I take a deep breath, all my muscles tense. “Run!” I shout to the girls, and then I take off running as fast as I possibly can. I leap onto a cart loaded with boxes and jump onto a roof, while people gasp behind me. I race along the top of the roof and drop down into a pile of straw, then keep going through the streets.
I hear the guards shouting behind me, and then there’s the sound of running feet. My boots pound against the cobblestone, my heart hammering. I dart down an alley, climb over a stack of crates, and scramble up a wall. I don’t stop. I won’t stop. If I do, I’m dead.
Keep running. Don’t look back.
I bolt down another alley, then race down a road, before darting between two buildings. The woods are close, close enough that I can practically feel the soft earth beneath my feet. My breath burns in my chest, but I push myself to go faster. To survive.
Surviving is one thing I’m good at.
I’m almost out of the town when I turn a corner and collide with something hard. Glancing up in horror, I see the angry face of one of the guards. My muscles contract as I try to switch directions, away from him, but I don’t have time. A fist slams into my face, and everything goes black.
When I come to, I have no idea how much time has passed. I’m dazed, my cheek throbbing with pain. I try to move, but realize that I can’t. My hands are bound tight, and I’m lying inthe back of a cart. I hear voices, two guards nearby, and the weight of the world crashes down on me.I’ve been caught. I’m going to be sacrificed to the fae.
Struggling as hard as I can against the rope that binds my hands and ankles, I thrash wildly, but it does no good. The rope doesn’t give. I only manage to tire myself out more.
“Stop fighting,” one of the guards says, his voice low as he glances at me. “It’s over.”
I close my eyes, unable to hold back the tears. I wanted to run. I wanted to escape. But I failed.
As I wait to be taken, Marta appears, with Goose beside her. “Be strong,” she says, her voice barely a whisper. "When your father died, no one in town thought you’d make it especially when those… those grandparents of yours showed up. But you proved them wrong. Prove them wrong again.”
Goose leans down and rubs his head against me, and more tears spring from my eyes. “Just… just take care of her. Okay?”
“She’ll have a wonderful life,” Marta tells me gently, but she doesn’t say where she expects it’ll be, whether with me or her, which tells me everything I need to know. She hopes I’ll survive, but doesn’t think I will.
Then she walks away, and I go back to fighting the rope. The urge to disappear into my mind is there. I feel the urge to make all of this fade away, but I fight the feeling.
My dad would want me to survive.
They might think I’m caught, that my life is forfeit, but they have no idea who I am. I’m not the smartest, not the prettiest nor the most charismatic, but I survive. That’s what I do. And I’m going to survive this too.
3
Alette
I’d foughtthe guards with every ounce of my being when they’d forced me to the edge of the human lands, stopping just feet from the veil into the fae lands, and chained me to the altar. And I hadn’t stopped. Not until I had nothing left.
And still, it wasn’t enough. I’d ended up here.
The chains rattle with every movement I make, the metal biting into my skin. I’m strapped to a pale white altar of some kind in the middle of the woods, my wrists bound tightly above my head, and my legs stretched out uncomfortably below me, secured so I’m permanently standing. Beneath me, jagged rocks are stained with blood.
A lotof blood.
Being this close, knowing those deadly creatures are so near, makes me feel panicked, like a vice is closing around my throat. Like I need to slip into the safe place in my mind. But this is a new danger, one I don’t know how to handle. One that requires me to be present, to pay attention.
It’s been hours since the guards had abandoned me here, and all I can focus on are my stinging wrists and ankles, and the fear weaving through my body that I can’t ignore. Still, I struggle against the chains, trying to find a way to escape, even though it’s clear that it’s no use. The chains are too tight and too strong.
Strung up like a pig, I sag as much as the chains allow and draw in a deep breath. “What in the world do I do now?” I ask myself aloud.
At least they left my bag near my foot. Unfortunately, my dagger had been taken. There might be something useful in my bag, but I’m not sure I can reach it. The edges of the leather straps brush against my foot, but I can’t quite kick it closer with the chains around my ankles. But even if I could get it closer, it would be pointless without my hands.
“How the hell do I get free?” I shout.
Only the wind slipping through the forest answers me, rustling the leaves around me. Reminding me that the only way I’m going to escape this is if I free myself.I have only myself to count on.
“Alette, think. There has to be a way out of this,” I whisper, panic clawing at me.
I clench my jaw, forcing myself to focus, to stay in the moment. To escape this nightmare. My father always said the best way to survive is to keep a clear head and just focus on what needs to be done.
