The Isle Of Sin And Shadows - Keri Lake Page 0,163
from inside my boot and wait.
The crunch of twigs from behind is the only warning, before arms come around my body and drag me backward into the woods.
The scream that flies out of me is cut short by a palm slapping across my mouth. Wriggling and kicking, I fight the hold on me, but as I draw the blade up for a stab, my body is thrown forward. The gravelly surface of the ground hits my jaw first, sending a shooting pain up into my skull, and the blade slips out of my grasp. Disoriented with the impact, I grimace and roll over onto my back, and find I was, in fact, right about who was after me.
The dirty fed lurches toward me, and I kick back to get away. Another scream rips through me, when he drags me backward as I scramble for my knife, and the earth beneath tears at my stomach. Flipped back around, I kick out at him, but he dodges every hammer of my boot. Pouncing on top of me, he pins me to the ground, laughing as he manages to wrangle me beneath him.
“My, you are a feisty little cat, aren’t you?” he says, pushing my arms up over my head.
A sideward glance in search of my knife shows a tattoo on his arm. A circle with an inverted ‘A’. Not a triangle. An actual letter. Similar to the mark on my leg, but clearer. Perhaps the same mark worn by the ghost who visited me back at the cabin, too.
Heart beating in my chest, I try to ignore the panic washing over me, the small pants of breath that signal an oncoming attack.
“I couldn’t be sure it was you. Whoever branded you did a shit job of it, but things just started adding up.”
I want to ignore what he’s saying and focus on my escape, but his words have me stilling beneath him. “What are you talking about?”
“The mark. On your leg. Do you not know what it is?”
“What is it?”
“A sigil. The mark of Antitheus.”
I vaguely recall hearing that word before. “What’s Antitheus?”
“The antithesis to God. You’re the chosen. From the time you were born, your destiny was written.”
“What destiny?”
“A sacrifice. So many wonderful things.” Keeping my wrists bound with one hand, he slides his hand up the hem of my shirt, and I clench my jaw when his fingers make contact with my breast. “To fuck you right now would bring unimaginable misfortune down on me. But when I hand you over, my reward will be first claim. All the disciples will have claim, but it’ll be sloppy fucking seconds after me. Or I can take my chances and fuck you now.”
“Disciples of what?”
“Not what. Who. The Goatman.”
Icy tendrils of horror slither down my spine. “Who is the Goatman?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” His palm swallows my breast, and in spite of the urge to puke right now, I roll my eyes back, pretending to enjoy it. “You like this, don’t you, baby?”
Giving him a feigned nod, I choke back the tears in my eyes.
“I can be gentle. It’s just that some women like it rough.”
“Who …. Who’s some women?”
“I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“Do you know where Marcelle is?” After a harrowing moment of quiet, staring back at the sinister grin stretching across his face, I ask again. “Do you?”
“No.”
“You’re a liar. It was Marcelle I saw you with at the hotel that night.”
“Yes. It was Marcelle I fucked that night. But I was thinking of you the whole time,” he whispers back. “I didn’t get the connection between you and Marcelle, at first. Until her sister started snooping around that abandoned shithole. Seems I wasn’t the only one looking for you.”
Oh, God. He must’ve been the one breaking into Brie’s house. Looking for me.
Turning away is all I can do to keep him from seeing the panic I imagine written across my face. The cool air against my chest tells me he’s lifted my shirt, and the moment his lips fall on my skin, I thrust my knee upward. Square in his nuts.
His outcry echoes through the forest.
Stealing his brief moment of distraction, I roll onto my stomach and reach for my fallen knife.
Growling, he yanks me backward. “Fucking bitch!” A hard slap to my face sends pain shooting up into my sinuses. Knocked off balance, he falls forward, and I twist around, reaching for the hilt of Russ’s blade.