I pull the hiking bag off my shoulder and fill it while men shout after me. Some people cheer for the misfortune of their captors while others scream in jealous rage.
Once the bag is full, I sling it over my shoulder and take off past the cells. Wilcox screams behind me, promising me death if I leave him here.
Water sloshes up my legs as I sprint through a puddle, and when I trip on a rock, I hit the ground hard, my elbow cracking against stone. I hiss and stumble to my feet.
I run until I burst through the exit, and only then do I slow to take in my surroundings. The exit Zephyr showed me has a heavy amount of traps between me and it, so I’m careful as I start that way.
Careful.
Yet fast.
But not fast enough.
My strides hitch as I pass a tree with fat branches hanging low, a slice in the bark that reminds me of the tree where I met Luna. I’m at least a mile from the actual spot, but my eyes play tricks anyway. They push me inside my head, inside mymemories.
The cell Thorne built while I stood over her unconscious body. A cell not so different from the one that holds my future self if I get caught.
The way she trembled in my arms when I ‘saved’ her.
The moment I knew she was too stubborn to survive this place.
The suggestion I gave to Aurelius, to let the girl choose betweenSeraphandDreg.
“Fuck.” I slow to a stop, my hand bracing against the rough bark of a tree while I catch my breath. My eyes close while I try to breathe, but my own moronic fucking voice fills my head.
They won’t kill her. They werenevergoing to kill her. They don’t waste failed initiates—they farm them.
But…
Dirty bodies. Rotten stench. Hungry gazes.
They fill my mind until it’s all that I see. Prisoners who’ve been starved of food, of dignity, of stimulation—prisoners who camehere, to a ‘sexually free’ cult, to live out dark fantasies I know far too well.
No, she won’t die. Not right away.
But she’ll be raped. Repeatedly. And starved. And beaten. Whether the cult does it or their prisoners do, it’s her reality.
I see it. I see her so fucking clearly that the last words she spoke to me whisper hauntingly.
I hope someday you’ll become the man you want to be… I know you’re capable of doing the right thing.
“Goddamn it!” I slam my fist against the tree. Blood prickles through the cracks of wax on my knuckles, bits of bark peppering the mess.
I look back and visualize the path to Luna.
No.
This is bigger than her. It’s bigger thanus.
It’s already too late.
The bag feels heavier as I continue forward. My shoes sink into damp earth with every step.
Luna’s fate is not my fault. I tried to prepare her.
I trudge five more steps.
It’s too late to go back.
