Page 1 of Cruel Hearts

CHAPTER ONE

Stella

My feet pound on the wet pavement, my backpack thumping against my lower back in time with my footfalls.

Everything is the same, but it all looks different. Storefronts have changed, shops are gone and new ones have taken their places. Only the street names tell me where I am—and the buildings that will stand forever. Maddox Industries towers above them all, and I force myself to look away.

My clothes stick to my skin, the August heat made worse by the humidity clogging the air.

A haze drifts over the dark sky, hiding the moon, and I push myself faster.

I don’t know where I’m going. Stupid that in all the planning, I didn’t get that far. Didn’t get beyond what I would do after I managed to escape.

Someone’s behind me.

In a dank alley, I duck into a random entrance, and the door opens when I tug on the handle. I don’t know where itleads, and I cower inside, the stink of garbage plugging my nose. Crouching, I hold my breath. I don’t know how long I should wait. I don’t know for sure someone is after me. Only the hairs standing up along the nape of my neck urged me to hide. I’ve gotten good at listening to my instincts.

He wouldn’t have let me get away that easily.

Shallowly, I breathe through my mouth. I don’t hear anyone on the street, and the hallway is silent behind me. It’s quiet except for my heart heaving in my chest.

My feet ache. I have no idea how long I’ve been running in the cheap shoes I changed into that I kept from the night he took me.

The old yoga pants and t-shirt stick to me like glue. God, it’s so hot.

I don’t have a phone, and I don’t have any money. I can’t ride a bus, but I have nowhere to go even if I could.

Pushing my back against the wall, I press my hand against my mouth to stifle a sob. This is better than being trapped like Rapunzel. A castle is still a prison if you’re not allowed to leave.

The one thing I know for absolutely sure is I should get out of King’s Crossing as fast as I can. Change my name and pray to God I can stay hidden and live some kind of normal life.

But I can’t do that.

I peek around the doorjamb. There’s nothing in the narrow alley except bags of trash and a rat nosing around the piles of garbage.

Securing my backpack, I ease out of the doorway. I feel so exposed without the cover of the building, but I keep moving forward. If I don’t, there was no reason to escape. Glancing over my shoulder, I scramble to think of a place where I can go. Someone who can help me.

Zane is always in the back of my mind, but because of the letter I mailed him, he’ll hate me for the rest of my life. If I didn’t love him so much, I would never look back.

I sacrificed myself for him once.

I have no choice but to do it again.

Heading east, I stick to the shadows.

I don’t want to bring her into this, but I need to find Quinn. If she’s not married and driving a minivan full of kids, she’ll help me, but it’s been five years and I wasn’t able to contact her. She could be more than a soccer mom. She could be a famous clothing designer. With the lifestyle she was living before I disappeared, she could be in jail.

She could be dead.

Coming from this direction, there’s no other way to reach the industrial park but to cross the Renegade River. I don’t like running on the bridge—there isn’t any protection. A lone biker, reflective lights flashing on the wheels, flies by, but he ignores me. I make it to the other side without incident, but I’m shaking when my feet touch solid ground. Huge barges float along the water, and I pause, mesmerized. So easily people take something like this for granted. The moon, the stars.

I was allowed outside.

Sometimes.

The industrial park in King’s Crossing changed too, and it’s difficult to find the building where I met Quinn so long ago.

I’m thirsty and hungry and I’ve been on the run all night, but if Quinn isn’t around, I’ll need to keep going.

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