Soul Catcher (7 page)

“Did her kidnapper accompany her?”

“No,” Father Giloth responded. “Her kidnapper did not come with her.” It was a mere technicality. In his opinion, Drake was the kidnapper, not Aleco.

The duke’s countenance flushed with obvious disappointment—he was certain she would be there. Now she was gone from his grasp and so was the man who crossed him. He knew Father Giloth chose to live in ignorance. If he didn’t know her location, he couldn’t reveal it to the duke. His folly would be punished soon. “She will return here—eventually,” he reasoned.

“Unlikely,” stated Father Giloth. “Since it was once her childhood home, she knows you will anticipate her reappearance in these woods. If she doesn’t want to be found, then logically, she wouldn’t return here, not even to see her old man.”

“I will leave nothing to chance,” he snarled. “A handful of my men will wait for her arrival. When the bitch finally makes her return, my soldiers will drag her all the way to my keep by that beautiful brown hair. I will bloody her so severely, she will feel as though she has passed into a pleasant death, only to be viciously dragged back to the painful light.”

Drake began his departure from the forest. “By the end, she will beg me to let her die.”

Severstein Sea

10

“We are almost there!” Aleco’s shouts were muffled by the sound of the storm. Accacia tightened th
e
cloak around her body as she lagged behind him. The powerful wind pushed against them as they moved forward, and the heavy rain smacked hard against their faces, like pointed, frozen icicles. They trampled across the sandy beach to the camouflaged cave.

Accacia fell to the ground as the elements prevailed over her. Wet sand clung to her skin at the impact and she inhaled a mouthful of the dirt. Her vision blurred as exhaustion crept up on her. She heard the ocean crash against the shore as the wind propelled the salt water further up the beach. She wished she could see it.

Aleco cursed. He forced her to her feet and grasped her hand with his, leading her closer to their destination. They finally found the slit in the wall and slipped through the hidden entrance.

Aleco started a fire and prepared a kettle of hot water. Accacia dropped to the floor and leaned against the
stone wall, trying to catch her breath. Her body convulsed from the stinging cold; the frozen blast had chilled her bones.

Aleco held a blanket in front of the fire. “Stand up,” he demanded, his voice harsh. Accacia shook her head, too cold to speak. “Now,” he commanded.

Trembling, Accacia got to her feet. Aleco removed her soaked cloak and hung it to dry. Due to her exhaustion, she didn’t object when he removed her clothes. Aleco laid her in front of the fire and placed the wool fabric over her, knowing it would quickly return vital warmth to her body. Within minutes, she was asleep. Aleco walked to his locked chest and retrieved a metallic stone. He caressed it with his calloused fingertip until he fell asleep, the stone still clenched within his palm.

The crackle of the flames woke Accacia from her dreams
the next morning. She clenched the warm blanket tightly as her mind came into awareness; she wanted to keep sleeping. She looked over at Aleco, asleep in his bed, fully clothed, and noticed the thin wisps of smoke hanging in the room.

She
smiled, glad he had used the herb she gave him. Accacia sat up and quickly realized she was bare underneath the concealment of the wool. Her cheeks reddened at the revelation. Aleco had obviously undressed her. Although she understood it was necessary to her survival, Accacia couldn’t help but feel the breach of her privacy. It was a sensation she was too familiar with. Aleco had said horrible things to her and had given her sufficient reason to hate him, but he never touched her against her will or tried to hurt her. The undressing was too disturbing and she immediately felt threatened. His behavior was unacceptable.

She spotted her clothes hanging over a chair and she dressed herself immediately, wanting to cover her naked body as quickly as possible for fear of what the sight might bring.

Aleco groaned as he sat up in bed and Accacia quickly covered her exposed breasts. “Don’t look at me, Aleco.”

Aleco sighed and faced the opposite wall. He hadn’t realized she was changing, but he hadn’t been looking at her either. He was annoyed that she accused him of the perverted thought. “I’ve already seen you, remember?” Aleco rose from the bed and walked past her, heading towards the exit. “Don’t worry,” he snapped. “It didn’t do anything for me.”

He walked outside and left her to finish donning her dry garments. She reflected on his behavior. Clearly, Aleco wasn’t the type of man she was accustomed to. She felt guilty for immediately assuming the worst, but she couldn’t stop the wariness in her heart. He had no idea what she had experienced at the hands of the cruel man that raped her on a daily basis.

“You’re welcome—again,” he said, startling her as he walked back through the opening. She jumped at the sound of his voice. “I really wish you would start trusting me.”

“Coming from a man who never reveals an inch of his skin—not even his hands,” she said. Although she doubted Aleco would hurt her or press his advantage on her, she wouldn’t be stupid and put herself in a compromising situation. She couldn’t stop herself from being cautious.

Aleco was unresponsive to her comment. He opened his storage of dried fruit and handed it to Accacia along with a cup of hot, black tea. “Accacia, if I was going to hurt you, I would have done it already,” he said, still annoyed by the insult. He may have been an asshole to her, but he never gave her any reason to fear him for a sinister motive. He wouldn’t have returned her to Father Giloth if his goal
was to hurt her.

She ate her breakfast in silence, ignoring his last comment. She couldn’t help but feel violated. She knew he had only undressed her to save her life, but she still felt frightened.

“Fine, be that way,” he barked. Aleco returned the stone to the wooden chest at the foot of his bed and locked it once again, placing the key in his pocket. “I don’t know what happened to you, Accacia, but I can assure you, I am not like whoever it was that made you this way.”

Accacia sipped her tea, her eyes locked on the dying fire. “Thank you for taking care of me, Aleco,” she said, attempting to change the subject.

“For the third time,” he added.

“Yes,” she laughed, “for the third time.”

Aleco stared at her from the foot of the bed. Accacia felt his gaze on her face. His voice dropped to a whisper and made her skin prickle with unease. “I am not a selfless person, Accacia,” he threatened. “I require payment for my services.”

Her eyes widened in surprise—she knew where this was going. Her heartbeat raced in alarm, and she felt frightened of what he would demand of her. His words were too similar; even his voice was too familiar. She felt perspiration drench her palms and the fear take over. She was in a secluded cave, alone with a man she hardly knew. Accacia suddenly felt stupid for making such a thoughtless decision. “Oh?” She ran her hand through her hair and tried to slow her beating heart, attempting to remain
calm.

Aleco sat at the edge of the bed directly before her and stared. Her heart thumped loudly in her chest as she dreaded his next words. She wondered if he could hear it beating. “Tell me what I want to know,” he said. “Why were you at the Prisoner’s Circle? I know you already confessed a small part, but I need to know more—and you are going to tell me.”

Accacia’s body flooded with relief. She was expecting a very different demand and she was elated to be wrong. The tightened hold on her heart loosened and she let herself breathe again. Lowering her hands from her strands of hair, she placed them in her lap. “I would rather not,” she said, as her heart filled with melancholy at the memory. She didn’t want to reminisce about her time with that perverse man and impart the tale to someone else, especially Aleco. She knew he would judge her immoral actions. She sipped her tea and looked away.

“I don’t care what you
want
,” he said. “I require it as payment. You should be grateful I am not asking for something more.”

Accacia said nothing. He couldn’t force her to tell him anything—he had just indicated he would never harm her so the choice was hers. Even if she didn’t confide in him, he wouldn’t beat it out of her. She felt guilty
for ever thinking it. Just because Aleco hid his face and was habitually rude didn’t he mean his intentions weren’t honorable. She looked at him. “Why are you so interested?” she asked.

“Does it matter?”

“I have one condition.” She sighed. “You are not to speak, comment, or joke about my disturbing experiences—and we are never to address it again.”

“Fair enough,” he said.

Accacia explained her relationship with Lord Drake from the day she was captured to the day she escaped. She detailed her perverted intimacies with the duke; how he forced her to complete crude tasks against her will, bound her petite frame against the bed while he raped her, and the intense beatings she received if she shed a single tear in response to the traumatic horror she was subjected to. “He demanded that I love him and when I refused, he shipped me to Morkarh, where I was subjugated to regular rounds of torture and beatings until I had a change of heart. I was there for three months until my mentality broke, and I decided I would rather die in that prison than be forced under him any longer. That’s when I consumed the poison—I didn’t want to live anymore.” Accacia intertwined her fingers and stared at the fire, holding back the tears that stung behind her eyes. “Until you rescued me,” she added.

Aleco rose from the bed and paced the room, anger leaking through his skin. The malicious acts of the duke disgusted him. His cruelty needed to be put to an end. Aleco hated himself even more. He was responsible for this. Now he understood the meaning of Father Giloth’s previous words.
And whatever you do, Aleco, do not reveal your face.

“Accacia—”

“Please don’t.” She sniffed.

Aleco sat on the floor across from her. She flinched at his sudden proximity. He spotted her distress and forced himself to bridle his anger. How could she treat him as if
he
was like Drake? “Accacia, I’ll never let that bastard near you again,” he said. “I promise.”

“Why do you care?”

“I—” Aleco paused. Why
did
he care so much? Aleco was the one responsible for her pain. If he hadn’t been such a coward, this could have been avoided. She wouldn’t be crying right now. “I—just do.”

Accacia wiped her tears with her sleeve. She hadn’t looked at Aleco once, and wanted to change the subject. Accacia had answered his question like he demanded, and now she wanted to think of it no longer. She hated feeling the pain. Even though Accacia had just confessed her heartbreaking experience, she somehow found her bewitching smile and finally met his gaze. “So, you’re not an asshole?”

“For now.” Aleco laughed. Perhaps, this is why he cared for her. Despite her gruesome history, she was strong enough to continue forward, always with an infectious laugh and a dazzling smile. It was unfortunate Aleco couldn’t adopt her attitude—but a stream can’t simply switch its course by will alone.

Accacia drank her tea, which was warm and delicious, and Aleco returned to his chest and dug through the items until he retrieved a metallic, glossy stone. “I have something for you.” Aleco offered her the shiny gem.

She repeated the same tempered words he had snarled to her when they approached the border of Father Giloth’s lands days ago. “I don’t want it.”

“Too bad,” he completed the dialogue with a smile in his voice.

“What is it?” she asked as she rubbed her smooth skin over the marble flesh of the stone, examining its dimensions.

“A Soul Catcher,” he said.

“I’ve never heard of such an object.”

“Because they are extremely rare,” Aleco explained. “This gem allows you to store memories. It acts as a visual journal. You can store images and recollections within the stone, to be retrieved whenever you want to relive the moment.”

Accacia gazed at the stone again, but this time in awe.

Aleco continued. “They grant you the ability to not only remember an event that was important to you, but to
relive
it, experience it again.  You can see someone you’ve lost, remember something you’ve forgotten, feel something you haven’t felt in many years.”

Accacia looked at him. “This is amazing, Aleco,” she whispered as she appraised the priceless stone. “But I cannot accept it.” She returned the gem.

Aleco flicked her hand away. “Keep it,” he said. “I already have one.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” he said. “It’s a lot more convenient than carrying around a
journal
,” he teased.

She gripped it tightly within her palm, cherishing the
invaluable jewel. The stone was her vehicle into blissful memories, allotted time and space where she could revisit pleasant flashbacks, and have a reason to smile. “Yes, it is.” She grinned.

Accacia massaged the cold stone with her fingertips, her eyes locked on her own movements. She wondered what Aleco deemed worthy enough to store within his own gem—if he’d experienced anything worth remembering.

Aleco tossed her an ordinary steel
blade which she caught with both hands. She looked confused so he answered her unspoken question. “I am going to teach you the blade.”

“Why?”

“A request from Father Giloth,” Aleco replied, his voice full of annoyance. “I thought you wanted to learn?”

“I do.”

She stared at the sword. She gripped the handle incorrectly and it fell to the sand at her feet. Aleco sighed to himself as he watched her. Accacia grabbed it again but it slipped from her grasp like a wet fish. He knew this was going to be difficult. “It’s just a
sword
,” he said. “Pick it up.”

Accacia retrieved the sword and held it in her grasp. She looked at the blade as if it was alive, about to fly from her hands by its own will.

The storm had passed, allowing the sun to shine in the cloudless sky and bake the sand under their feet. Aleco and Accacia stood on the beach near the edge of the shore, facing each other and preparing to spar.

Accacia let her embarrassment leave her body as she looked at the sky and saw the beaming sun. She enjoyed the kiss of the sunstar on her flawless skin, and she adorned herself in a light shirt and tight leggings, no longer fearful of attracting unwanted male attention. Aleco was the only male, with the exception of Father Giloth, which she felt this comfortable with—she trusted him. It was obvious he harbored no attraction to her.