Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
“Did you hear me!” she snapped to the man. “Release those girls!”
When no one did her bidding, she turned to Jell.
“You do it,” she bit out. “He’s always like this when he makes the surface. Like he’s never seen trees before.”
“Daemon?” Jell called tentatively.
The ropes at Tedrey’s ankles fell loose.
He thus poised to take flight.
“Daemon?” the woman asked snidely.
“Daemon? Look at me,” Jell bid to the unmoving man.
“What do you speak of? Daemon?” she spat.
Tedrey did not take flight.
With their attention on each other, and the Rising contingent gone, he took his chance.
He crawled swiftly to the women who were all scooting, but not as one, willy-nilly, to get away in all directions, which would get them nowhere.
He put his fingers to the ropes at the wrists of one, these ropes also tied to two others, with a line leading down to bind their feet.
“I let you go, you help me release the others,” he whispered to her.
She shook her head, tears of panic escaping her eyes, spittle mixing with rain dripping from her gag as she panted behind it.
“You help me get as many loose as we can,” he pushed.
Her head kept moving frenziedly in denial.
He loosened her.
She immediately tugged the binds from her feet and bolted.
Gods dammit.
“He has given you a name?” Tedrey heard the woman demand.
“I will help you,” he heard whispered.
He looked to another woman who had somehow nudged her gag free and moved to her.
“Daemon, we must find the others. We must find them, for they are our friends, and then be away from this place,” he heard Jell say.
“When did he give you a name?” the woman asked.
Working as swiftly he could with wet fingers on slick ropes, Tedrey released the girl. She freed her feet and instantly shifted around, her hands going to the ropes on the next.
“Run west when you are released,” he instructed. “Take cover and call to any that race after you. We will meet up, move as one, it will be safer.”
The girl he was working on nodded to him.
He released her.
However she did not bolt, and she did not do as he said.
Once she had her feet free, she turned and put her fingers to the ropes of another.
“Have you two, the both of you, been conniving?” the woman’s tone was becoming shrill. “Against me?”
“You will be quiet.”
This was a new voice, a smooth one. A calm one.
An attractive one.
Even an alluring one.
Tedrey chanced a glance to the clearing to see the three of them facing off against each other.
Paying he and the women no mind.
They had time.
But they had to work quickly.
“Hurry,” he encouraged, loosening the binds of another, who in turn moved to help.
“You do not tell me what to do. I am your mistress,” she retorted, and Tedrey heard a pained cry and a thudding splash.
He’d struck her.
Tedrey did not look to see if he was correct.
They only had three women left to go.
He turned to the second he’d released who had stayed. The others he sensed, but did not chance to look, were huddled behind them and waiting.
“Draw them away, quiet, but quick,” he ordered.
She nodded, stood and moved.
“We found one,” he heard called and glanced up to see four of the women who had emerged from the earth shoving Fenn into the clearing, his hands tied behind his back.
Tedrey’s fingers slipped on the wet ropes.
Gods be with me, gods be with me, he chanted in his head. Just get this done. Just get it done.
He let her loose.
“Go, go,” he hissed at her.
She fumbled with the ties that bound her feet, got free, but slipped as she tried to stand, took the hand another was holding out to her, and then they were away.
It was he and the first he’d released who had stayed to help now working on the last two girls.
“You take them. I will follow slowly, so if they notice, I can distract them from your leaving,” he instructed before warning, “I do not think the new is any better than the old.”
“You must go with us,” she urged.
He opened his mouth to reply but did not as more words came from the clearing.
“Put him to his knees,” the woman, clearly having recovered, demanded.
“He keeps his feet,” Jell ordered.
“Knees!” she shouted.
“Feet!” Jell bit.
“He is not yours!” she yelled.
“He has always been mine!” Jell yelled in return.
Tedrey looked up, the end of the rope beginning to slide free as Daemon roared, “Enough!”
“As we planned, we will—” Jell began, looking to Daemon.
“You planned?” the woman countered. “We came to the surface to save those girls.”
“Oh, gods, no, only two more,” his mate whispered in the same terror he had, for they were mentioned, and that might gain attention.
“I said…enough!” Daemon snarled.
“Just get them to their feet and go,” Tedrey demanded, forcing the hoops of the ropes over the heels of the woman he was working on.