"Trust me."
Trust ye?
She didn't even knowwho he was. Didn't know how her uncle had apparently wronged him or what he intended to do with her once they left the castle. For all she knew, she could be sold as a slave, or worse, used as part of the laird's harem.
She glancedpast his broad shoulder at her chambers. At the narrow bed, the small table with her precious books, and the walls that had been her entire world for six terrible years.
And Maia knewshe had already made her choice.
She wrappedher arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. "I'm ready."
3
"Good. Hold tight. There's a rope hangin' outside ye window. We'll be goin' down with it."
The warning wasthe only one Maia got before the man shifted his grip on her and stepped up onto the window ledge. Her fingers dug into his shoulders hard enough to leave marks on the leather of his jerkin, and a small, undignified sound escaped her throat as he swung them both out into the open air.
The world tilted violently.
Highland gods.Daenae let me die.
Maia's stomachdropped as they left the safety of solid stone behind. She squeezed her eyes shut, burying her face against the man's neck.
His pulse beatstrong and steady beneath her cheek, impossibly calm, as if rappelling down a castle wall with a captive in his arms was something he did every day.
Perhaps it was.
The rope whisperedagainst stone as they descended, and Maia could feel the flex and release of the man's muscles as he controlled their fall with practiced ease.
A shout rangout from above.
"The Miss!Someone's been in the miss's chambers."
Maia's headsnapped up toward her window above. A guard stood silhouetted in the opening, torch held high, staring down at the rope still dangling from the twisted metal stumps of her former prison bars.
"Alarm!Raise the alarm! Miss Maia's been taken!"
The words seemedto hang in the air for a suspended moment. Then chaos erupted.
Bells beganto clang from the watchtowers, their harsh brass voices shattering the night's peace. More shouts rose from different parts of the castle—guards calling to each other, feet pounding on stone, the clatter of weapons being hastily grabbed. Torches blazed to life along the battlements like angry stars, casting writhing shadows across the courtyard.
Please.I daenae want to go back.
Wind caughtin her loose hair, whipping it around her face and shoulders. The thin fabric of her shift billowed out, and she was suddenly, mortifyingly aware that she was barely dressed and clinging to a stranger in the middle of the night.
But that mortificationwas nothing compared to the dizzying rush of movement, the sensation of empty air all around them. Her heart hammered so hard she thought it might burst from her chest.
Then,just as suddenly as it had begun, it was over.
They hitthe ground with a solid thud that jarred through Maia's bones. The man's arms tightened around her, absorbing most of the impact, and for a moment they stood frozen—him steadying them both, her still clinging to him like a limpet to a rock.
"There now,"he murmured, his voice a low rumble in her ear. "That wasnae so bad, was it?"
Maia couldn't answer.Couldn't speak at all, because the moment her feet touched the ground—the moment she felt cool grass beneath her bare soles instead of cold stone—everything else ceased to matter.
Slowly,hesitantly, she lifted her face from the man's shoulder and looked around. She was outside.
The realization hither like a sudden jolt from a long, horrific dream. The night was alive in ways she'd forgotten existed. Above her, stars scattered across the sky like diamonds spilled on black velvet, more than she'd ever been able to see through her barred window.
