Bride of the Sea (The Prophecy of Sisters #2) - Hayley Faiman Page 0,3

doesn’t even look at me as he drags me toward his horse. I hear a couple of men’s deep chuckles around us, a few whistles and what I assume are catcalls in their language. I try to pull out of his grasp, to struggle against him, but he’s too strong.

He stops in front of his horse and he releases his hold on me. Looking from side to side, I take one step toward the woods, when a hand wraps around my chest and holds me against a hard body. I let out a yelp.

The horseman looks down at me and grins, then shakes his head before he barks something. He doesn’t say anything as the man behind me wraps his meaty hands around my waist and picks me up.

Picks. Me. Up.

The horseman’s hands wrap around my ribcage as the other man releases me, and then I’m pulled astride the horse. I reach for the saddle horn, but there’s nothing there.

Looking down, I gasp at the sight. No saddle. Can you even ride a horse without one? I have no fucking clue, because I’ve only ridden a horse a handful of times at camp when I was a kid. My entire body starts to tremble, or maybe I’m just noticing it.

The man behind me places his hand at my belly, holding me tight against his chest, I feel his lips against my ear and then he whispers sending chills over my entire body.

“Calm, rauõr.”

My body jerks. I don’t know what he’s said, but I clearly heard the word, calm. Closing my eyes, I force myself to calm down as the wind blows against my face.

The only sounds that I hear are the other horses’ hooves behind us. Smoke fills my nose, but it doesn’t bother me, I don’t know why, but I feel oddly at peace in this moment. I know that I should be terrified and I am, but right now, I just feel—calm.

AARIC

Holding up my sword, the sword of my father and grandfather, I let out a roar of victory. The village’s flames burn all around us, the peoples’ screams having stopped moments ago. Women, children, and healthy men have been led back to the camp. New slaves for our people.

Their homes raided, their castle raided and providing a large bounty for Wolfjour Ail. We’re inland quite a bit, knowing that we would never be suspected so far away from the coast.

“Search the outskirts, make sure nobody escaped,” I call out.

A small party of my closest men follow behind me as I take off toward the wooded area that surrounds the village. I hear breathing. It’s faint, along with small crunches of leaves.

It’s said that I could hear a mouse scurry through the forest. I am sharp, my hearing impeccable, my eyesight much of the same. All traits of my ancestors that were thankfully handed down to me by the gods.

Guiding my horse toward the noise, I expect to find a child hiding behind a tree, maybe a young girl. What I don’t expect to find is a woman, a full-grown woman. Arching my brow, I tilt my head to the side and take her in.

Her clothing isn’t anything that I’ve ever seen before. It’s nothing more than some thin pieces of fabric. I know that it’s thin because I can see her nipples poking through the top. I lick my lips at the sight of the buds, wanting nothing more than to taste them.

“Her hair,” one of my men points out.

My body jerks as my eyes lift from her breasts to her head. Blinking, I’m unsure at what I am seeing. Her hair is the color of eldr. I have never seen anything like it before with my own eyes. I’ve heard that in certain lands this color is normal, but I have never actually seen it for myself.

Climbing off of my stallion, I walk toward her. She’s frightened, and rightfully so, she probably watched us rape and murder her people before we torched her village to the ground. Crouching down in front of her, I reach out to touch her hair, thinking that it must be fake, that it cannot possibly be real.

Her eyes widen and her breath is heavy as she watches me. But there is something different about her. She isn’t just watching me, she is mesmerized. Her gaze is almost hungry as her eyes roam over my face and body.

“Bunafi?” I ask. “Llyne?”

She hasn’t understood anything that’s been said around her, there is no

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