The Priestess' Affair [Books 1 &2]

𝐕. 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐫'𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞

* Song above - Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence (Bardcore | Medieval style)

-HER-

"So we met again," He declared. Suddenly, I was missing the bandits.

"But what are you doing here?" He asked me while I still had the cloth stuffed in my mouth.

"Do you know her?" Asked the other man who was with him.

"I might," He answered, giving me a dark look while I laid there, glaring at him and waiting for him to remove the cloth from my mouth and untie me. The other man gave him a pointed look before he looked down at me again.

"So... what do we do with her?" The other man asked. The peasant was going to respond, but within this time, someone came and told him that they didn't find much from the bandits. The peasant nodded, and the man went away.

"We're taking her with us," The peasant answered his friend, who was still looking at me strangely.

"Are you sure?" The other man asked him, looking very unsure, but the look on the peasant's face irked me. The same look said he knew something about me that I didn't.

"Yes," He asserted before his friend gave me a last look and left to join the rest of the group, leaving the two of us alone briefly. In the background, the other men were collecting the bodies by the stream. I took this moment to look at the peasant... or that's what I thought him to be when I saw him last time on that ship. This time, he looked like anyone but a peasant. He was dressed more like a merchant tonight, but that strange aura oozing off him remained the same. It was the same aura that made me feel oddly gravitated to him and, at the same time, made me want to run for the hills.

Who was he? I wanted to ask, but my mouth was still stuffed with the cloth. He was still studying me with that same knowing look, yet there was slight bewilderment in his eyes.

"Untie me," I gritted as soon as he took the cloth out of my mouth. At this, the tip of his lips slightly curled up, and something gleamed in his eyes.

"I think I like seeing you tied like this," he commented, gently moving a strand of my hair away from my face. I was about to threaten him to untie me, but before I could do that, he declared, "We cannot stay here for long," and scooped me up. Suddenly, those strange sensations exploded all over my skin like fireworks, making something flutter in my stomach and making my heart thrash against my sternum.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded, glaring at him and wishing those strange sensations running up my arm and down my spine would stop so that I could focus more on finding a way out of there instead of finding a way to his—

Suddenly, I reminded myself of the shrine and a certain someone named Vittoria waiting for me there and to be honest, it sobered me up for a bit.

"You'll see," He answered, looking ahead. I noticed that his group was already preparing to leave after collecting the dead bodies by the river. The way they had piled those bodies, it was as if they were trying to send a message to someone... or set an example. Whatever it was, the sight was sickening and gut-wrenching.

"No, you have to tell me now!" I demanded.

"Are you in a hurry?" He asked.

"Yes,"

"Where do you have to be at this time?" He asked, glancing down at me again with a funny look on his face. "You look different than the last time I saw you," He commented.

"You too," I couldn't help but comment. "Aren't you a peasant?" I asked him while he caught up with his group, who had already crossed the stream and were now threading through the deep woods in a way that reminded me more of a platoon than a group of merchants. The weapons they were carrying made it hard for one to believe that they were merchants.