The Way Back (Champions of the Crystal Book 4)

Chapter 5.3

Several hours later, Ford shook Sabrina roughly awake. "Someone's coming!"

Sabrina blinked; the light had changed in the room, which told her she'd been asleep for quite some time. She vaguely remembered dozing off while Ford was telling her about the ceremonies for his investiture as Prince of Bathir, and she was surprised he'd let her sleep. "What is your command, O Master?" she yawned.

He rolled over onto his stomach. "You were working on my lower back when you fell asleep."

"I had a rough night," she said, then wondered why she should apologize at all. She went to work on his back with the heels of her hands, a little harder than strictly necessary.

"Oof," Ford grunted into his pillow as the door swung open to reveal Varla herself.

"Well," Varla said, "I see she has not managed to wreak very much havoc. I do wonder that you trust her with your back turned, however, after what she did to my handmaiden."

"She won't try that on me," Ford said, sitting up. "Do you need me in the laboratory?"

"Our experiment nears completion. I wish your opinion on its success," Varla said. "I shall have the guards tie her up in your absence."

"There's no need for that," Ford shrugged. "I have her well under control. She'll do as I say."

"Really? How dull for you. How did you achieve it? I did not think your race practiced mind control."

"We don't. There are other, more visceral means of control, however. They're much more fun to practice, for both parties," Ford grinned. He slid the palm of his hand up her arm and let it rest at the juncture of her neck and shoulder. Sabrina made herself sit still as his fingers toyed with the hair on the back of her neck, steeling herself against whatever was to come. She could not repulse whatever intimate contact he chose to initiate without exposing his lie and getting herself restrained; she must just hope that his sense of duty would keep any mischievous impulses under control.

"Really. You will have to show me when we have more time," Varla said. "Come."

"Be good," Ford said to Sabrina, reinforcing the command with eye contact. Then he grinned and leaned forward, pressing his lips against the spot where her collarbones met. She couldn't quite repress the shiver that ran through her, and she tilted her head back and closed her eyes in an effort to keep herself under control. But as soon as her eyes closed, she felt him move away, off the bed, remarking, "I must thank you again for her. She's extraordinarily talented, and so responsive."

Sabrina heard the amusement in his voice and knew the last remark was really aimed at her. I really am going to get you for this, she thought at him, then realized that Varla might have heard her. She opened her eyes in time to see Ford close the door behind him; Varla gave no sign of having heard her thought. Well, maybe she was focused on Ford and ignoring Sabrina.

She hugged herself and tried to think what to do next. Escape seemed next to impossible, but she must not accept that. She didn't want to stay in this situation very much longer. Ford's touch had disturbed her in ways she didn't want to analyze, much as his gaze had bewitched her when they first met. He might be as dangerous to her as Varla was to him, in different ways. He probably knew it, too, damn him, she thought. And if Varla did have some hold on him, and he got a hold on her, they were all lost. I need to get out of here. But how?

The windows were far too narrow. There was only one door, and there were guards outside it. She had no weapon, or even anything she could use as a weapon. She doubted she could lift the stone bench, and the bedclothes wouldn't be much use. With her fingernail, she probed at some of the stones around the windows, hoping at least one would be loose. But they were so massive that they'd have to be in a much greater state of deterioration before she could dislodge any of them.