We can’t!
We hadn’t gone far enough. There was nowhere to hide. No one to take us away from here.
This is bad. Very, very bad.
Hurry, hurry,hurry!
Scrambling onto my hands and knees, I crawled toward Lucien. He coughed again; his entire body racked with a gurgling gasp.
Blood bubbled on his lips.
Oh God.
“Hey...it’s alright.” I choked on sobs, refusing to let them make me weak. “You’re okay. You’re okay.” Running my hands over his upper body, I fought the rapidly building horror that this was how his story would end: just a few lousy metres from the gate, never allowed to leave, after all.
Lucien winced as I touched him all over, trying to inject life into his rapidly failing body. Crimson rivulets rolled down his chin as his eyes opened and locked on mine.
“You’re fine. It’s okay.” I tried to pull him upright. “See? You’re okay. Everything is justfine.”
“You’re terrible at this.” He coughed, more blood trickling from his lips.
“Terrible at what?” I glanced at everything and nothing. The trees waved at us mockingly. The rain fell condescendingly. Even the air was our enemy as it made Lucien cough all over again. “Terrible at running for our lives? Because I hate to tell you...you were the one driving.”
A migraine settled over my head like a crown made of thorns.
God, I wasn’t equipped for this.
I wished I was stronger, braver, better.
“No. Your attempts at consolation.” He winced, his entire body tensing. “Repeating those words so often just makes it sound like you think the opposite. That I’m not fine and alreadydead.” Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he tried to push me away. “Get off me.”
The past seven weeks of obedience almost made me listen but...I was done.
We were so close to freedom, yet so far from the boundary.
He was hurt, yet trying to pretend he wasn’t.
“You know what, Lucien?Shut up.” I leapt to my feet and bent to grab the heavy bike. “We’re leaving. Right now. Even if I have to drag you the rest of the way.”
“I’m on board with that plan.” He tried to yank his pinned leg out from under the machine. “But you won’t be able to move it.”
“Watch me.”
Grabbing the seat and handlebars, I braced myself. I’d never been classified as strong and my headache threatened to make my eyes pop out of their sockets, but I gritted my teeth and hauled with all my might.
The damn thing didn’t move an inch.
“Told you.” He battered Whisper away as the black cat sniffed where he was trapped.
Fear made my temper explode. “Instead of being an ass, how about you focus on staying alive?!”
“I am.” He scowled, trying to pull his leg free again.
“You’re not doing a very good job.”
His gaze snapped to mine. “Careful.”
“No,yoube careful! Look at you. You’re bleeding because you made me stab you. You didn’t have any blood to lose because you made me harvest two bags before this began. You didn’t think it necessary to tell me what your plan was. You don’t let me in. You don’t trust me. And now that bastard Marcus Ward is coming and we’re sitting here like stupid ducks!”
