Dark Need by Clarissa Wild

Chapter 45

April

The hut doors open, and I’m violently awakened by someone jerking at my arm. I’m torn away from Soren and lifted from the ground, forced to walk to the door while still half-asleep. A guard throws my bag at me, and I barely manage to catch it.

What is happening?

I’m being taken away from Soren, and all I know is that our short rendezvous seems to be at an end.

Soren’s eyes open, but he doesn’t seem surprised. The look in his eyes is more remorseful than anything as he lifts his hand in a wave.

Did he know this was going to happen?

“Wait,” I mutter, blinking rapidly as I’m shoved out the door. “I haven’t said—”

The door is slammed shut.

Goodbye.

The surprise of this sudden intrusion catches me off guard as they drag me away from the hut and into the forest.

“Stop!” I yell, but these men completely ignore me.

They keep pushing and shoving me through the forests until we’re at the beach again. Right where I started. But without Soren.

And in front of us is a boat.

Fuck.

“Get in,” one of them barks, digging his hand into the small of my back.

I step forward to get away from his grip, jerking free when he tries to manhandle me into the boat.

“I can do it myself,” I say.

He throws me a look while another one steps inside as well, waiting for me to get in. I swallow and take the step inside the boat, but my heart pounds as hard as the waves crashing into this boat. I look back beyond the forest, hoping, praying Soren will come soon.

But the longer I sit here on this boat, the more I’m beginning to realize he’s not coming, and I’m being forced off the island by myself.

So I turn to one of the guards. “Where is Soren?”

He just gives me a very filthy look.

I clasp the seat beneath me and stare right back at him. “Tell me where I’m being taken.”

“Not here,” he responds with a thick accent.

Of course he’s not here. I can see that. “What are you going to do with Soren?”

A vicious smirk forms on his lips. “He chose his fate.”

I frown and glance at the other guard, who unties the rope and pushes the boat offshore. Panic floods my veins.

“What do you mean?” I mutter, throwing looks at both of them. “He already had his punishment for the metal and for failing his duty. Why should he suffer more?”

The guy’s eyes boil over with anger. “Because of you.”

Me? Why?

I didn’t—

My pupils dilate as it suddenly hits me.

The night we had together in our hut.

It wasn’t just because they wanted to be kind.

It was an actual goodbye.

No.

When I came to this island to save him, he stopped them from executing me … by giving his life in return.

No. No. NO!

Panic floods my veins, and I instantly get up, clutching my bag, and jump off the boat.

No thinking, just swimming as fast as I can back to the shore, back to where I belong … with him.

I don’t care if it costs me my life. I have to save his.

Even as the men jump in right after me, I keep swimming, ignoring their warnings and shouts. I swim and swim until I reach the shore and run up to the beach. My clothes are soaked, and my body is shaking from the cold, but I ignore it and push through. I’m running on pure adrenaline now as my legs brush past thorny branches in the woods and twig scrape along my skin, leaving bloody gashes.

None of it matters.

Not if I can’t get to him in time.

The men behind me scream, and a knife zooms past my head, but I pay no attention as I run straight to the village. I can already see the huts up ahead, along with the crowd gathered near the center.

I can see the stump of wood in the middle my head was planted on when they tried to take my life … but now Soren’s head rests on top.

My eyes widen as the man with the ax steps forward.

I run as fast as I can into the crowd, shoving them aside with everything I have.

And as the ax is lifted into the sky, I run up to Soren and cover his body with mine.

“No!” I hold up my hand to meet the ax.

The man swinging it stops midair, and the crowd bursts out into shocked gasps.

“April?” Soren mutters, glancing up at me.

The guards that escorted me onto the boat come running into the crowd, but a cane is tapped against the ground. The guards stop in their tracks and glance at the Elder, who steps forward. “What is the meaning of this?”

The guards step aside for her while speaking some language I don’t understand. She narrows her eyes at them and then focuses on me.

“Answer me,” she says.

With pride on my face, I look at her and say out loud, “I’m not leaving. You want to kill him? Then kill me too.”

* * *

Soren

“No!” I bark, but she places a finger against my lips to shut me up.

What is she doing here? She’s supposed to be on her way back to freedom again.

That was the agreement the Elder and I made the second I said I wouldn’t let them kill her. The price I paid for her to be let go was my own death, and I accept that.

But I cannot let her throw herself into death as well.

Elder Saga’s brows furrow as she looks at me, then her.

“You would sacrifice your life even if neither of you make it?”

April’s eyes tear up. “Yes.”

I’m silenced by the beauty of the tears streaming down her face.

The Elder slams her cane into the ground again. “He is a warrior, one who deals in pain and death. You know this … yet you still choose him over your own freedom?”

April immediately nods.

No hesitation.

Complete and clear agreement.

And I don’t understand.

Why would she risk her life for me like this when there is nothing for her to gain?

“Why?” the Elder asks.

The silence around us is deafening when April speaks. “Because I love him.”

Love.

She loves me.

The punisher. The one who hurts, who slices, who cuts, who kills.

The one who took her freedom, who took her virginity.

She loves me?

I look up into her eyes, the affection and heartbreak in them clear as day. Why did I not see it before?

All this time, I thought she came to find me out of pure guilt.

But now I realize that the only thing driving her was love.

The same kind of emotional turmoil I’ve been feeling in my bones all this time but could never place. The kind of love that will make you sacrifice your life for someone else.

It took me a while … but now I finally see her for who she really is.

Too late.

Because the ax is still above both our heads.

“You love him?” The Elder raises her hand at the man with the ax. He puts the ax down in response. “Is that the truth or is it only because of guilt?”

April holds her head high. “I love him. I love every part of him. I gave myself to him out of my own free will. And I still choose him.”

Something about her words spurs me on, pushing me to get up from the stump even though I’m still tied up. April gets up with me, clutching me close.

The Elder raises a brow at me, urging me to stop.

But now that I know how April truly feels about me, I can’t stop.

I have to find a way.

So I tear off the ropes with only the strength inside my own body, ripping them to shreds as I roar out loud. And I shield her body with mine as I ogle the guards, ready to pounce them if I have to. I will die trying to protect her from this fate.

“Stop!” Elder Saga calls out. “There will be no fighting here.”

The crowd was egged on but remains calm now that she spoke. The respect for the Elders is great and not to be underestimated. But they could make … or break a person too. And I wonder what she’s going to do about me. About April. About us.

Is she going to set an example?

Or let us break their rules and risk an uprising?

“Love … now that is a word I never thought I’d hear from an outsider’s mouth. And about one of our fighters too,” Agata says, and the three of them glance at each other like they’re discussing something without saying words.

“But sometimes love happens in the strangest of places,” Elder Elin says. “And when a woman says she loves someone, I will believe it.”

“What are they saying?” April whispers in my ear as she clutches my waist.

I glance at her over my shoulder and say, “Shh.”

Because I think what she just did … changed everything.

Elder Saga slams the cane into the ground again. “Then it is decided.” She looks at both of us. “You have proven to us the worth of your love. It will not be overlooked. An exception can be made for the greatest fighter among us … as long as the love is requited by the woman.”

Everyone looks at her now.

“What?” she murmurs.

I whisper in her ear, “Tell them you love me. They can understand you.”

“Yes! Yes.” A blush spreads on her cheeks. “I love Soren.”

Elder Saga narrows her eyes, but a faint hint of a smile still appears on her face. “Women lead our world. And if a woman has chosen … even if it is against all rules, we must honor it.”

She slams her cane so fiercely it cracks open the ground.

And the guards along with the one who was going to give me my death sentences walk away.

“But,” she adds. “You may not sire an heir on this island. She is not part of our community. The child will not belong. Do you understand?”

I nod and swallow while April grabs my hand and squeezes tight.

The Elders raise their heads in unison. “Then leave,” Agata says. “And never, ever come back. Or we will finish what we started.”

I don’t take their words lightly, and I immediately turn around and walk off through the crowd, dragging April with me.

Just like when I dragged her out of the House.

Only this time, it isn’t me that’s tearing her away from the comfort of her home.

It’s me tearing myself away from mine.