Captive of Wolves (Bound to the Fae #1) - Eva Chase Page 0,14

been taken as a child. If I’ve counted the years right, I’m barely out of my teens. “Yes,” I murmur, too much anguish balling at the base of my throat just with that one word of acknowledgment.

“No experiences before your kidnapping that stand out as unusual?”

“I—I can’t think of any.”

My fingers are starting to ache where they’re clutching the sheet. Maybe Sylas notices. He stands, smoothly but so swiftly my heart skips a beat.

“I think that’s enough talk for now. We should get some food and drink into you before you waste away before my eyes.”

My stomach pinches, but I’ve had enough experience since my kidnapping to clarify, “Nothing that… does funny things to my head or my body. Just normal food?”

Sylas’s expression turns so perceptive I wonder if that mismatched gaze can pierce right into my mind and see the ways my captors chose to muddle me when it suited them. “Ordinary food only. And perhaps you’d like the use of a proper toilet as well.”

Yes, that would be helpful if I don’t want to soil these nice sheets—well, any more than my unwashed body already has.

He beckons for me to follow him. My limbs balk, but only for an instant. I’m not sure what’s going on here, and I’m even less sure of where here is than I was before our conversation, but even if Sylas is like my captors in some ways, he’s giving every indication of being gentler. And I know what state I’ll end up in if I try to refuse to eat completely.

I ease off the bed and brace my feet against the floor. As I put my weight on them, a faint ache spreads through the warped one. Keeping more of my balance on my good side, I manage a few wobbly steps.

But it’s been too long since I really walked. For all my attempts at keeping my strength up, there are muscles I didn’t reach—muscles I need to hold me up.

Sylas is just opening the door when a tremor runs through my legs. I try to tense them, but it’s too late. They give beneath me, sending me toppling onto my hands and knees. The twist of my foot with the fall sends a sharper needle of pain through my ankle.

I scramble to right myself, and Sylas is there, grasping my arm firmly but carefully to help me up. Having that huge, powerful frame so close to me is nearly overwhelming. I don’t think it’s just my unworked muscles to blame for my unsteadiness now.

His gaze has fallen to the floor. “Your foot. Is that from before, or did Aerik’s men injure it?”

“It was them. So I—so it’d be harder for me to run away.”

He makes a gruff sound that’s unnervingly growly and reassuringly disgusted at the same time. Easing me around, he takes my hand and sets it on his elbow. “Put as much of your weight on me as you need to.”

The muscles in his arm are even more solid than I expected, flexing as I adjust my grip. Heat floods my face. But what’s he going to do if I refuse—sweep me up like he did from the cage and carry me to my meal? No, I can handle this.

As I limp beside him into the hall, a snicker carries from behind us. Sylas’s head swings around at the sound.

Another man, one I didn’t see last night, peers at me, his eyes glittering silver in his pale face. When he speaks, I recognize that sharp voice as the one who suggested they kill me rather than deal with my struggles.

“So the dung-body is a cripple as well. Wonderful.”

“Move along, Kellan,” Sylas commands.

The other man brushes past us without further comment, but his words linger. The icy fear that Sylas’s calm presence started to melt solidifies in my gut all over again.

This place may be prettier and more luxurious than my cage, but who’s to say it’s any safer?

5

Talia

It turns out faeries have toilets. Or at least, these faeries do.

After Sylas helps me to the room he calls a “privy” and the heat of approximately a thousand suns has burned across my face with embarrassment, I manage to convince him that I can make my way to the porcelain throne without assistance. And I do, grasping the sink for balance as I leverage myself over.

Of course, neither the sink nor the toilet are actually made out of porcelain. They’re more of a shell-like material with a pearly sheen on the