Then I see it.A door just like the others, only slightly narrower.
“This is it,” I say and open it, hoping I’m right.
I am.Finally something’s going my way.
The only light in this staircase is coming from a roof window far above us where the moon is shining down, but faintly.I’m tripping all over the damn wedding dress as we descend the stairs.The voices I heard earlier are getting louder as we descend, at one point I hear Dante’s as though he’s standing right next to us.
“I have something for you,” he’s saying.“Something you’ll like very much.And I think you will appreciate the ingenious way I procured it for you… “
“That pompous idiot,” I whisper.“Well, the joke’s on him.”
“Not until we get out of here,” Blade says in his pragmatic voice.
As though to punctuate his point, a set of thudding footsteps enters the room in which Dante is still bragging about his achievements.His self-important voice is cut off as the newcomer tells him something I can’t hear.
“You fucking idiots,” Dante yells.“You had one little job.You fucking incompetent idiots.”
“I’m think he knows we’re gone,” Blade says.“We gotta run.”
We’d been going slowly and silently so as not to be heard through the walls, but now we’re running.I’m hiking up my dress, almost tripping and tumbling down the stairs more than once.But I somehow manage to stay on my feet.
Men are running down the dark hallway we exit into on the ground floor, but I can only hear them, can’t see them yet.
Blade takes my hand again.“This way.”
Wedding dresses were not made for running in.Probably to prevent the unwilling brides from doing exactly that.But I’m running away with the man I do want to marry.And that gives me all the wind I need.
The men chasing us have their guns drawn and are yelling for us to stop.They’re gaining on us, because every door Blade kicks down is the wrong one, none of them lead out into the garden.
So close.We’re so close.To our freedom.To our future.But what in my life ever turned out to be easy?Absolutely nothing.
A loud bang sounds, rattling the very foundations of the house just as a flash of light brighter than the sun blinds me through the door Blade just kicked down.
I can’t see, my ears are ringing and a part of my mind is sure I’d just seen the gates of Heaven open for me.Or Hell more like, given the trajectory of my life.
My feet aren’t touching the ground anymore.I’m being carried and bangs and flashes are going off everywhere, lighting up the dense darkness of night.
If I must wake up from this nightmare I hope it’ll be in Hell and not that bedroom in Dante’s house.But I’d much rather just not wake up at all unless it’s somewhere safe and in Blade’s arms.
So close.Blade and I came so close.But we didn’t quite make it.Just like we never do.
33
Blade
The explosions disoriented Bella so bad I had to carry out of the house.I could only hope they were the diversion Matteo was talking about and not Dante unleashing hell to stop us from leaving.And that the gate in the fence would be where he said.And that I’d find it.
All the while I was creeping through the dark house, looking for the bedroom Bella was in, warnings and dark thoughts were going through my head.That this was some sort of trap, that Dante wanted me free so Hydra could chase me down and get some fun out of it, that I’d find Bella dead, or getting raped or getting something even more horrible done to her.
So when I finally managed to break open the lock on her door and saw her standing there in a wedding dress—an ugly old thing that she nevertheless looked amazing in—I couldn’t move or speak or even think.
But I knew then it wasn’t a trap.I knew seeing her like that was a sign that we’d finally get our happy ever after.And that we had this one last chance to make it happen.
She was a queen thinking of the servants’ stairs as a way out of the house and now I’m actually praying that Matteo really has a car waiting for us.
I find the gate.It’s overgrown by a thorny bush but unlocked.Explosions are still echoing in the yard behind us as I carry Bella through the gate to the road beyond.The dark and empty uphill road.I have no idea which way is home.
The guys who had their guns on us in the hallway can’t be far behind.But where’s our ride?
