My eyes move on to the third man standing before me. He’s the one who carried me here.
Benjamin.
He appears to be the youngest of the four of them. He’s older than me, but I don’t know by how much. At least ten years, I’d guess. He is built strong, like the twins, but he has wavy brown hair and his hazel eyes look sharp now. Different from the soft way they regarded me in the forest. Unless my mind was playing tricks on me.
My body turns the last quarter turn until I come face to face with the man who must be James. He appears to be the oldest of them all. You can tell that these men all come from the same brood. They’re built very similarly and it’s clear they know a thing or two about manual labor. James has the same hair as Benji, but his eyes are black as coal and cold as ice.
My eyes grow wide and my happiness fades when they meet his. The brutal look painted on his face terrifies me. My arms wrap themselves around my body to try and still the shaking fear within me.
“I—,” I begin.
“Silence!” he shouts in my face.
The force of his anger pushes me back into the wall behind me. Only, it’s not a wall. It’s one of the other men. One of the twins. He encloses me in his arms and walks me forward again, so I am in front of James once more.
“What makes you think you have the right to speak?”
“I—I’m sorry, but if you’ll just let me explain—”
Smack!
This time he silences me with a backhand across my cheek. The sting is worse than any pain I’ve ever felt, including the time I was thrown from my horse. I just want a chance to tell them who I am. To let them know that I chose to be with them, to live the life they live. That I couldn’t imagine staying in that castle one more night knowing they were out in the world somewhere.
“James.”
I hear Benjamin speak to my right. My tongue snakes over my bottom lip and I taste blood.
“Unless you want to be next, Benjamin, I’d suggest you keep your mouth shut.”
I don’t miss the way he cringes when James calls him by his full name. As if he doesn’t like it. It makes me wonder why. I think it’s a beautiful name.
James walks forward until we’re chest to chest. He nods at the brother behind me, who lets me go. I try to keep my eyes locked with his, but I chicken out. This stare is too brutal, too severe.
Turning my eyes to the floor, I chide myself for backing down so quickly. I blame it on my starvation and fatigue. I am too weak to fight back. Maybe once they calm down, I’ll be able to let them know who I am. Just as I claim defeat, I feel a tug on my hair. James grabs a hold of my blonde locks and directs my attention back to him.
“You dare turn away from me when I’m talking to you, little girl?”
“I didn’t mean to disrespect you. I’m sorry,” I say, defeated.
I notice him examining me a little more closely than before. His dark, coal colored stare moves from mine to the tiny, star-shaped birthmark just above my right eye. The skin between his brows furrows slightly when he sees it. Does he recognize me? People have always told me that I look just like Mother. Does he see her when he looks at me?
One of them said that they take what they want from women before they kill them. Is that because of me? Because I, a woman, am the reason they were sent away?
“Not sorry enough. But by the time I’m finished with you, you will be.”
James’ words chill me to the bone, but I try to let my eyes speak to him. To let him know I’m not a threat. I want him to see the love within them. I need him to know that he can trust me and I’m only here to try and make things right. This may very well be my last second, minute, hour, or day on this earth. I will never be able to give back the lives that were stolen from them the second I was born. I just hope they give me a chance to explain myself. Maybe I can make them understand and they will let me into their world. If so, I’ll spend the rest of my life caring for them and letting them know how much they mean to me.
