords at his side. He stared at Andres with death exuding through the skull visor he wore.

  Andres lifted his blades and swung, and Knox countered, sending one of Andres’s arms to the ground, still holding the sword. I hadn’t even been able to follow the speed of Knox’s blade as it moved.

  Andres howled but still lunged, intending to catch Knox off-guard with his attack. Knox sent his blades into the air, coming down in an X before he lifted them, slicing both through Lord Andres’s throat. His body cut into sections and slid to the ground. More warriors came from the forest as if they’d intended to be a second wave of attack, but Killian and Brander dispatched them as Knox moved to me, dropping to his knees in front of me.

  He turned as more men escaped the woods and whispered a single word, which caused the men rushing forth to turn to ash, as the wind caught and carried it through the air. Slowly, he turned back, staring at me as the pained sounds continued escaping my throat.

  Knox cupped my face between his thick gloves before shifting his attention to my mangled shoulder. I didn’t stop the sounds. I couldn’t. My entire body shuddered from the rattling wail escaping me.

  “Aria, you’re okay,” Knox whispered, his eyes dipping down my body to the soaked dress covered in mine and everyone else’s blood. “I got you,” he swallowed, his throat bobbing as he studied me.

  I could see Knox, but I couldn’t process him. My mind refused to allow the fear to slide away. Everything within me was repelling against the feeling of Lord Andres’s bite. His mark on my flesh was vile, detested, and offensive. The wrongness of it consumed me.

  Something touched my hands, and I screamed over the rattling wail. My hands broke free, rushing toward the shoulder to rip the mark from my flesh. Knox noted their direction and grabbed them with one of his, shucking his glove and visor before securing it with his bare hand. He jerked me against his body, cradling me as I fought him.

  Everything within me was going haywire. Something was wrong on a deeper level than I could process. Knox struggled with me in his arms as his men moved in around us. He purred, rattling loudly while the others echoed him. He released me, and my hands flew to my shoulder as my nails pushed free.

  Knox removed my hands again and covered his mouth over my shoulder. My hands ran through his hair, jerking him closer as the wail continued. His teeth pushed through my skin, and his other hand cradled me against him. The bite was painful, but there was peace within his mark’s pain, righting the wrong that was done.

  Knox’s men purred around us, their comforting noises adding to his as he held his bite there. I melted into him, sobbing loudly as he cradled my shuddering form, tightening his hold. Knox pulled away, and I lunged, wrapping my arms around him as I continued to cry, oblivious to those watching as everything crumbled around me.

  “You’re safe now, Little Monster. I got you. Lord Andres can’t ever hurt you again. I promise. Aria, you’re safe.”

  “She’s wounded badly. She looks like she fought hard and lost,” Brander stated.

  “She was probably…” Killian paused at Knox’s violent rattle.

  Knox picked me up without waiting to see if I could walk. My arms held him against me as he kissed my cheek, holding me tightly. “Raped?” he snapped, and I tensed, which caused them all to purr loudly around me. “Set up a fucking camp. We’ll move to the other in the morning. I don’t smell his scent within her, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t do other things to her body.”

  Less than twenty minutes later, Knox had me in his shirt, wrapped in a blanket and cradled against him. I didn’t speak, and he didn’t ask questions. The men slept on the ground while Knox held me, pushing my hair away from my face to stroke it softly. His lips continually brushed over my forehead and ear while he purred. Brander eventually checked my wounds while keeping silent. No one asked the one question they were thinking, the one burning in their eyes. I didn’t offer what had happened.

  It didn’t matter because Knox had come for me. He’d had enough trust to know I wouldn’t have left his men to die if I’d been able to prevent it from happening. I couldn’t bring myself to ask if Lore and Greer lived because I couldn’t form the words. I bathed in Knox’s heat, allowing him to comfort me through the tremors and fear that had yet to subside.

  I closed my eyes, and he tucked me against him, holding my bloody, dirty body flush with his without care that I was filthy. Knox whispered soft words and used gentle touches to calm my broken edges, promising that everything would be okay.

  It wouldn’t.

  I’d let his lies appease me for now. I’d allow him to comfort me through the darkest hour and keep away the icy chill that had soaked into my bones. Knox was weathering the storm with me, and I didn’t care if it was a lie or if he hated me, so long as he held me through the tremors and kept the nightmares away for a little while longer.

  Chapter Five

  The next morning, someone lifted me to Knox on his horse before I’d even awoken. I screamed, hearing his purr the moment my eyes gained focus, echoed by the other men. Knox’s body stiffened against mine, and I removed my claws from his arms as I stared into his soft gaze. He hadn’t tried to touch me other than to hold me.

  “You’re okay, Aria,” Knox stated like he couldn’t find anything else to say beyond that. I nodded, slowly turning to face forward. His lips brushed against my throat, kissing the rapidly beating pulse to calm my fears.

  Nodding, I settled in front of him, shivering against the heat his body created while we started toward the camp. I still hadn’t spoken and was grateful he hadn’t prodded me. I knew it was coming the moment we got back to camp. I could feel his tense body, the way his arms clenched me as if he feared I would shatter.

  I was in shock and exhausted, but not broken by any means. My entire body ached, and I’d been through hell to escape Lord Andres. I couldn’t get the faces of the witches who had helped me out of my mind. They’d died because the cuffs Knox placed on my wrists had weakened me. I’d been a sitting duck, defenseless and exposed as we’d moved through the forest to meet up with him.

  Every time my eyes would start to close, I’d see Lord Andres touching me, tasting me, and I’d jerk upright. Knox would brush his nose against my ear, purring into it. I’d permit him to calm me before allowing my gaze to wander over the terrain, ever watchful of a trap.

  Knox and his men offered me comfort the entire trip back to camp. The moment Knox started his soothing purr, they mirrored it absently, as if forced to do so by their King. Knox held me against him with one arm while the other grabbed the reins confidently, as if used to riding with women in his arms.