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

gone. This was the warlord. The warrior his people knew and who she did not. He was imposing and powerful standing next to the council men.

A cold shiver trailed down the length of her spine as she realized why he was standing there. Ruric was not just a council member nor was he simply holding that blade. Today he played the role of executioner. That was why he had wanted her to stay in the cave. That was why he had been so forceful with her. He had not wanted her to see what he was about to do.

Looking bored, he scanned over the crowd with those pitch black eyes. Once again she thought them soulless, black wells of nothing that held very little in their gaze. At least until those eyes caught upon her.

Rage once more flickered across the broad lines of his face. His biceps twitched as he took one step forward. He could not know it was her, there was no way he could see that far in such dim light. She was covered. She was in dark fabric. Jane had to remind herself that she had done everything she could to ensure no one would know who she was.

Until she caught the flicker of gold at her breast. Looking down, she realized that the long rope of her braid had slid free of the blanket and was gleaming in the dim light as it had a tendency to.

He knew.

She looked up, half afraid to see him stalking through the crowd like some great beast attacking its prey. But he remained upon the raised stones with the other goblins. He was barely holding himself in check. She knew him well enough in this short amount of time to recognize that.

He cast one last glance back towards her, dark eyes completely unreadable. And as the cave fell silent, she realized he was warning her to leave. That blade raised above his head, the light catching along the line of it.

Jane did not stay to see what he did with that weapon. She knew very well what was about to happen. These creatures were barbarians and nothing else. Murder was never meant to be done for sport, nor did she want to see what happened afterwards. These men deserved more than her tears, they deserved more than her heart ache.

They deserved someone to make their deaths worthwhile.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

           SHE SHOULD HAVE gone back to the cave. She should have been a good little human pet and made herself scarce. The goblins were going to be bloodthirsty after such a show and it was foolish to be going deeper into danger. But Jane had never professed to be smart, especially when she knew there were others that needed help.

  This was the reason why she was wandering through the deepest tunnels she had ever seen with nothing but a flashlight as a weapon. Every now and then she would stop, recite the directions the man had said to her once more and hope that both of them had remembered correctly.

  One misstep down here and she could be lost in a labyrinth of blackness forever.

  The flashlight continued to flicker on and off. Every time it snapped out of existence she thought that it was the end. She didn’t know how old it was. She had no idea how long the battery would last on something like this. But she did know that this was better than sitting in a cave waiting for her to captor to come back and try to reason with her.

  She had seen all she needed to see. Ruric had gotten underneath her skin. It was her own fault really. Jane was the kind of woman that needed to take care of something. First it had been her father, then it had been her siblings.

  It was understandable that her feelings got a little mixed up.

  She had foolishly put him up on a pedestal. He wasn’t human! But the memories of soft touches and warm embraces reminded her that he was something more than that. He was a man she had found herself falling in love with. Three months wasn’t enough to decide on that. It was her own fault her heart was breaking.

  She was reacting harshly and trying to force herself to feel a way she did not. Jane simply did not understand. He had dressed her with care, held her gently when she had broken down, shared with her a hidden cave that was sacred to him. He had given her his body, heart, and soul. She had given him the same.

  It wasn’t fair that in this lifetime they were meant to be enemies.

  She picked her way through the tunnels carefully and eventually she was relieved to see the last marker that the man had mentioned. There was an archway carved here with a few names written into the stone. This was where the men were working. He had said they were left on their own to work in that area. They were chained to the walls and moved only when they could not work the tunnels any further.

  The sound of clinking reached her ears. As familiar as it was dreaded, she marched around a corner and shone her light upon the men working there. They also had a few of the blue globes set just out of their reach.

  But what she saw there was not what she had expected. They were already freeing themselves. The familiar metallic clanks had been resonating from shackles being cracked open.

  She pushed the blanket off of her and stared at the men. Jane had come here thinking that she would save them only to find that they were managing on their own.

  “Lass?”

  The familiar voice made her close her eyes for a moment, swaying where she stood. Opening them slowly, she tried to