Right. He wasn’t going to stand up for me in front of these men whose respect he was so hungry for.
And me?
I had no choice.
No choice but to face what the night had in store for me.
“So you better start running, little Stag,” the Elder finished in a whisper, reaching out and caressing a hand down my cheek. I pulled back and managed to stop short of spitting in his face. These men still held my future in their hands. I had to play along.
“How long of a head start do I have?” I managed to collect myself enough to ask.
“Less and less every moment you stand here asking stupid questions,” he answered.
So I pivoted and sprinted away into the darkness.
13
BELLAMY
I’d grown up going to cotillion. Taking etiquette lessons. Learning how to flatter and banter. And I knew how to execute a perfect curtsey, for God’s sake.
But sprinting through the woods essentially barefoot while trained hunters tracked me? Yeah, it wasn’t high on my list of skills I’d gathered in my short life.
I was what you called an indoor girl. Even when I went “camping” growing up, it was glamping. My mother refused to go anywhere without running water and electricity for her curling iron.
So I ran away from the lake, because the lawn was mowed that direction, and I’d be easy to spot in so much open space. Which took me around back of the mansion, where I ended up running past a cemetery. A cemetery! As if I wasn’t creeped out enough by the whole night and the thought that when I was inevitably captured, I’d be fucked by a train of dudes. Not even strangers—men I’d known my entire life!
I’d never been much of a sprinter, but I found myself spurred on by the thought. I ran past the cemetery and into the woods.
But just like I expected, the stupid slippers were no match for the rugged terrain. Plus, the antlers kept getting caught in the branches. I had one hand up holding them on and another at my ankle trying to hold the slipper on as I stumbled through the forest.
My eyes were adjusting to the limited light, but Jesus, they were probably coming after me by now, and it would be over almost as soon as it started if I kept going like this.
I looked all around me at the strange forest. Maybe I could climb a tree, try to wait it out? But all the trees around me were pine, and the branches didn’t start for about eight feet up. My stomach sank, and I could have cried.
But I’d learned long ago that curling up and crying did nothing. That was my mother’s solution. Endless months locked away in her room. Wasting away, not eating unless I forced her to. The dead-eyed look of a woman who’d given up.
Coming home from school that day to find her passed out lifeless on the floor, pills scattered all around her.
I clenched my jaw.
Never.
I’d never give up.
So I forgot about trying to hold onto the stupid slippers and just ran. I ran through the woods even though rocks and sticks sliced at the tender soles of my feet, slippers long gone.
I forced the pain from my head, and I shoved branches out of the way. I pushed on when I had no more push left in me.
And when I heard noises behind me, the call of voices and a sharp whistle, I ran harder still.
They were gaining on me.
I couldn’t keep this up. They had real shoes. I looked all around and, in the distance, something glinted. Goddammit, it was the lake.
But from the noise behind me, I had to assume most of them were in the forest. They obviously knew this was where I was.
And really, what was there to lose?
So I headed for the glint. Getting out of the forest was a relief even as I felt a double rush of freedom from the claustrophobia of the woods as well as anxiety at being out in the open.
At least from here, the lake wasn’t far. I wouldn’t be exposed for long. One quick look behind me showed no one was following me yet. I dropped to my knees and climbed the last few feet to the lake and slipped into the cool water.
I was overheated from my nonstop sprint, so crawling through the muddy water at the lake’s edge felt good but shockingly cold at the same time. I blinked against it but didn’t stop scrambling into the water.
When all of a sudden, the bank underneath my legs dropped out. I’d been planning to just… I don’t know… wade in and stay on my hands and knees—definitely where I could touch. It hadn’t been much of a plan to start with, but—
But as I flailed in the water, I didn’t give a shit about stealth anymore. I couldn’t touch the bottom. Oh shit, I couldn’t touch the bottom!