Page 3 of A Vow to Set the Virgin Free

She had to try.

Athena had spent her life shut away, and every decision in her life had been made by others. It had been the only reality she remembered, so she accepted it. That reality had broken when she had seen the true nature of her father. First when she had discovered that he had sold Rose to Ares, as though she were anobject, and then with his willingness to marry Athena off, completely disregarding her feelings.

And more than her feelings, her safety.

She no longer accepted what she was given.

She would escape, she would find out the truth of who she had been the first eight years of her life. Perhaps the truth was not a good truth. But what did it matter? Her present truth was not especially good either. So she would run. In futility, but with bravery.

She only had to wait for the moment.

And then it happened. They rounded the corner just next to the woods, right at the very edge. If she could make her way through them, then she could run out the other side and there she would find a village. She would be able to get refuge. Help.

Eventually, to find herself.

She needed that to be true.

She was wearing a cloak, which was very dramatic but her parents—she hesitated now to call them her parents but didn’t know what else to call them—hadn’t commented, it wasn’t unusual for her to be dramatic. She’d hidden a small bag in the folds of it and had been quite warm on the plane, but it was worth it. And she had a small amount of food and water to carry her through, plus something to offer protection from the elements.

She needed to try, she quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, opened the door and held her cloak tightly around her and flung herself out of the moving vehicle.

She guided herself toward the forest, tucking and rolling as she did, landing sprawled out on the grass before scrambling, not bothering to look at what was behind her, and if the limo had managed to stop. She ran. She ran as if the hounds of hell were on her, because they were. She ran with all her might. She ran for all she was worth. The forest was dark, the trees dense. She knew that. Because she had done her research.

She hopped a short left, just as she had planned, because she knew that was the direction that would take her to the village. She wove under trees, and around them. Taking the thickest and most impassable way, one that they would never guess she had taken, because it would be so difficult to traverse.

Everybody simply thought her a cosseted girl.

Nobody knew the fire that was inside of her. The fire that had been ignited by all of this betrayal. The determination that she carried with her.

They underestimated her, and they would lose her for it. She ran until trees started to thin out, and she felt nothing but confusion. She could not recall this on any map. But then, this was an extremely remote forest, and it was possible that there were pieces of it that remained unknown.

She walked until her legs ached. Until she was freezing. It had started to rain, and as the foliage grew wet, it became a liability. Everything she touched left water droplets on her, which bled into the fabric of her billowing cloak—protective, she had hoped—rendering it a sodden mess.

She was lost, and she could hear twigs snapping in the distance. She didn’t know what sort of creatures were in these woods. She had missed a very important piece of research.

Exhaustion and hypothermia were becoming a fear for her.

And then, there in the dimness, she saw it.

A small heap of stones with a straw roof. It was in disrepair, but she imagined the inside would be dry.

She scrambled forward and pushed the wooden door open.

It was silent inside. All thick stone walls and a stone floor. It was dry. Surprisingly warm, and she imagined the lack of moisture and the efficiency of blocking any wind contributed to that.

If they were to find this place, surely they would look inside for her.

But what other option did she have?

Curling up outside under a fern wasn’t going to work, and she was about to collapse.

She sat down on the floor. It was hard, but she felt safer in here. She would actually be able to rest for a while. She curled up into a ball of soggy misery and tried to stop herself from shaking.

Eventually she fell into a fitful sleep, consciousness hovering about the edges, tinged by fear. Dreams mixed in with a strange sense of wakefulness, and she could feel herself suddenly floating above the earth. Warm. Held tightly. She clung to that, tried to savor the feeling. She felt secure then when she’d otherwise felt alone.

But then everything went to blackness, and she lost her hold on the brilliant dream that had made her feel so safe.

She awoke with a start.

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