For a long moment, I stared into the torches that lit the hallway, letting the light make dark blotches in my vision. I felt stuck in place, glued to the spot. I didn’t want to leave my quarters but I couldn’t bear to stay, either.
Gripping the vellum tight, I closed my eyes. The flame still danced behind my eyelids, and in some sort of dreamlike exhaustion, I was transported into the woods where I loved to hunt. I was no longer the sleek predator, powerful and capable. Now, I was the prey. The little animals, the confused deer, the ducks and pheasants and geese. The world was nothing but a landscape of confusion and uncertainty. But prey had an advantage.
They could run.
I looked around my chambers, then it dawned on me.
The crock of lavender oil, a gift from Maksim so many months ago sat on my bedside table.
Sucking in a deep breath of courage, I channeled those fearful creatures that I had for so long hunted and pursued, and I bolted from my chambers. The guards were lazy and seated, shocked as I came from the door crashing the crock of oil at their feet.
At a run, I turned to see my plan worked. They rose, slipping on the slick liquid and falling one at a time into the other as I blew down the corridor with Maria screaming my name.
But I ignored her, hoping she’d understand and forgive me. I tore around the corner and made a break for a side corridor. I didn’t know where I was going or how I would get there. But I had to go. I had to be free. I had to run.
I sprinted down another corridor and made a break for a door that I saw up ahead. Where it went, I had no clue, but there was light coming through the small inset window. Red light streaming in, the light of sunset. West.
It was as good a goal as any, I thought, as I ran out the door. The cool evening air hit my cheeks and the fresh wind hit my nostrils. It was the first time I’d been outside in nearly a week and it was pure joy, pure hope.
I silently called for Falroy, telling him to meet me outside the walls.
But before I even got off the stone path, I was airborne, my bare feet dangling. A huge forearm seizing me around the waist as I felt the metal of chain mail pressing into my skin. For one stupid, elated moment, I thought it might be Maksim. But it wasn’t. Of course it wasn’t.
“Nice try,” said the guard.
I fought him with all my might, but it was useless. He let me fight out my fury, holding me above the ground, waiting until I’d had enough of thrashing against the air. Finally, when I was tearful and hoarse, I gave up and was carried back to my chambers like a helpless, doomed lamb.
CHAPTER 21
Anika
The next morning, I woke up scheming.
Drizzle pattered on my window and I lay in bed for a long time, thinking things through. I had new clarity on everything that had happened. I had to get away from the castle, from everyone. I could not, would not, would never marry Prince Galen.
That life, being a wife to him, would be a fate worse than death for me. It was not just that I found him repellent and rude. He was violent and unkind even to women—girls—he barely knew. Poor Nicolette was living proof of that. Maria had been able to confirm all the gossip through her firsthand. He was brutal, ruthless and dangerous.
And I would not spend my life by his side.
My only option was to make a break for it and to take my chances on making a life for myself. What that would look like, I had no idea. But I was more capable than many court women. I could hunt, I could ride, I could even disappear in a crowd. Perhaps I could make a living as a thief? There was a world out there and it was wide open. I just had to find my way out of this one and into that.
But this time, I would be strategic. I would be careful. I would not go in haste, like I did when Maksim found me in the cave. I would not bolt for safety like a scared rabbit, like I did two days before.
If I couldn’t lose my guards, which I suspected I absolutely could not, then I had to find a different way to freedom. Sweet talking them wouldn’t work; I had no gift for it, and besides Maksim had obviously made it quite clear to them that I wasn’t to be allowed to leave. Kind words would get me nowhere.
But I had to find a way. Now.