“What’s in that tea? Why would she do something like that to you? God… No, don’t answer those questions. It doesn’t matter anymore. In a couple of hours we’ll be far away from the Schloss and this family of madmen. Here, let me help you up.”
Avelyn entered the room and looked for the switch, but she couldn’t find it. Whatever. She didn’t need light to grab Sabine off the floor and guide her out of the luxurious cell in which she had spent the past five years of her life. She offered her a hand, and Sabine took it. She supported the girl’s frail body, marveling at how light she was. Sabine’s small, bony hand was trembling in Avelyn’s firm grip. How could such a skinny person even stand on two feet?
“All right, you’re doing great. Now, let’s get you out of here.”
Avelyn let Sabine lean on her. The girl stepped lightly, carefully. She was truly dizzy, and seemed slightly unaware of her surroundings, like she was walking in her sleep. She kept her head low, a dense mass of dark, curly hair covering her face and shoulders. They stepped out of the room, and Avelyn could finally see her clearly. Sabine was a bit shorter than her, and sickly thin. She had olive skin, but the long years of confinement, without even the tiniest sun ray, had given it a yellowish, unattractive tint. She was dressed in something that looked like a nightgown, and her feet were bare.
“Oh my God! You can’t go out like this. Why haven’t you gotten dressed?”
“Too weak…”
Avelyn’s hands flew to Sabine’s face to remove all that impressive mass of frizzy curls from her forehead and cheeks. Sabine lifted her chin and looked Avelyn in the eyes for the first time. Her face was just as gaunt as her entire body. All bones and skin, but no flesh between them. She had deep brown eyes, thick black eyebrows, and a pointed little nose which could have been sexy if it didn’t remind Avelyn of a skeleton. Her hair was also black, and Avelyn wondered if Sabine had any kind of Arabian ancestry.
“Hey there,” Avelyn whispered and gave her a smile.
“Hey…”
She seemed young, even though Avelyn couldn’t quite tell. There were no wrinkles on the girl’s face, but the veins in her arms were prominent, reminding her of Christine’s. If she had been trapped in here for five years, then how old had she been when she had become Max’s bride? Avelyn shuddered and refused to go down that path. She had to focus on getting them both out.
“Can you walk?”
Sabine lifted her gaze to the neon lights on the ceiling, and shielded her eyes with her arm. “Yes. I’ll be better in a few minutes.”
“Let’s put some clothes on you. You can’t possibly walk out of here like this. And, where are your things? Don’t you have a bag or a backpack? Something…”
“I don’t need anything. I don’t want to take any of the things he’s given me.”
“All right, I can understand that, but still. There’s no way you can make it in this state.”
“I’ll manage…”
“You should…” Avelyn looked down at the girl’s tiny feet. “You should at least get some shoes.”
“Don’t need them. Come on, we’re wasting time.”
Sabine headed down the corridor, using the stone wall to support herself. Avelyn went after her, incapable of coming up with a way of convincing her that what she was doing was insane. She studied her from behind. There was something about her. Something that unsettled Avelyn and sent chills crawling underneath her skin. Sabine seemed twitchy and agitated. She was soft spoken, and sometimes she had difficulties articulating the last words of her sentences. It was definitely because of the suspicious concoction Christine had made her drink. But why? Why sedate someone who was already trapped in a bloody cell? Sabine had taken quite a few steps, so Avelyn decided to follow her. After all, she had some warm clothes in her backpack and a spare pair of sneakers. They’d manage.
“Wait for me.” She yelled as silently as possible and ran after her. “Here, take my hand. I have a flashlight. You do know the way, right?”
“Yes.” Sabine looked up at Avelyn and gave her a weak, yet reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll be out of here in no time.”
Avelyn smiled back and squeezed the girl’s hand. She had been wrong to think she’d ever be jealous of Sabine. The state she was in said everything about how badly Max and Christine had treated her. Jocelyn, Karl, and all the other wolves had certainly contributed through their ignorance and disinterest. The few times Rosanna had said more than she meant to had been enough for Avelyn to make the connections and draw a conclusion: they had all known about Sabine’s unfair confinement, and they had all played a part in it. Clan Blackmane disgusted her. How could she have fallen for their Alpha? No matter, every wound healed in time. Although, looking at Sabine from the corner of her eye, her belief in those magic words wavered.
The tunnel was getting darker and colder with every step they took. Avelyn tried to light the way ahead, but sometimes she couldn’t help herself and flashed her phone around her. Sabine, on the other hand, seemed unfazed by the darkness. Not even once did she complain that the light wasn’t enough or that she couldn’t quite see the way they were going. She either knew the tunnels incredibly well, or she had perfect eyesight in the dark. Avelyn was glad Sabine didn’t let go of her hand. They didn’t talk much, as Sabine seemed to have difficulties focusing, and it took her a huge amount of energy to speak, so Avelyn figured she shouldn’t force her. She needed all her strength to resist the almost four-hour journey through the mountain. They kept taking turns, climbing down slippery stone stairs, descending deeper and deeper. At first, Avelyn had tried to pay attention to the corridors they were passing through and count the open chambers they left behind, but she soon lost all sense of orientation. She couldn’t afford wasting the battery of her smartphone to consult her map. At this point, she had no choice but to put all her trust in Sabine. When they reached the exit, she’d be free to let go and be awed at the girl’s impressive memory and sense of orientation.
After what seemed like forever, Sabine stopped in the middle of a narrow corridor and sniffed the air. “Can you smell that?”
Avelyn sniffed as well and shrugged. “No. What is it?”
“The air is fresher here. I think we’re close.”
Avelyn took a couple of steps and sniffed again. Nothing. Sabine tugged at her hand and urged her to move faster. It seemed that the girl was slowly regaining her strength. Her legs were less wobbly, she walked straighter, and she had stopped using her other hand to brace herse
lf on the stone walls an hour ago. Avelyn was glad, because their long walk wouldn’t end at the exit. From there, they had to make their way to Dunkelstadt and find the train station. She could barely feel her legs herself, so she believed it was a miracle that Sabine had actually made it this far and never complained about being tired. Her only complaint had been about her difficulty to think clearly, which bugged Avelyn too. There was nothing she would have liked more than to bombard her with questions she could have never come up with before seeing her face to face. Why was she so thin when she had insisted that Christine fed her well? Was she sick? How old was she? And, for the love of God, why did Christine sedate her almost every night?
“To help me sleep…” That was the only vague answer Avelyn had been able to squeeze out of Sabine. She had no idea where they would be headed to after they got out of this blasted maze, but she knew that the next day, whether they would still be on the train, or in a hotel in another city, Avelyn would get some answers. For now, they both had to focus on putting one foot in front of the other.
***