Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
My heart did a somersault.
“You’ll have to go on foot. And you definitely won’t make it.”
“Do you think you could get me—”
“Did you really just ask me that?” He raised his voice again. “After everything I’ve done for you? You have the audacity to ask me for anything?”
I bowed my head in shame.
“I’m tired of saving your ass. If I really thought you had a chance out there, I would tell you that. But you don’t. You have no idea what you’re up against. And here I am, yet again, trying to save you.”
“I’d rather die out there than work for these monsters a day longer. My sister is gorgeous, and once the boss is done with her, it’ll just be another guy… They’ll force her until her beauty fades. She’d rather die out there too…with me.”
“I don’t see what the big deal is with her.”
“What are you talking about? She’s beautiful.”
“On the outside. But she’s weak on the inside.”
I lifted my head and looked at him again.
His eyes were on me with the same intensity as before. “And I’ve seen better.”
I was paralyzed by his words. All I could do was look at the brown eyes staring at me, look into the face of the man who held my life in his hands. My makeup had washed away shortly after I arrived here, and I hadn’t even combed my hair since. There was no mirror, so I had no idea what I looked like, but even on my best day, I was nothing compared to Melanie. So, there was no way he was referring to me specifically…right?
“Even with several hours of lead time, they’ll send all their guys out, on horses with hounds.”
“There are dogs here?”
“They’re inside because it’s too cold.”
So, we were forced to work outside in the cold every day, but the dogs got to stay inside? Wow.
“The snow will be piled high, so you’ll have a hard time getting through. There are frozen lakes out there hidden under the snow, and one wrong move will send you under the ice. The wolves are hungry because everything is hibernating, and they’ll smell you a mile away.”
“Then we’ll find a hiding place and wait it out until the guards stop looking for us.”
He shook his head. “They’ll never stop looking for you.”
“I just—”
“Nothing I say will make a difference, will it?” He leaned forward slightly, looking into my gaze with a pissed-off expression, like he wanted to grab me by the neck and shake me. “Nothing I say will make you see reason, will it?”
All I could do was shake my head.
He dropped his gaze and released a heavy sigh, his fingers curling toward his palm as he made a fist.
“Do you really think I won’t survive…or you just don’t want me to go?”
He was still as if he hadn’t heard the question, as if it didn’t elicit a reaction. But then he lifted his gaze and looked into mine. “I don’t want you to die, Raven. That’s what I want.” He rose to his feet and carried the chair back to the wall.
It was time to say goodbye…to the only friend I had here. Instead of rejoicing at my escape, I actually felt a twinge of sadness, like I was losing something special. “Thank you…for everything.”
He pulled up his hood as he prepared to leave. He stared at the door, as if he had something else on his mind that he wanted to share, but then he came back toward me, his boots echoing against the floorboards. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a long blade, at least five inches. It was sheathed in a covering so it wouldn’t slice him in the thigh. He gripped it by the handle with the blade pointed to the floor. “Don’t hold it like this.” He turned the knife and pointed it upward. “Hold it like this. We’re trained to push down on the arm to force it into the thigh. If you keep the blade up, you have a better chance.” He dropped it on the bed. “Good luck.” He didn’t look at me again before he walked out.
He didn’t bother to lock the door…not this time.
I used the knife to access everything beneath the cabin. Then I returned the floorboard and hoped they wouldn’t notice it. Not for my sake, because I’d either be dead or free, but because of Magnus.
I didn’t want him to lose his head because of me.
With the bow slung over my back, along with the quiver of arrows, which I had no idea how to use, and all the supplies I’d stolen, I left my cabin and became absorbed into the night. But the camp wasn’t abandoned like it used to be.
There were guards on post.
Shit.
They obviously expected whoever stole the supplies to sneak out of the camp. That was how they intended to capture the perpetrator—red-handed. Now I had to be even more careful than before.