Page 111 of Nocte

The door opening?

No. Something else. A device the men hold between them and eye with confused, frowning expressions.

“What the fuck does that mean?” One of them wonders.

“Don’t care,” another snaps. “Whatever she is, she’s pretty and young and will fetch a nice price. Help me grab her.”

Grab me. To take me away. From Caspian. From the mortal realm, perhaps.

They aim to take me away.

“No!” I kick out with flailing legs. Lash out with one whole arm and one gaping and bleeding. I shout. Scream. Fight. Bite a hand that comes to cover my mouth.

I won’t go. They can’t take me.

“Stupid bitch!” One of them howls, painfully bitten. He steps back, holding his hand to his chest. He steps back in fear of me. “She’s a wild, little thing. Hold her still. A bit of happy medicine will send her right off.”

Right off. Away.

I can’t go away.

“No!” I kick. I scream. I bite. “No! No! Let go of me! LET GO OF ME!”

I scream. So loud that I drown them out. So loud that it doesn’t matter if I am fae or not-fae or nothing at all. I scream so loud that those in the other realm could hear.

I scream and scream because I am not nothing. I exist. I can scream, and so I exist.

No one will take that from me.

No one will ever take me away.

Not from anyone. Not from Caspian. Especially not from Caspian.

Yes,I hear him whisper. In my head, I hear him whisper it.No one will ever take you away.

Because the men holding me down are gone. They’ve been ripped away by an unseen force and I am left panting and gaping at a garish, purple ceiling.

I am crying. My chest hurts. My arm hurts. But pain is not why I am crying.

Relief is.

Because I can hear him. His voice, in my skull and in my ear.

“I am here,” he says. Angry. Bitter. Vengeful. “Stop crying. Stop crying! I am here.”

Caspian. He is here, and he will never leave me again.

I will never let him leave me again.

CHAPTER43

Caspian

Ihold her. Stupid little fae. Spoiled, greedy, selfish fae. I hold her in my arms and make her go silent. I press my mouth to hers. I kiss her so deeply it hurts just to make her silent.

But she isn’t. I will never be able to silence her again.

Because…