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

should take it. There was no way to turn them off and if someone came looking for her it would be a dead giveaway.

She couldn’t see without them though.

Realizing she was stuck, she walked to the edge of the room looking for something that might help her.

And it was in the very back of the room that she discovered another makeshift bed. It was roughly made and looked uncomfortable. She had seen it before once or twice, but had never took the time to really look it over.

This must have been where he slept before the hammock. It had taken time for them to share a bed. Jane had always assumed that he had gone somewhere else to sleep. Now she was starting to realize that it was unlikely he would ever leave her for that long and that he had been staying here to watch over her.

She fingered the soft material of the blanket softening towards the memory. He had been so kind to her even back then. He was a good man.

Her foot connected with something underneath the bed with a loud thunk. Brows furrowed once more, she leaned down to see a metal box that had been slid underneath it.

She had never seen goblins keep anything like this. It looked like something she would have found Above not something that was here. The box was light and rattled loudly when she shook it. No one was going to walk in and stop her yet somehow she thought she was going to be caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to.

The latch was broken and it was easy to ease open. Inside were a few random items she recognized. A small pin, a few switches from the helmets they had worn, a faded photograph of a man she did not recognize. But in the corner was the one thing that made her breath catch in her throat and her hands shake.

There was a flashlight in the box. Old and slightly muddy, but a flashlight.

She held her breath and prayed to the gods she did not believe in hoping that there would be something that happened. A soft click echoed through the cave as she hit the switch. Please let there be light, she thought. Please let this work.

It didn’t. Nothing happened but the soft click that did nothing but make her angry.

She smacked it against her hand hard, but once again nothing happened. “Come on! You last forever in the mines but a stinking goblin gets his hands on you and you stop working?” She hit it again. “Work please!”

One more strike and there was a stuttering light that shuddered before steadying.

White light. She hadn’t seen white light in over three months. It had always been blue light that changed the color of everything she could see.

The cave was suddenly stark in the beam of her flashlight. Colors faded to dull, the stone no longer glittering the way it did in the light of the globes. She cared not for what was around her but indulged herself in a moment of pure self absorption. She turned the light towards her arm and flexed her fingers as she enjoyed a moment of looking at normally colored tan skin.

She was paler than she had been when she came down here. Already she was starting to look more like the goblins than human.

It was more than enough reason to have her clicking off the flashlight and covering herself with the dark colored blanket. Her people were down there and who knew what was happening to them. If she could help then she would. If she died doing it, then so be it.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

SHE SLIPPED OUT of the cave and checked to make sure that no one was around to see her. It appeared that most of the goblins had followed the troop leading the humans towards the bigger cave. It was an odd contrast to know she had celebrated a type of celebration there.

She shivered to think that this might be part of a celebration as well.

The already lit globes guided her way and with the blanket over her head she managed to pass by without being seen. Any who did glance her way dismissed her. None caught sight of the long golden braid that swung from underneath the blanket.

A large crowd had gathered in the giant cave, all of the goblins agitated. They were shouting and warbling. Their strange noises would rise to hit the ceiling and reverberate back down towards them. Some were nearly foaming at the mouth.

Jane didn’t know what was going on, but she could easily see that she wasn’t going to like it. They were crowing towards the gathering of goblins that were on the lifted section of the cave. She had seen these goblins before, the council members that had judged her grouping of men.

This couldn’t be good if they were here. Ducking her head a little lower, she shifted herself through the crowd to the edge so that she could press herself against the wall.

There could not have been a more dangerous place for her to be. A human among many goblins that were only here because they thought these humans were going to be… what? Killed? Given away as slaves?

She was careful to continue to thread her way through the crowd slowly until she was standing just beyond the council members. If she wanted to slip past them unnoticed, she was going to have to be quick.

No one noticed the shadow that skittered past the gathering of goblins and into the darkness behind their leaders.

Jane let out the breath she had been holding. She gasped as she rounded a corner in the cave and pressed her back against the stone. Her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it knocking against her ribs.

The flashlight was easier to click on this time. It only took a few swift smacks until the bright