SWNOVELS Chapter Thirteen: Marley
Three days.
Three days have passed since she had last spoken to him. Three days since the incident and three days since Sawyer decided to pretend that he didn’t need her. Marley felt betrayed and almost broken, the mate bond felt like it was hanging on by a thread while she walked through the forest with her arms crossed and her eyes watching the ground.
Abby had decided to walk ahead of them because to her ′the sexual tension was too intense’ but Marley couldn’t feel it. She was too caught up in her own mind, coming to terms with her new reality. The new her. The new Marley wasn’t entirely a human by a hybrid Fae with demon blood. Abby was clear on that, she said that her blood was tainted with demon blood and she was really born a Fae and if that was the case, she now knew why her father was marrying her off to the first guy who agreed to it.
He didn’t want tainted blood in his family, he didn’t want an abomination of a daughter living under his roof but what he didn’t anticipate was that Marley wasn’t the only one with tainted blood in the family. If only he opened his eyes and saw that.
Marley came to terms that she was going home, back to the hell hole that she never wanted to go back to but after a day of being carried and two days of walking in complete silence, she realised that she had no other choice.
Every now and then she wanted to speak, she wanted to know more about their travelling companion. She was young, almost too young to be living in a cave on her own. Abby didn’t have a problem with talking, occasionally she would begin to talk their ear off to break the tension but nothing ever broke it. Sawyer was being… Sawyer, and she was too upset to respond, she was having fun, she was enjoying her freedom but now that was gone. Imprisoned by her own mate and a demon, vampire chick with way too much energy.
Marley also wanted to know more about Sawyer, his home, his family, and his species. She wanted to know everything from childhood stories to his favourite colour but she knew it was stupid. He was the visual impersonation of a Viking god and his quiet demeanour didn’t help.
They had stopped walking, the sun was slowly going down as Abby made a fire. Marley’s bow burned her back as she removed herself from the group and disappeared into the trees. This has been their routine, Abby makes a fire, Sawyer stands back in the dark and glares at everything while she disappears with the bow and arrows he gave her and hunts for food. Game hasn’t been great, the air did feel stiff but she dismissed it for being around his majesty all day long.
She knew to be careful with each step she took. Keeping her breath even so she would not chase away her prey as she found rabbit tracks. Marley felt ridiculous killing rabbits with a bow and arrow but Sawyer had taken all her weapons. She would watch her sword move with him as it was attached to his hip and she hated it. The stupid sword was hers and so was her dagger but now all she has is a flimsy bow and ten arrows that felt like they were going to snap.
Marley found more tracks as she crouched and spotted a group of rabbits. She didn’t know what they were eating and she didn’t care as she grabbed an arrow and aimed. The arrow shot straight into the head of a fat rabbit as the others ran off in fear and fright.
She wished that she could hunt more but this was typical for her. She took her dead animal and arrow before slowly returning to camp. She didn’t want to sleep another night in silence anymore, she wanted to know why he was doing this but she also knew that he wouldn’t tell her.
He is always in his head thinking she was a mind reader and she wasn’t. If he was expecting her to know why she was going back home then he was sadly mistaken because she didn’t know and the longer she didn’t know, the angrier she got.
The camp came into view as she crouched down by the fire. Taking the knife from Abby’s outstretched hand as she sighed, dropping her bow while she watched the now dead rabbit twitch. “Dinner.”
“I could have shifted, there is better food out there than some rodent that would barely feed a child!” Sawyer snapped, his arms crossed as he stared at her crouched form.
But all she did was roll her eyes and stand. “More for me then.”
“Holly shit, you two refuse to talk to each other for three days and your first conversation is snarky sarcasm!” Abby exclaimed with a groan. “Makeup already!”
Marley didn’t respond, she had already felt stupid after opening her mouth the first time and she didn’t feel like being humiliated again.
Sawyer didn’t speak either, staying in his quiet bubble while Marley gutted and skinned the meat before cooking it. She wondered if he ever ate, he rarely ever took a few bites before allowing Abby and herself to eat the rest. She felt guilty every time but she tried to tell herself that she didn’t care. She didn’t care about him, he was just some jerk who took her around for a bit and is now bored.
Besides, she doesn’t blame him, she was a reliability after all.
The following day came by quickly as they were on the road again. Abby had said this was a four-day walk to her boat and Marley didn’t have the energy to question why she owned her own boat. It was none of her business anyway.
What she didn’t expect to see was a crew. Men cleaned the deck and others did small duties. Abby had pulled a satisfied grin after seeing their faces. “I see I have shocked you both.” She stated with a chuckle. “This is my crew! My men! And my family! They will take you anywhere you want to go with my command.”
She waited for a response but all she got was silence as she rolled her eyes and sighed. Taking them up on deck before commanding her head to go to The Land of Humans. After she was done, she took them below deck where all of the cabins were. Showing Marley and Sawyer their own rooms before walking away.
Marley watched her leave before turning to her door. She could almost feel Sawyer wanting to say something to her as she refused to look at him. “It worked, you wanted me to hate you and it worked
She then entered her room and closed the door. Feeling the cold of the timber as it resembled how she currently felt.