The Unchosen Path

“A deal has been made.” Lugh slammed the door to our small cottage, holding a piece of paper. “It is done.” He was my deceased mother’s husband, who’d inherited our once prosperous mill just for being married to her.

It was because of him that we’d lost half our workers and more than half our profits. It was his pull towards quick earnings that doomed us all.

Especially me.

My body seized with fear as I carefully walked down the stairs of the loft. I watched every raindrop roll down his wind-burnt face. The sound of splattering water was all that could be heard.

That and my pounding heart.

“What is done?” I asked carefully. I took the last step of the creaking staircase towards the cupboards. The bread knife gleamed in the light of the fireplace next to it.

“I have found you a husband.” He slowly took a step forward, and I, one to my right. My eyes never broke with his. “A very wealthy husband.”

A fate worse than this one. Where all hopes of freedom, of a future…of love would be sold off.

Just like me.

“You have found me a husband,” I repeated. Taking another step to my right, only five more to that bread knife. For too long had I watched Lugh squander the dreams of my mother, of my own. This would be the final line.

He could have the cottage. He could have the mill. He could have the profits.

But I would refuse to let him have me.

“I know that look, Ada.” He took another step away from the small puddle of water. His face was red, not just from the chill of the night but the rage simmering inside. “There is nothing you can do. I own you.”

The words felt like shackles.

And they had been for years. I’d stayed here for my mother, promising her that I would never leave her alone with this…beast. I gripped the end of the wooden railing.

The way his face contorted as he prowled a step closer told me he was every bit of that beast tonight. Ready to attack at any instant. My heart pounded as I guessed that I was out of moves.

A prey froze before its predator. It would have to be one long, determined leap to that bread knife. It would have to be before Lugh got his hands on me.

“Our law speaks differently,” he smiled. In a way, I felt my heart stop beating until lightning struck somewhere in the distance. “Everything that was your mother’s is mine. Including you. Property to be sold.”

Maybe I should’ve tried harder to venture into town. I could’ve found a suitor of my choosing, at least to a degree. Someone to free me of this mill—of Lugh.

Maybe that had been the reason he kept me on the outskirts. For this very moment, when I was at the ripe age and could be sold off for the greatest number of coins.

It was too late to regret now. It was too late for anything, but fighting.

Even that would have to be done with caution. Women in our town had been killed at the hands of the law for less. Our lives were as worthy as livestock, it seemed.

“How long do I have, then?”

“A few days.”

“And, if I tell you no.”

“Death.” He growled. “Either by the hands of the law. Or from me.”

I steadied my breath. It was true. That was the one thing about Lugh. There was no reason to lie or twist the truth. The only option was to obey, and my hands clenched as I thought about all the times my mother did so to protect me.

For me to refuse the arrangement. Death. For me to stay with Lugh. Death. For me to run away and possibly be found by him or one of our law-men. Death.

And, that was considering the death lurking for us all, the whispers of strange warriors stalking the woods, wouldn’t catch me first.

It was a grim outlook, and I looked over to my mother’s sitting chair in the corner. Her favored shawl and basket of yarn, still untouched. I forced all images of her away, using it only as kindle for the fire burning inside of me.

“Why. Why do this?” Desperation took over. “You know I am the only reason the mill turns any profit. Without me, you will have nothing.” It was a plea, not to me, but to destiny itself.

The way Lugh lived his life, the odds of him catching some sort of illness or making an enemy were in my favor. If I could convince him to allow me to stay, then maybe I would have a chance at the life I’d spent years dreaming about.

Dreams that had given me the will to live. Dreams of happiness. Though, I’d given up long ago that those dreams included someone coming to save me…to save my mother. The day she passed, I’d buried that hope, resigning only to reality.

I would save myself. I would find my happiness. I would find my destiny.

And, right now. Lugh was standing in the way of that dream.

“Ada.” Lugh warned, moving his body into a position of attack. His large build readying to pounce. This was it. I put my life in the hands of fate, and leapt with every ounce of desire to live.

“Ada!” Lugh yelled louder than the next strike of lightning. I made it as close to the cupboard as I could, screaming when I felt two rough hands grab ahold of my foot.

“There’s only two ways you’re leaving this cottage,” he was yelling, and I was kicking, “either betrothed,” I clawed my way to the cupboard door, “or dead.” I pulled on it, the wood groaning under my hold. Forcing the heel of my foot into his head, over and over.

The wood groaned louder, and as if the lightning outside struck it, seconds later, it completely splintered off.

The sound stunning us both, but I was up on my feet, grabbing the knife off the counter. Running around the other side of the table. I dared a look at Lugh scrambling to his feet.

He shoved the wooden table towards me, attempting to lock me in the corner. It was the small breakable chair that slowed down the move, just enough time for me to keep running. I would not be that chair. I was smaller than him, but I was not breakable.

“Ada!” He roared, now holding his own knife. Similar to a traveler’s blade.

This was it. It was down to us, both armed. If I were to escape, his own life was on the line when my betrothed came to claim his prize. He needed me here—dead or alive.

A part of me couldn’t believe that this would be our last moment together, yet another part believed that this was always how it would end.

Two blades. One life.

I jumped over the small chest, hoping somehow I would have time to grab my boots and cloak. If I didn’t die in here, I was surely going to die barefoot and in my night dress in the stormy night. Considering Lugh now throwing another chair across the room, the only object between us, dying in the forest, was the least of my worries. I would take my chances.

I pushed myself, the door just within reach. When I felt a shooting pain in my calf, I looked down. Disbelief filled every one of my senses when I saw Lugh’s knife stuck there. In the meat of my muscle, not life-ending, but there nonetheless.

Blood was now leaking on the floor. It was enough to disarm me, which it appears was his intention.

I felt his skin-cracked hands grab my shoulders, then shove me against the wall.

“I guess I’m going to have to tie you up for the next few days.” His rancid breath filled the space. “Something I assure you that your betrothed won’t mind. He has a bit of a reputation, you see.” His hands gripped my shoulders with bone-breaking strength. I didn’t flinch, though.

I stared at him straight into his lifeless eyes. “He likes them young, and he likes a fight. You’ll be his fourth bride this year.”

“No,” I held firm onto my knife. The one, by the grace of destiny, it seemed he’d forgotten in his rage. “I will not,” I said for myself, for my mother, as I jabbed it into the side of his body. Twisting it, just as I’d seen some of the mill-hands kill animals caught in the fields.

Lugh dropped his hands, the same surprised expression now on his face when he looked at my bloodied hand. That was my chance, though. I dislodged it, and as I raised it, quicker than my heartbeat, level with his neck. This time, I closed my eyes as I forced it into his neck.

His body fell, as did everything around me.

Everything that had kept me focused on surviving.

The last thing I heard was the sound of the crackling fire and Lugh gurgling on his own blood before I passed out.