Free Pariah (The New Covenant Series) by Casey L. Bond

beheading, lashings, and imprisonment for various lengths of time. I even heard that some were made to work off their sentence in the fields of crops on the outskirts of the kingdom. That would be my preference if allowed the choice, which of course, I wouldn’t be given. Choice was a word the kingdom had methodically eradicated from its vocabulary and the vocabulary of its subjects.
    He grabbed my elbow and walked me over to the steps and down them. “Sit,” he barked, shoving me backward and down. I landed on the top step. The jolt caused my hands to flinch in a gut reaction to catch myself from the fall, causing the ropes to bite further into my skin. A whimper escaped my lips in reaction. He stood at the bottom of the three large stone steps, smiling up at me. At least he wasn’t towering over me anymore and wasn’t touching me, I thought.
    I noticed that my dress’s hem had crept up to just below my right knee in the scuffle. I moved my hands slowly to try to push it back down. Too late. He saw me trying to cover up and shook his head with a primal look on his face. Lust. He was crazy. And I didn’t care who his father was. There was no way I would marry him. I would kill myself first , I decided, if I made it out of my current predicament .
    continued to look at the s kin of my leg and bare foot and back to my eyes and back again but remained quiet as if carefully contemplating his next move. He grabbed more of the coarse brown rope from his belt and moved slowly toward me. “What are you going to do with that? I’m already bound, Altair. See?” I held up my wrists and wiggled my fingers at him, trying to lighten the mood. He knelt down, and I tried to move backward away from him in response. He seized my bare ankle, preventing my retreat. He swiftly grabbed the other ankle as well and began to bind them together in the same intricate constricting serpentine knot.
    “So you don’t get any crazy ideas to run, pet,” he slithered his hand over the top of my foot. I automatically recoiled, and the knot around my ankles squeezed and bit into my flesh. I glared up at him, snarling my lip. Sick bastard! He stifled a laugh at my guttural response. Then it dawned on me. If he hurts me, a potential, he could get in big trouble, right?
    I reasoned. “Altair, when t he council finds out how you’ve hurt me, even your father won’t be able to save your sorry ass,” I say with mocked sweetness, slightly smiling at my moment of bravery. It was short-lived.
    He grabbed my jaw and squeezed tight, pulling me until I stopped about an inch shy of his face. “Shut your smart mouth,” he slowly growled. “Or I will punish you even before we are wed.” His clenched hand trembled my jaw with his anger. The rage in his steely eyes terrified me, sending shivers down my spine and made me reconsider my approach. How would I get out of this?
    Suddenly, he clasped his hand over my mouth and his fingers were so broad that they covered my nostrils as well. I couldn’t breathe. Slithering around to my back, Altair pulled me backward into his chest, still covering my mouth, although his fingers moved, allowing me to catch my breath. He grabbed me tight around the ribs with his other hand. The motion caused the bindings on my ankles to dig further, and I felt something warm and wet run down toward my heel. Blood.
    Then I realized what caused his reaction—two male voices outside the door. One was Wesley. He was saying that he hadn’t seen me since class today and that Rachel had gone to check on me and found that I was missing from my room. The other voice said that he spoke with Annette, Aria, and Lillian and that they hadn’t seen me either. The second voice said he would start going through the building door to door, beginning on our floor and moving toward the exit. Wes agreed to aid him in the search. I could hear the doors to our left groan and squeak. There were only three before they would come to this one. I was so