The Goblin Bride (Beneath Sands Book 1)

his shoulders. They would have taken this from the dead. Desecrated the body of a boy who was wearing the mark of his lineage. Though it was only quartz, a common stone and therefore a common line, it made Ruric grumble in anger. The rippling sound shuddered through the tunnel, catching upon outcroppings of rock and seeming to grow as it continued.
 A strangely green colored head poked out of a crevice further down the tunnel, appearing in the area that the humans had yet to destroy.
 “Push the raid forward.” Ruric told the creature and he bent and picked up the large man. He would shoulder both burdens Below. The other creature let out a warbling sound, a signal to the others to begin gathering what humans they could find by any means necessary.
Jane came alive as a splash of cold water burst over her face and chest. Dripping and angry, she immediately started swearing. “God damnit Willow, how many times do I have to tell you-“
 She blinked in the darkness. There was nothing in front of her but blackness. To not be able to see upon waking up was startling and horrifying. Fear made her chest sieze. Air would not enter her chest and for a moment she thought that perhaps she was drowning.
 “Breathe girl. Yer eyes will adjust.”
 The rough voice forced her back to reality. She wasn’t drowning. She was, however, freezing. The cold water had woken her up, but it had also chilled her straight to the bone. She had rolled underneath a small stream of water behind her. Her head was spinning, her back ached, and the taste in her mouth was worrying. Metallic and dry, she felt as though her tongue was swollen.
 “Where am I?”
 There was a shifting sound from her left. The rustle of fabric had her trying to lean away. But her hands were tied, rope pulling them tightly across her back.
 “Below.”
 She didn’t recognize the voice at all. Rough and deep, it had the flavor of a man that had smoked his entire life. Either that or sand sickness was getting the better of him a lot faster than others.
 “Below?” She asked, then shook her head. “I don’t- I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
 A booted foot connected with her leg and she realized the man was trying to move. The rustling sound got louder as he struggled with his bindings. “Ain’t ya never heard the stories? Below. It’s where the goblins live.”
 Goblins. That was right, there had been goblins. That was why her head was aching and her lips were crusted with dried blood. There had been a goblin. It had startled her in the tunnel when she had found that strangely beautiful gemstone. Simon had… Simon.
 It all came rushing back, every sound of flesh hitting flesh and every painful strike. She turned onto her side, her stomach rebelling against the memories just as strongly as her mind. Jane had never felt as alone as she did now, heaving into the dark with a stranger at her side.
 “God damnit girl, get ahold of yerself! We only have a few minutes before the bloody things come back!”
 She spit what little she could, turning to the small stream for a drink of water so she could wash away the flavor of acid and blood that now rested on her tongue. His words lingered in her head, echoing as loudly as they would in the tunnels.
 “How do you know I’m a woman?” She asked quietly.
 He snorted. “Ye think I do not know the smell of a woman? We all knew what cha was the moment ye stepped into that elevator with us.”
 The rustling started again as he tugged on his arms. She could see nothing in the darkness still. Her eyes started to hurt at the strain. They had all known she was a woman? How had she not gotten reported? Surely someone would have said something if they knew what she was. Men wouldn’t have tolerated a woman down there in the tunnels with them. She shivered once again as thoughts of all the terrible things that could have happened down there bombarded her mind.
 Suddenly it all made sense. Simon sticking close by, him insisting that she stay in the same tunnel with him even though the rest of the men had their own tunnel. He hadn’t needed her help at all. He had been trying to protect her against some of the other men that worked in the tunnel. He hadn’t wanted anything to happen to her.
 “Oh Simon.” She whispered, horrified at the end he had met. He was too good of man to be feasted upon by monsters such as these. It was surprisingly easy to forget that he had killed.
 “Hush girl.” Came the whispered words. They grated against her ears just as much as they set her heart kicking. Hush could only mean one thing. She strained to hear something other than the constant dripping of water near them but she couldn’t hear anything else. Her own breathing was harsh and ragged. The sound swallowed anything she could have possibly heard.
 She saw them long before she heard them. A line of goblins walking up a small rocky path towards them. They carried dim blue lights.
 The closer they got to her the quicker she realized that she was on a ledge herself. Barely three feet away from her was a drop straight down so far she couldn’t see the bottom. Jane closed her eyes, breathing harder until the man hit her foot hard.
 “Get it together girl, they’re comin.”
 She was having a hard time getting it together. All she could see was the disfigured shadows climbing up the walls of the cave they were in. The blue lights seemed otherworldly. She was sitting on the edge of a cliff waiting for monsters to do god knows what to her. And she was in pain, battered, tired, and so very scared. Jane had never been so frightened in her life.
 The goblins finally reached them, their