Free Forbidden (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) by Dawn Steele

She blinked several times, not trusting her vision.
    Unflinching, Aein smoldered at his tormentor. “He has an eye infection,” he said. “If he doesn’t get it looked at by a real doctor, he will lose it.”
    “Oh, fancy words now. What do you know about eyes then?” Bone Braid moved the blade’s tip closer to Aein’s eye so that it was now a whisker below his lashes. Snow White had a terrible premonition that what she imagined would come true.
    “No!” she cried.
    “Leave him, Gorm,” Cauliflower Nose said. “Pretty face like that might fetch a bushel of gold if Mother Baron doesn’t want him for other things.”
    The men chortled as Gorm removed the knife. He planted his foot in the middle of Aein’s chest and forced him roughly down. Aein’s head and back slammed on the ground painfully. Ants scattered.
    “To be honest,” Gorm said, “I’m getting tired of Mother Baron and her grand design.” He pronounced the words as though it offended his tongue to have them roll off. “It’s as though we’re the outcasts and the dregs.”
    The rest of the men stared at him as though he had just blasphemed.
    “You don't mean that, Gorm,” Cauliflower Nose said uneasily. “Such talk will raise the ire of folks back in the village.”
    “We’re not in the village.”
    “But she’s our mother,” Milky Eye shot back.
    “An apple must stray far from the tree to take root and grow.” Gorm turned to Snow White. “Ah, now that I can see you properly, my beauty, you are a prize indeed. Imagine the bids she would fetch when she stands on the auction stage like a heifer, naked, in chains and trembling with fear.”
    Snow White could well picture the jeers of the crowd and the thrown pulpy fruit. Her pulse fluttered as Gorm clasped his calloused hand around her neck. This is when it would happen, she thought. My death.
    “My word.” Gorm drew a sharp breath. “She is more exquisite that I imagined. See how the flames dance in the whiteness of her cheeks. Blood!” He startled Snow White by running a finger across her lips. “Ah, it is not blood but the very redness of her mouth itself.”
    Terror began to mount within Snow White.
    “Indeed,” Metal Hat said, peering into Snow White’s face. He swatted away a dragonfly that had come too close. “She is as beautiful as you say. More beautiful perhaps than the famed Queen Isobel. What’s to wager she’s still a maiden?”
    Gorm grinned, showing rotten teeth. “Only one way to find out.”
    He tore the front of Snow White’s tunic, baring her flesh. She screamed, her bonded arms straining behind her, as he pushed her down on her back. She kicked out at him as he began to undo the laces of her pants, and he seized her by ankles and twisted them so that tears sprang to her eyes. This is not happening, she thought. He ripped at her pants and pulled her tunic up, exposing the expanse of her belly.
    “Leave her be,” Aein said in a dangerous voice.
    Cauliflower Nose struck him in the face. “Shut up or you will feel my knife between your ribs.”
    Something splat against Snow White’s face. Turning to the meat on the spit, she saw that it was rapidly darkening in patches, as though putrefaction were spreading at lightning speed. A locust landed on her cheek. It clicked its mandibles as it regarded her through its eyes. Her heart leaped. A little way to her right, she saw that one had landed on Aein too, and then another. More locusts covered her exposed flesh until she and Aein were besieged by the little green insects.
    The insects covered her like a living blanket, but she felt no fear.
    Then the air blackened as a thousand glittering locusts descended onto the little clearing. Their wings hummed as the men cried out and covered their faces. The soft-bellied insects struck their flesh and tried to worm themselves into their eyes and mouths. The panicking horses tried to tear away their tethers.
    A piercing shriek tore Snow White’s gaze to her left.