He then added, “We both know if I let you fix the teleportation system, you’d be gone. The Darkened One already knows you’re coming. As much as I like chasing you, I’m also fond of my head being attached to my body. I’d rather it stay that way.”
Luna ignored the guard’s mindless chatter, her thoughts busy searching for another way to escape. She couldn’t rely on anyone else to save her, she needed to save herself.
She stared at the silver door handle. All she had to do was grab it and jump.
Without thinking, she sprang from her seat, fumbling with the handle for only a heartbeat before the door flung open.
A wall of wind rushed past her, tousling her hair as she leapt.
In that heart-stopping moment, Crawford reacted with lightning speed.
Holding onto the carriage with one hand, he grabbed the back of her shirt with the other. The fabric bit into her shoulders as her body whipped in the air, nothing between her and the drop but his grip.
Inch by inch, she could feel her shirt slipping through his fingers. He shifted his weight, getting a better footing, freeing his second hand to grab her arm.
His eyes, wide with terror and disbelief, locked onto Luna’s as the wind howled around them. With a surge of strength she could only describe as godly, Crawford hauled her into the carriage.
She crashed to the floor, gasping for breath, every muscle trembling.
He slammed the carriage door shut and cried out, “What the hell, Nina!” His voice was filled with a mixture of anger, panic, and sheer disbelief. “Are you insane?!”
Insane would have been doing nothing. Jumping out of a flying carriage wasn’t a logical thing to do, but what options did she have?
She exchanged a wordless glance with Crawford before returning to her seat. Did he expect her to thank him? She wasn’t bound to her noblewoman etiquette anymore, and she wasn’t about to play the polite little captive for anyone—even if he had just saved her from falling to her death.
“I forgot what a pain in the ass you are,” he grumbled, cursing under his breath as he lifted the cushions of the opposite bench to reveal a long rope. He then proceeded to use that rope on Luna, winding it around the binding of her hands, similar to a leash. Once it was secure, he tied the other end around his hand. “Now, where you go, I go.”
She scowled at him. “You think that scares me?”It did, but she wouldn’t let him know that.
He chuckled as if she had told him a joke. “I don’t think anything scares you, Nina.” His gaze slid to the door she’d flung herself from moments before.
“I already told you I’m not Nina.”
“And I’m not Crawford. I just look and sound like him.”
“I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but then I’d be lying.”
Crawford slumped back against his seat and closed his eyes. “I’m done with this game of yours. We can just sit in silence for the rest of the trip if you’re going to act like this.”
Was that supposed to be a punishment? She scoffed. “Fine with me.”
Silence fell over the carriage. Luna became more aware of the rhythmic beating of the devil horses’ wings. Peering out the window, she watched the world below in its miniature form, at the patchwork of fields, rivers, and forests. The sheer vastness of the sky above and the distant horizon stretching out before her would have been breathtaking in any other situation.
The last time Luna had been in a carriage, she’d been with her family and been so excited to go to the protection ceremony. Back then, her biggest problem was arguing with her mother over a silly hat. How she wished she could go back to the simplicity of those days.
Tears welled in her eyes, and she shut them tight. She had to be strong now. This was not the time for pity. She hadn’t allowed anyone to pity her after the camp, and she wasn’t about to let herself do it now. She remembered how, not so long ago, she told Damien she had never wanted to be helpless again—and so she wouldn’t.
She could decide that.
Mistake or not, she’d make the Darkened One regret ever bringing her into his territory. No longer was she a damsel in need of saving; she was her own knight, with wrath that’d make her armour shine.
When the situation arose, she would use her magic to free herself, and dead or alive, she wouldn’t become a pawn in someone else’s game. As if ignited by the thought, her power roared inside of her, a defiant flame ready to burn. The second she was free of these ropes, she would act. Not as a victim, not as someone who needed saving, but as a force to be feared.
And make no mistake, she would be feared.
Epilogue
Damien’s POV
