Page 45 of Demure
“You brought this on yourself,” the kidnapper grumbled as he began to pull Sierra through the grass.
Although she couldn’t see much from behind her blindfold, Sierra began cataloging anything she could sense to use later when she escaped. There was no way this was the end for her, she wouldn’t allow it to be.
The kidnapper was pulling Sierra so roughly her legs beganto tangle in the long grass they were walking through, and Sierra stumbled a bit. This didn’t deter her captor, as he only began to pull her more roughly, resulting in him practically dragging Sierra.
Using this to her advantage, Sierra put her bound hands along the ground to try and feel her surroundings. Unfortunately, the grass was sharper than anticipated, and Sierra soon felt the sharp sting of her hands being sliced open by the tiny blades.
Trying to hiss in pain but unable to do so with the gag in her mouth, Sierra ended up coughing instead, causing her kidnapper to come to a stop. At least, she assumed that was what was going on until the air around her changed.
At first, Sierra thought she was being pulled through a clear waterfall, but she realized the sensation she was feeling wasn’t wet, rather more of a vacuum. But then, as suddenly as the sensation started, it stopped, and the air around Sierra felt heavy, warm, and moist; three things she knew were not characteristic of the air in Dublin.
That’s when the thought finally hit her. She had been brought to Sidhe, or The Hills as Aodhan described it. Unless there was another secret world that she hadn’t been told about, in which case she was truly screwed.
Sierra didn’t have much time to evaluate what was around her before she was roughly shoved onto something made of wood, the impact jarring as her entire body came into contact with it. Sierra grimaced but couldn’t say anything, thanks to the gag.
At least, she thought,Aodhan can come in here and find me. She just hoped he figured it out quickly, as she had no idea of the strange man’s intentions.
The wood beneath her began to move, and Sierra figured she had been thrown in some sort of wooden cart or wagon. Although the situation wasn’t ideal, and Sierra was scared out of her wits, she couldn’t help but wish she wasn’t wearing a blindfold so she could at least see the world into which she had been taken so forcefully.
The ride continued for what felt like days but was probablyonly an hour or two, if that. Sierra’s shoulder was pressed uncomfortably into the wood, and her neck ached from sleeping in a trunk the night before. Trying to find something to pass the time, and keep her mind off the pain, Sierra began running through the homework assignment she had been planning to complete that weekend. It wasn’t all that interesting, and she knew it likely wouldn’t matter anymore since she doubted she was leaving here alive, but at least it temporarily lessened the pain and gave her something to focus on.
The cart finally rolled to a stop, and just as roughly as she was tossed in, Sierra was pulled to a standing position, though her kidnapper remained silent. She almost wished she hadn’t screamed now so she could at least ask him what was going on.
Sierra’s feet stumbled over the uneven ground, the man keeping up his brisk pace whether her feet were on the ground or not. When the dirt beneath her feet became cold, smooth stone, Sierra knew they had entered some kind of structure.
“Ah, what have we here?” A new voice that wasn’t that of her kidnapper reached Sierra’s ears.
“Sir, I believe I have found the girl to break the curse.” Her kidnapper spoke up from just behind Sierra. She really wished he would remove her blindfold so she could see who she was talking to.
“You have now, have you?” the second voice questioned. “Well, remove her blindfold so I can see her face.”
Before she could register what was happening, her blindfold was removed, causing a bright light to stream into her eyes. As much as she wanted to look around, Sierra was forced to close her eyes because of the brightness. After a few moments, she blinked, trying to allow her eyes to adjust. A man stood in front of her, but he was still blurry as she attempted to focus.
“Ah yes, this is the woman my son spoke about.”
At the word ‘son’ Sierra’s ears perked up, and she blinked furiously until she could finally see the form standing in frontof her. The man was well dressed in the kind of suit Sierra expected to see in a fairytale. But that wasn’t what caught her eye. Rather, it was his pointed ears, wide jaw, and green eyes, reminiscent of someone else she was familiar with.Aodhan.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sierra’s heart stopped. Standing before her was Aodhan’s father. The man in front of her looked so much like Aodhan that she couldn’t breathe.
Still frozen in shock, her mind rewound the last few minutes as she looked at her surroundings. She was in a structure built of large gray stones. The floor was partially covered by a long red rug, and a similar red tapestry hung on the walls. The ceilings were high, and lanterns rested every few feet, casting light in even the darkest corners. Everything around her was reminiscent of the medieval castle structures Sierra had seen in her books in grade school.
She wanted to believe that this was an odd and crazy dream, but she knew the alternative was that she was still knocked out in some man’s truck, and at this point, she would take the weird dream castle rather than consider the only other plausible option.
Suddenly, her mind snapped to something she had heard just moments before. What did Aodhan’s father mean by ‘the woman his son had spoken about’?
And what did her kidnapper mean by her being able to break the curse?
Something about this situation was very wrong, and Sierra knew it was probably going to get worse before it got better.
She was so busy tearing through her thoughts, trying to unravel what could possibly be going on here, that it wasn’t until Aodhan’s father was right in front of her that she even noticed he had moved. Sierra’s instinct was to step back, but her kidnapper was right behind her, forcing her to remain where she was as Aodhan’s father visibly evaluated her face, eyes, and hair.
“Hm.” He rolled a strand of her dark hair between his fingers.
Sierra’s heart was attempting to break out of her chest, but she wasn’t sure what she should be feeling right now. On one hand, Aodhan had told his father about her, which was something most women were happy about. But on the other hand, she was 99% sure she wasn’t able to break some Fae curse, so this could be about to get ugly.
Aodhan’s father finished his evaluation and stepped back, snapping his fingers simultaneously. A woman appeared next to him, and Sierra quickly noticed how her ears weren’t pointed, indicating she was likely human.
