Page 7 of Bound By Darkness

I needed cover.

I needed to gain ground quickly, but the guards were already hot on my trail as they rounded the house, cornering me on each side.

Leaping over a pile of firewood, I pushed off a nearby tree as I rushed into the forest, the thick canopy of darkness swallowing me.

“She ran this way!” a guard yelled in the distance.

I kept running as branches scraped and carved into me.

My feet did not stop even when they tripped over roots in the pit of night, the soles of my feet bleeding from thorns and pinecones burying deep.

“Over here!” a guard bellowed. An oil lamp dangled from his hand.

I shifted toward an opening, a great willow’s bark beckoning me to seek shelter beneath its arms. My legs burned and pumped with the anticipation of freedom.

Free.

I wanted to be free.

Light illuminated night as guards flanked me on every side, the path of freedom narrow. That same willow groaned, its branches swaying in the air.

I ran to it.

The one last spot not poisoned by their feet. If I could make it beneath its branches, I could hide in the thicket—escape when their eyes turned.

The willow sang, freedom curling around me like a lost echo.

I could make it.

Blood seeped from the cracked soles of my feet as I pushed my limits farther. Reaching ever closer to freedom with the pump of my legs, the expanding of my lungs, and the whisk of air as it caressed my skin.

My fingertips touched a branch, its soft leaves tender as they kissed me. I was going to make it. Slip under the veil of its embrace into the unknown.

The leaves turned hard, a sharp throbbing radiating up my body as I collided into the thick trunk, the air expelling from me in waves.

“Found you,” a voice hissed as my body slammed into the thick bark again, my head cracking upon impact.

Everything spun as my lungs inhaled the thick smell of musk and dirt.

Digging my nails into the bark, I clung to freedom.

This couldn’t be the end.

My nails snapped as I buried them deeper within her skin, pieces flaking to the wet earth.

I would not go back.

I refused to be taken?—

The guard shoved my head into the bark, silencing everything.

Icy liquid trickled down my hair, face, and body as I blinked back stars, my teeth clattering in the frigid cell.

Another wave of water crashed over me, sapping the warmth from my bones as I choked on cold liquid and blood. My arms draped horizontally across the familiar stone of my cell. Goosebumps peppered my exposed chest as my arms tugged against solid iron.

A flash of red sent my heart racing as my head slowly turned from the stone wall. It couldn’t be?—

Gayle appeared, his yellowed teeth exposed in a wicked smile, red hair peeking from behind his pointed ears. “Well, hello,” he sang.

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