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

is not true. I said what I thought would hurt you the most and I know that is not fair Ruric. I was wrong. I was so wrong to do all of this.”

  “Yes, you were.” He slowly sat up. It did not escape her notice that he tried to use only one arm and even then it was gingerly.

  “You’re hurt.”

  “It is not of your concern.”

  “Of course it is!” Anger was the only way she could hold herself together. If she allowed herself to think for even one minute that he was casting her aside, she was unsure whether or not she could survive that. Her family was gone and even if she returned Above she may never see them again. He was all she had.

  For a moment she thought he was going to leave. She knew how to read his body by now.

  His shoulders slumped, curling in on himself as he used one arm to raise the other. Limply it rested in his lap as he stared down at hands slicked in blood.

  “You let them go.” She had to lean forward to hear him.

  “What? No! Who told you what?”

  A mangled hand raised to gesture behind them. “The human.”

  Jane stilled. “Simon? Simon told you that I helped them? What did he say to you, Ruric?”

  “That you wanted the goblins to die.” Again, she had to lean forward to hear him. For a moment she thought it was because he was saddened by even saying the words. He was so quiet, so still, she was certain that she had broken something in him. Until he looked up at her with those black eyes and she realized it was not remorse but anger that had made him hold so very still.

  “I never said that Ruric.”

  “Why would he lie?” He laughed though, the sound choked. “Or do all you humans lie? I should know better than to trust any of you. You say we are beneath you, and yet the words that come out of your mouths are twisted.”

  This time he did move to stand. It pained her to see him move so stiffly.

  “I did not help them, Ruric. I didn’t want anyone to die! I went down there to do… something I don’t know what, but all that changed!”

  She was scrambling to her feet, only to stumble backwards when he turned upon her. This was the goblin she had expected when she first arrived into these caves. The bared teeth of an animal, the low grumble of noise that betrayed how dangerous he truly was.

  Her foot slipped on the stones, arms pin wheeling as she tilted backwards. Once again, she thought she was going to plummet to her death. Yet he grabbed the fabric between her breasts, held on with a red hand that smeared blood across her clothing and skin.

  “You’re not going to fall again.”

  She tried not to take that as a good sign. He was angry with her. Far more angry than she had ever seen. Yet he was not going to let her fall. Surely that was a good sign?

  He leaned close, those black eyes staring into her very soul. “You freed the humans, Jane. Our slaves. What did you really think was going to happen?”

  Leaning back over the open chasm, she swallowed hard knowing that he held her life in his hands. “I didn’t free them Ruric. You have to believe me.”

  “You are naive.” He said angrily. “I cannot trust you, you are one of them!”

  “No!” The panicked shout burst out of her. “I did not want or plan to hurt anyone! I found them to see what was happening for myself. Perhaps I thought for a moment to free them but when they admitted to wanting to kill, I tried to stop them!”

  “You lie. You have said nothing else but how you want to go home. This was your opportunity to leave, and you took it.” He tilted her dangerously over the edge, his good arm extending.

  Jane’s fingers held onto his wrist. “I do not want to leave anymore Ruric. I told them that!” She gasped as he let her slip further. “I was not going to go with them!

  The last sentence was shouted into the chasm, echoing until the words rang in her ears.

He pulled her back up slowly. Her hands held onto his wrist as she stared into his eyes. Those eyes that she hadn’t even known had color in them until recently. Perhaps, in the end, they truly did not know each other as well as they thought.

  “We have to get back to the others.”

  “We?” She asked quietly.

  He looked back at her, face hard and impassive. “As much as I wish I could throw you off that cliff, Jane, it would be impossible. I cannot harm you.”

  That moment made it difficult not to cry. She had shed tears before him many times at this point, but to know that she had disappointed him, that he wanted to kill her, was a blow to her very soul.

  They picked their way through the caves, very little light guiding them as Simon had fled with the globe. Ruric was kind enough to leave handprints on the wall for her. Yet still she had to go slowly to make sure she did not slide off of the cliff once again. He did not help her as he usually did. Instead he would wait, just out of her line of sight until she caught up with him.

  Her heart was breaking the entire journey.

  Finally they reached the goblin center and she had to stop once the light met her eyes. What had they done?

  There was so much carnage here. There was blood slicking the edge of some of the ladders, streaks staining the cave walls. She could see the glisten from where they had emerged from the