Now facing her doom, she was treated to the sight of the ground rushing toward her. Of the thousands upon thousands of bodies that lay broken at the bottom, crippled by the fall. Left to die in slow agony. Alone.
By the fires,what had she done?
Flailing, she screamed louder than the wind. At the top of her lungs, until she collided with the wall once more. Her jagged tail bone took the brunt of the impact, laid her out flat in a greatoomphof stolen breath and dazed vision.
She was spinning out of control. Rolling, now. Knees, elbows, and hips taking on the chore of slowing her down as she curled around herself and tried to bear it. Elbows skinned to the bone in a single instant of contact with stone.
But still, she fell. Arms wrapped around her face, she tumbled. Bounced twice. The pitch growing less and less severe as the seconds rushed by, her speed reduced until she no longer had the momentum to spin. Instead, she slid. Feet first. Her obliterated harem silks nothing more than scraps that had bunched around her hips. Offering the slightest amount of protection against the very real danger of being skinned alive before she could find release from her torment.
When the wall began to level out, she knew she’d failed. Her great escape botched by an optical illusion not visible from a thousand feet above. And now, a greater danger than splattering on the stones below.
Bodies.
A great trench that had once held a moat stocked with vicious water dwellers, was now nothing more than a great slide littered with the bones of the less fortunate—bones that were jagged and broken. Glaring white.
The first one she struck merely glanced off her foot. Whizzing past her face so fast she hadn’t a clue what it might have once been, only that it hadn’t been living for too many seasons to count.
She screamed again, trying to plant her feet. To slow herself before she was bisected and impaled by a shattered femur.
But it was no use. The only result? Raw and burning feet.
Still, she had to try. Couldn’t just accept so gruesome a fate, no matter that she’d decided to end it.
Her feet caught on a clump of old clothing, the sudden friction launching her upright in an instant. Windmilling, she scrambled for balance as her legs pumped. Running wildly. Moving so fast she felt something pull in her back, but though she was indeed slowing, it was impossible to stop until gravity had finished toying with her.
Staggering, she tripped. Feet tangling in something that squished, she went down. Tucking her arms and legs, she was thrown end over end, tumbling with a squeal of pain that belittled just how fantastic her fall had been. How… comically unlikely to fall a thousand feet and survive. She didn’t stop until she collided with the last unfortunate soul to meet his end over the wall.
The body split open upon impact. Intestines bursting out the other side of the abdomen, she unleashed an unholy stench as foul liquid seeped into her open wounds. Gasping, she lurched to her feet and swayed on the spot. Disoriented. Shaking.
A narrow channel of brackish water was all that remained of the moat, and she focused on that, ignoring the reek of rotting flesh baking in the early morning sun.
There were flowers. Elegant, billowing petals speckled with electric purple that sparkled and danced. Waving in a gentle breeze.
She exhaled a shuddering breath and took a step. The tiny movement sending a shock of pain rattling through her bones. Every millimeter of skin aching and burning, throbbing with every lurching pulse of her heart.
“Fuck,” she gasped, clutching at her throat. “Fuck!”
With a strangled cry, she made her way to the water. Unbalanced. Stepping over bits of the corpse and all the others beyond. A literal graveyard of criminals and rejects sent to die beyond the wall. Some were little more than skeletons, almost powdered by age, while others still were mummified husks. The worst were the fresh ones. Like the massive hybrid who’d been thin to the point of emaciation before he’d fallen, his skin still sweating putrefied fat.
She retched, the heaves making the damaged skin of her back split and bleed anew, but she pressed on. Eyes focused on the pretty white and purple flowers beckoning from the stream, and not what oozed between her toes.
When she was able to navigate to the edge of the moat, she fell to her knees. Voice splintering when open wounds landed in muck, but unable to do much else but endure.
For a time, she merely stared into her reflection, on all fours. Gasping and shaking as the waters were stained red, her mind befuddled by the shock of it all.
Would Hadim come for her now? Would he make the trek down just to see if she’d done the impossible and survived? And ifshe’dlived, surely… surely she wasn’t the only one? There must be others.
Males.
Criminals, starved for female attention. Those who’d do worse than Hadim on their best day.
She swallowed. Bracing to stand, for she couldn’t stay.
No, for better or much, muchworse, she was beyond the wall. The Nine had granted her the chance to live free, just as she’d wished. Transaction complete, her freedom bought and paid for in blood, slick, and tears. Just there, on the other side of the narrow moat, lay the wilds in all their untamed glory.
But she was just a harem girl, and not a very good one at that. She’d been called a renegade for her inability to adapt or submit to the life of a pet. How could she possibly survive on her own?
A breathless laugh burst from her lips. Wasn’t this freedom? The right to fail at her leisure? To make her own decisions and do exactly as she pleased? Even if it meant an ugly death.
