The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1) by Emma Hamm (good short books TXT) 📕

Surprisingly, she felt slightly hurt that he could step back from her that easily. She could not have moved away from him if the earth had shifted. Her hands were suddenly cold without his, her head still fogged from passion and something else.

Later she would justify her actions by saying that she had latched onto him as the only familiar thing in the cave. That she had desperately needed to feel wanted by something or someone. She was feeling relief of knowing her family was fine without her when she hadn’t thought that would be possible. But that meant that there really was no reason for her to rush back home. She wouldn’t be able to find her siblings in the vast expanse of the City. She likely wouldn’t even be let in.

This place was her only hope for survival now. Without entering the city with her siblings, she would be forced to return to the mining town. She could marry if anyone would have her, though most of the men were hardened and too old for her to consider. It would be a dreary life.

Here, Ruric was offering her his world. He was kind and generous, soft when she needed him to be. He was concerned for her and only her. Yet there was something inside her that screamed for him to go away, for her to build up a wall between the two of them.

He was dangerous, and perhaps not only because of his teeth and claws.

“Can you walk away so easily?” She found herself saying, despite all common sense.

Ruric shook his head, his head bobbing twice in the strange laugh. “I don’t have to walk away. You and I are bound together, as one in the eyes of goblins. I have not left you since you came here.”

The words confused her more than they answered any questions.

“Ruric, you have left me alone multiple times.”

He nodded at her words, a half smile quirking the corner of his lips. “Yes, but never in spirit. That is what a binding is. Two souls intertwined for as long as it remains intact.”

Though he feared it would last for much longer than that for him.

At her stunned expression, he stepped forward once more. His hands grasped the fabrics that had been left on the ground and he continued the task of dressing her once again. This time it felt different though, his fingers lingered upon warm skin as he passed over them. His breath slid along the length of her spine as he walked behind her to tie more knots.

She wasn’t sure if she breathed the entire time he stood beside her.

CHAPTER TWELVE

JANE HAD FELT useless for most of the time she had been here. She knew the other goblins worked. It was highly unlikely that they sat around and did nothing all day. But no one would show her what exactly it was that they did. No one wanted to give her things to do, even Ruric avoided the question as though she was asking something uncomfortable.

Yes she had heard about her family, that was a huge relief. But she was going to go insane if she didn’t start using her body once again. She was used to physical labor. Her hands itched to clean or break stone. Though the mine had been tiring work, she missed it. At least in the mines she was occupied. Here she was bored out of her mind.

As she stomped past, a thin goblin male had rushed past her. His panicked expression had only changed slightly when he saw her.

It was unusual to see a goblin looking so panicked. Jane followed him down a small cavern. He would stop goblins as he passed by them and they would turn to rush past her. This was odd behavior to be sure.

Jane eventually stopped him. Her fingers were gentle against his arm, but she firmly held him in place. He seemed to pause for a moment to think. The situation must have been dire indeed for him to gesture for her to follow him after a few moments of deliberation. At least it was something new.

She followed him without question. The goblins had done much to help her so far. If there was an opportunity for her to do the same, Jane would gladly do her best.

With these thoughts in her head, she nearly missed the goblin stopping in front of her. Jane almost ran into his back. He only flinched slightly at her movement, and pointed down the tunnel at something she could not see.

Lifting the globe she carried higher over her head, she realized she was looking at what seemed to be a cave in.

At their arrival, a few of the goblins looked up. There were expressions of shock, some of anger, but most of them were simply exhaustion. She knew that feeling. She had felt that many times coming home from the mines and wanting nothing more than to have her head hit the soft sand so she could sleep.

She looked back at the goblin who had led her here and nodded her head towards him.

“I know you cannot understand me, but I will help here if I can.”

With the words said, she knotted the fabric between her legs into makeshift trousers and walked into the fray. The first goblin she came across was the one who got the tap on his shoulder. He seemed tired, his shoulders bent hard against the work as he picked up stone after stone.

The exhaustion quickly turned into surprise when she pulled him away from the work. He resisted for a moment, shaking his head at her and trilling in that odd language until she placed her hands on his shoulders and forced him to sit down.

Jane hoped that holding her palms up at him would mean the same to goblins as it did to humans. Stay. Only when he remained seated did