Page 10 of Keeping Sarah

“Feeling trapped.”

I took a deep breath. Hearing the word was a suffocating reminder. “How…how did you handle it?” I asked, curious to know. “Being in the prison…I know what I am going through is not as bad."

She laughed sharply—a sound I had never heard from her before. Her laugh woke my brother, so she shushed him back to sleep. “My prison was nothing compared to what you’re dealing with, Deacon.”

My brow fell into a frown. “What are you talking about? You were stuck in the royal prison. Jac said it was a miniscule cell with no toilet room and near the palace’s sewer system—"

She held a hand up to stop me. “Please. Every nightmare I have is of that place. But I wasstuckthere. I had no choice, or even the illusion of a choice. The man I loved was dead—not in peril. There was no internal debate as to what I should do next. Yes, the prison was a horror. But it was anexternalhorror. I had never thought of escape. I was resigned to my fate.” She sighed and continued rocking in the chair. “I had heard rumors about prisoners who had escaped, but I had believed they wereonly rumors. Jac is good at what he does. The day Jac broke in and rescued me after you sent him…” she smiled at my youngest brother before she said, “I had thought he was there to execute me, and once he got me on board his ship, I assumed he was taking me to you for the execution—"

“What?” I almost shouted.

My brother woke again, making whimpering little noises. I reached for him since I was the one to disturb him, but Silence waved my hands away. “I’ve got it. My point is, there was no choice in the matter for me, and while the threat of imminent death makes itseemas though there is no choice for you in this instance, you and I both know you are actively making the choice to do the smart thing every minute you sit on that bench. By letting Jac act in your stead, you are giving Sarah someone to come home to. As difficult as it is for you to remain here, it is a good thing you are doing, Deacon.”

She knows. She knows I plan to leave, and she’s still trying to convince me to stay.

I shook my head. “I made the choice already, Silence. It’s not minute by minute—"

“Mm, hmm,” she said as she cast a knowing look in my direction. “You forget I know your father well, and I know what sort of lengths he would have gone to to rescue me, had he the chance. You are your father’s son, Deacon, through and through.”

“Seriously, I know better,” I said, rubbing my fingers along my still aching forehead.

“As you say.” She stood up and glided toward the bedroom. Before she turned the corner, she looked over her shoulder and said, “Your father’s onworlder is a very smooth ride for an older model but it starts loudly.”

My brows rose. “Why would you bring that up?”

“No reason at all, Deacon. Sweet dreams.”

CHAPTER 4

Sarah

Acrid air. No. Smoke.

I struggled to open my eyes, and once I did, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

At first, it was blurs of black and orange. My head swirled between the blobs for too long. When my eyes cleared, shock held me paralyzed. The ship had come apart when it crashed into the tall trees of the massive forest. I had expected it to hold together better than an airplane from Earth, but just like a plane crash on TV, there were pieces strewn in every direction for a long distance.

They should have been hard to see at night, but half of them were on fire, so that helped. I could even see some of the mercenaries—injured, some possibly dead. My vision was clouded now and then by occasional plumes of smoke as it rose high into the trees.

Where I’d landed.

Once I knew where I was, my body quivered, and I nearly lost my balance on the cable that dug into the middle of me. No thicker than my wrist, the cable was bound between two pieces of the ship that were pinned in two trees. I was folded in half over it, unsure of how I had managed to end up like that and grateful whatever trick of fate had arranged it but also wishing fate had been a bit more proactive about my safety.

Beggars can’t be choosers.My weight sagged the cable like an awkward smile. There I dangled. I guessed I was seventy feet above the forest floor.

“A hundred, at least,” Rex said in my mind.

My eyes widened in shock and I mentally replied. “You’re still here?”

He chuckled. “For the time being, it would seem.”

I was glad for the internal conversation—an external one would have had me take deeper breaths and I was afraid such a thing would roll me from the cable. I hoped not to choke on the next plume of smoke. Coughing could be the end of me.

Before all the smoke veiled the crash site, a familiar horde came to the crash, and it made Rex tense up. The jem’hora flock, coming for their victory meal of my would-be assailants.

He hissed in my head, “I knew this was all your fault.”

“Can you blame me?” I snapped right back. “You saw what your men were threatening to do to me—"

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