Kept By Her Obsessed Minotaurs

5. Garron

5

GARRON

T he crackle of the fire is a distant murmur compared to the thunderous pulse pounding in my ears. Lazir, the one I trusted to keep his head clear, strides toward us with an odd look in his eyes—a mix of confusion and intrigue that sets my teeth on edge.

"She wants to talk," he says, jerking his head back toward the fire where the human female, Mara, sits. The flickering light dances across her face, highlighting the defiance in her gaze.

I exchange a glance with Calo, whose usual jovial demeanor has been replaced by a furrowed brow and a twitching tail—signs of nerves I haven't seen since our banishment. My lip curls in a silent snarl. We've been down this road before, and I'll be damned if I let history repeat itself.

We approach, and the sight of Mara, her clothes askew, sends a surge of anger through me. "What have you been doing with her?" I demand, my voice a low growl. My gaze bores into Lazir, searching for any sign of deceit. "Are you as stupid as Calo now?"

Calo stiffens beside me, his retort quick and defensive. "I'm not stupid," he grumbles, but the uncertainty in his eyes betrays him.

I ignore him, my attention fixed on Mara. "What is she doing tied up yet disheveled like this?" I snap, my glare shifting between her and Lazir. "She's somehow manipulating you. Both of you."

Lazir's jaw tightens, the muscles in his neck corded with barely contained irritation.

With a deliberate movement, Lazir tosses a pouch of gold to me. My hand snaps up, catching it mid-air. The weight of the coins feels substantial, real. My brow furrows as I untie the pouch, the firelight casting a warm glow over the gold within.

"Where did this come from?" I rumble, my gaze flicking from the pouch to Lazir, then settling on Mara. Her eyes are wide, almost luminous in the firelight, and her body is rigid with a mixture of fear and resolve. Fascinating.

"She gave it to me," Lazir replies, nodding toward Mara. "Says it's a deposit."

A deposit? I nearly scoff at the audacity. Instead, I let the silence hang, heavy and expectant, as I consider the human before me. She's slight, fragile even, but there's a steel in her eyes that I've seen in hardened warriors. It's intriguing, but I've been fooled by a human's facade before.

"I can pay you more than my master is offering," Mara interjects, her voice steady despite the tremor that threatens to betray her. "I want to hire you."

A harsh, derisive laugh bursts from my lips, the sound echoing through the campsite. "Hire us? A slave? With what money?" I challenge, my arms folding over my chest as I loom over her.

She swallows hard and blurts out, "There's a treasury belonging to my old mistress. The dark elf female died recently."

I narrow my eyes at her, my mind racing with possibilities and suspicions. "And what makes you think we won't just torture the location out of you?" I reply coldly.

Her gaze doesn't waver, nor does her expression falter. "Because my mistress trusted me. She sealed the treasury with magic. Only I can open it," she says more calmly.

The camp falls silent, save for the crackling of the fire. I study Mara, my gaze piercing and unyielding. "Why would we believe a human?" I say finally, my voice cold and unforgiving. "Loyal to her mistress? Only Calo would believe that kind of story."

Calo bristles at my words, but Lazir steps forward, his voice cutting through the tension. "That gold is proof enough," he says, his tone even and measured. "How else would a slave have that much?"

I snort, tossing the pouch back at Lazir with a flick of my wrist. The gold clinks together as it lands in his open palm. "I'm not doing it," I declare, the finality in my voice leaving no room for argument.

Without waiting for a response, I turn and stalk away from the fire, my boots crunching against the underbrush. The cool night air does nothing to dampen the heat of my anger. I can feel their eyes on my back, each gaze like a needle prick against my hide.

I'm not falling for a human's tricks again. I've learned my lesson, and I won't let Calo's soft heart or Lazir's newfound curiosity endanger our mission—our chance at redemption. No, we'll deliver this human to her master, collect our gold, and be done with it. That's the plan, and I'll be damned if I let some slip of a girl with a sharp tongue and a pouch of gold change that.

I've barely taken a dozen steps when Lazir's voice slices through the night, his words a low, insistent murmur that prickles the back of my neck.

"She might be telling the truth," he says, his footsteps echoing my own as he catches up to me.

I halt, turning to face him with a scowl etched deeply into my features. The moonlight casts shadows across his face, making his amber eyes glow with an unsettling intensity. "You think I'd risk our necks for a human?" I growl, the very notion tasting like ash in my mouth.

Lazir doesn't flinch at my hostility. Instead, he meets my glare with a steady gaze, his voice unwavering as he replies, "You're already risking it. The gold she gave us is real, and if she's lying, we can deal with her then. But if she's not..."

His words trail off, but the unspoken implications hang heavy in the air between us. My jaw clenches, the muscles in my face aching with the force of my frustration.

Lazir's expression hardens, his gaze never wavering from mine as he continues, "And what if it's because she's a human female? Is that why you don't want to trust her?" The pointed questions reverberate through the stillness of the night.

I recoil as if struck, the barb hitting closer to home than I care to admit. The ghost of another human female's betrayal whispers in the back of my mind. The pain of her deception is a wound that has never fully healed, a stark reminder of the perils human females pose.

And yet, as I stand here, locked in a battle of wills with Lazir, I can't deny the nagging doubt that gnaws at the edges of my certainty. Mara is not her. She's a survivor, a schemer, a woman with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Her eyes hold a fierceness that I've seen in the mirror, a refusal to succumb to the hand fate has dealt her.

I glance back toward the campsite, where Calo and Mara are little more than shadows against the flickering firelight.

"We're already being hunted by dark elves," Lazir continues, breaking the silence.

I know he's right; the dark elves will not relent until they've reclaimed what they believe is theirs. And yet, to trust Mara, to place our fates in the hands of a human female, goes against every instinct honed by years of exile and betrayal.

I let out a heavy sigh, my gaze shifting from Lazir to the stars peeking through the canopy of trees. The night is still young, and the path ahead is fraught with uncertainty. For now, I remain unconvinced, my trust as difficult to earn as the gold Mara promises.

"We'll see," I grumble, my voice a low concession to the possibility that Lazir might be right.