Last time: "Goodnight," I told him, sighing slightly. I entered my room and let the door shut behind me. Before my senses even had time to register the subtle shift in the shadows, there was a hand clenched around my mouth, and an arm around my waist, preventing me from moving. Or screaming.
"Please don't scream," the voice behind me whispered as an arm snaked around my waist, holding me tightly. It was a man's voice, smooth and a little bit anxious. I bit down on his hand hard, trying desperately to make some type of noise, but he had me too tightly. My skin tingled, and I could feel his arms pressing into my mine, keeping me locked tight. Thinking fast, I tried to reach the knife in my belt pocket. The stranger behind me sensed my change in movement, and crushed me tighter to him. I screamed even harder.
"Please don't scream!" he asked again, sounding desperate. "I don't want to hurt you. I just want to talk to you. Please don't panic."
My heartbeat was a buzz in my ears. How could I not panic, while a madman was holding me hostage? I stomped on his foot, trying anything to get him to let me go so I could scream for Andreios, right outside in the hallway, to come and help. The madman didn't even flinch.
"I don't want to hurt you," he repeated, sounding much calmer. "Please stop struggling, so I can let you go and we can talk."
My mind was racing. If I stopped struggling, once he let me go, I could scream for help. Or, once I stopped struggling, this stranger could slip a knife through my ribs without any trouble.
No, if he wanted to kill me, he would have done it the moment I walked through the door, not grab me and go through all this. I nodded against his hand, and stopped struggling. My heartbeat raced while I pretended to calm down, trying to wait until the perfect moment to attack him.
"See?" My capturer breathed, sounding relieved. "I don't want to hurt you. Now, I am going to lower my hand from your face, okay? And I want you to say something, anything. But don't scream. If I can trust that you won't scream, I'll let you go so we can negotiate the release of your hostage, Gregory Cobriana."
My mind reeled at this. Prisoner? I thought, my mind spluttering to catch up with these events. What in the sky—
It didn't matter. The arms around me loosened, and years of training kicked in. I elbow the man harshly in the stomach and whirled around, intent on seeing who my attacker was.
Always scream, Danica, my mother drilled into me when I was younger. Don't be a hero; yell out. You're all that's left, now. However, it didn't matter how many times I had always been reminded to let my guards do their duty. I couldn't have screamed if I wanted to. Red eyes pinned me frozen to the spot. I knew without thinking twice, without ever seeing them used, without having ever seen the owner, that the man in my room was no ordinary attacker.
"My brother is the fighter, not me. Zane? Ha! He'd gut you where you stood."
Without realizing it, I was taking small steps backwards, trying to escape that blood-red stare. Something crashed to the floor behind me as I knocked into it, and glass shattered at my feet. I still could not move.
"Shardae?" Andreios called from outside of my door. "Shardae, are you alright?"
"Don't say a word." The man in front of me spoke softly as he inched forward, still holding me fast. My heart was racing, fluttering a tattoo against my throat. I couldn't breathe. My chest was constricting as every instinct in me was screaming to run, flee, fly away!- but I couldn't. I was pinned, staring into his face as my back hit the wall.
"I want to negotiate with you about the release of my brother," Zane Cobriana uttered earnestly. "Please don't think I'm here to hurt you."
He was the single most terrifying thing I'd ever seen.
"Danica?" Rei called again, more urgently. "Shardae?" There was a sharp rap at the door, and then a loud thud. For a split second, the serpent's focus shifted from me to the corridor outside, and I was freed.
"Rei!" I cried out weakly. "Guards, please!"
I heard an angry swear as the door smashed open, Rei leading two other guards into my room. A rough hand snatched at my waist, pulling me in front of Zane. A knife was at my throat, and the room was suddenly still.
"Take me to my brother, or else she's mine." The threat wasn't needed, not when there was a drop of blood already dripping lazily down my throat, pulsing ever so slightly with the rush of my heartbeat.
In the resulting chaos, I couldn't be sure what happened. Everything was motionless, and then there was a sudden crack and something hard slammed into me. I felt the knife cut into my shoulder blade as I fell onto something soft, my head thumping against the floor. A flash of light and I was snatched up again, being pulled along something splintery. Yells and grunts surrounded the air as I was thrust through air, through the breezes, onto something hard and unforgiving. I screamed, and a voice swore loudly in my ear. An arm clasped around my waist and a hand over my mouth, and I was thrown violently onto a horse. I got a quick glimpse of the ground before a blindfold was tied roughly over my face.
"Go!" someone urged, and I felt myself being jostled on the horse, my stomach banging into the side of the saddle. I kept screaming as I heard the rushing flutter of wings behind me and the twang of arrows.
"Oi, shut her up!" another voice snarled. Something hit my head with a sharp blow, and everything went black.