Free Catching Temptation (In Darkness She Fades (Book 1) by Sarah Erber Page B

block the exit.
    “Get away from me!” In a dark
part of the forest, I notice a section vacant of life.
    “Get back here or we’ll give your
cousins to the goblins!”
    I vaguely register Herald’s
threat. I am unable to process anything else.
    Chevy lunges in my direction.
    I scream.
    Clawing a handful of dirt and
dried pine needles from the ground, I throw it in Chevy’s eyes, and dash into
the strange part of the woods. The wind howls above me, bending the huge trees
inward. Animalistic eyes pop out of the bushes and stalk my every move. The
wall materializes into view again, but the trees and shrubs close in on me.
Stomps and snapping twigs echo from behind. An army of goblins is pursuing me a
few yards away. These ones are wearing actual metal body armor. The ground
falls away from my feet and I shriek as I descend a steep hill. The small twigs
poke me while the pointed leaves crunch underneath the weight of my bruised
body. I slam into a cedar log at the base of the hill. With a light groan, I
stagger to my feet and sway. The world spins around. I reach out for a tree
limb to steady my spinning head.
    “Girlie, yer not ta make it outta
here.”
    A goblin pokes his ugly head out
from behind the old maple. I push my body away from the maple tree and stumble.
The grim creature acts like a dog on full alert.
    “What do you want from me?”
    The old goblin ambles forward.
His heart shaped head appears massive compared to his body. Leathery brown skin
glistens in the dying light. A long bony finger points at my face. “Ya’ve got
somethin’ we want. Somethin’ the demons will try ta stop ya from usin’. If ya
don’t come with us goblins, ye’ll end up like that brat Victoria. She was
special like ya once, but even with ‘er havin’ the Gift, my king wouldn’t pick
ah spoiled brat like ‘er.”
    I know my eyebrows are scrunching
together. “You don’t make any sense. None of this makes any sense. Why won’t
you tell me what it is the Goblin King wants? Why do you talk in riddles?”
Gripping my hair, I expel a scream of frustration.
    “It be our way, Girlie. What fun
would it be ter tell ya everythin’? Why – ya’d never learn nothin’!”
    A screeching howl snaps through
the trees overhead. Before I can comprehend my next move, a pair of arms seizes
my waist.
    “Stay away from her, Goblin.”
Herald’s voice echoes in my ear. In a heart-dropping lurch, he pulls me into
the trees, and then bolts through the forest. I grasp his arms for dear life,
spotting the archway up ahead. Black veins underneath his pale skin, spread out
across his body; mimicking a tribal tattoo. Thick wings, black as the devil’s
eyes, have grown from Herald’s back, and beat against the air. With the angry
growl from the Goblin King, we pass over the wall and burst through the trees –
returning to the human world. Landing next to the motorcycles, glistening in the
rays of the dying sun, Chevy stands waiting for us.
    Chevy snatches my waist, while
Herald steps in front of me. His powder-white hand whips across my left cheek.
The deafening slap causes a few birds from the nearby trees to fly off in
alarm.
    Pain shoots out across my face
and neck. I raise a tattooed hand to my sore cheek.
    “Don’t you ever try to disobey me again!” Herald’s skin and teeth slowly return to its human
form. His red eyes, however, still retain a feral threat.
    A tear rolls down my cheek. “Why
did you bring me here? To scare me or use me to tease that king? I don’t belong
to you! You can’t treat me like–”
    Herald shakes my arms. “Yes, you
do and yes, I can! Everyone in Rosewood obeys me. Everyone. And you’ll learn to
obey me, too.” The calm assurance in his voice disturbs me worse than his
inhuman features.
    “Fine, I’ll leave Rosewood–”
    “You can’t leave Rosewood,”
Herald says. “When my brother and I imprisoned the goblins behind the wall, we
also made it so whoever enters Rosewood could never leave without