The cool night air slammed into me as I tumbled through the opening, the shock stealing my breath. I hit the rocky ground hard, pain flaring through my palms and knees. I barely felt it. Adrenaline drowned everything.
I scrambled to my feet, heart hammering wildly, spinning in place as I scanned the darkness.
Trees. Dense and towering. Shadows layered upon shadows. Somewhere ahead—freedom.
Somewhere behind—screams.
Then I spotted Carina.
She had collapsed against a boulder a few yards away, arms wrapped around herself, chest heaving as she dragged air into her lungs. Her eyes were too wide, whites stark in the moonlight, shock locking her body in place. She was alive. She was free. That was all that mattered.
The others were gone.
Good.
They’d scattered into the dark exactly as planned—splintering into different paths, smart enough to know that staying together would get them hunted down one by one.
The night had swallowed them whole. I prayed the forest would be kinder to them than men ever had.
Our master came through the hole like a demon dragged up from hell, landing heavily on the rocky ground. Dust puffed around his boots.
His face was twisted into something barely human, eyes lit with pure bloodlust.
“You bitch!”
He charged without hesitation.
There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run cleanly.
Every step was a gamble.
I scanned wildly, heart slamming against my ribs, fingers scrabbling over cold stone until I found something—anything—I could use. My hand closed around a rock, rough-edged and heavy. Not big enough to stop him.
Big enough to try.
I hurled it with everything I had left.
Luck—cruel, fickle, rare—finally tilted my way.
The stone struck him square in the forehead with a sickening crack. He roared, stumbling back, blood pouring down into his eyes, staining his beard and collar. For a split second, he looked stunned.
I screamed into the night, voice shredding itself raw. “Help!”
The sound echoed uselessly off stone.
Too far. Too isolated. This land didn’t answer cries for mercy.
He shook himself and came at me again, faster now, rage fueling every step. I barely had time to brace before he slammed into me, driving me hard into the ground. Pain exploded through my back as the air was knocked from my lungs.
His weight crushed me.
Knees pinned my arms. Stone bit into my spine. I struggled, but it was like fighting a mountain.
“You planned this,” he snarled, face inches from mine, blood dripping down his brow. “All of it.”
His hand tore at the thin fabric covering me, ripping it away with a violent jerk. Cold air burned my skin. I thrashed, breath coming in panicked gasps.
Then steel flashed.