Their Wife: Book 2

Three (Part 1)

I stilled. Everything surrounding us seemed to be in the wake of his words. The trees, the wind, and the occasional haunting sounds of wildlife all came to a halt.

Even my heart paused before kickstarting at a faster rate.

He raised a brow at my lack of response, curiosity and amusement shined bright in his eyes. He didn't give off a threatening feeling, but I wasn't going to let that fool me. His brother had started feeling the same way too and that didn't exactly turn out well.

"W-what?" I finally stuttered out.

My mind was too occupied with Ezra's previous words of warning to come up with a better response.

Nothing distracted you quite as much as picturing your own execution did.

It wasn't my fault that I travelled between realms, I didn't even realize it was happening or that it did happen until someone informed me. Regardless of that, travelling between realms was apparently illegal and punishable by execution, even if it was by no means your intention to. If word got to the wrong people, I would find myself in a similar situation to Alice who fell down the rabbit hole.

There would be an angry bitch after my head.

The same angry bitch who sent me into these ice-filled barren lands halfways to death already. Just thinking of her sent a flare of pain down my spine.

"Is this really how you want to play it, little one?" Ares shook his head lightly and poked at the fire with a stick.

"Play what?" I asked, knowing exactly what he was speaking about.

When you were my size, there were only so many advantages against someone twice as big. When you didn't have the physical advantage, you had to resort to other means to minimize the damage. One of them was playing dumb. I didn't know if it was my size, the way I looked, or the way I acted- maybe it wasn't me at all, maybe it was just that the men thought women were stupid, but most of the instances where I had to use the tactic of playing dumb, it worked.

It wasn't looking like this was going to be one of those instances.

He sighed.

"I'm not going to turn you in," he said, sending bright embers a flight in the cold, night air. The orange flames reflecting in his eyes hid the lavender colour that sent fear down my spine. "I'm an assassin, as I'm sure you heard. I know the dirty secrets whispered in the darkest halls of the palaces, it's no surprise I'm aware of humans. I probably know more about you than you do yourself."

I swallowed at his words but didn't say anything to confirm his suspicion. If they were suspicions. It sounded like he was sure he knew what I was. I hadn't met a single person yet who could identify me as human just from a glance.

Who knew, it could have been more than a glance. I was unconscious for a bit.

The thought had disgust rolling in my stomach. I could feel the small bit of food I had managed to eat revolting.

He sighed and looked towards the night sky. Dark clouds blocked any chance of spotting the stars that lay beyond them. "You fear Zev," he bluntly stated. Returning narrowed eyes to mine, he continued. "I saw it the moment you recognized my face as his." His jaw tightened, a muscle jumped in his cheek. "Why?"

I let the silence that followed his one-worded question drag.

It was a simple question with a simple answer.

Zev had given me plenty of reason to fear him.

But he had also given me one to seek him out. One that made me think he was different.