Dust kicks into the air as I make it to the corral of horses and throw open the latch. I choose the closest mare. Determination fortifies me as I use the fence to mount her bare-back and encourage her to jump over the railing. Thankfully, she does.
“Stop her,” someone shouts.
I lean low over the mare’s neck as she gallops down the streets of Astarobane. The cool air rips at my hair, my surcoat, my legs.
“Faster,” I say to the horse as she races by a group of surprised Bloodstone barbarians. They stare with their mouths gaping open.
The outer edges of Astarobane loom before me when the sound of a second set of horse’s hooves reaches my ears.
“Faster,” I scream, but the mare is incapable of going any quicker. “Please, move faster!”
She continues at the same pace, her gait not swift enough to escape the approaching rider.
I should have picked a different horse. Any other horse.
Desperation bleeds through me as I tighten my grip on the hilt of the stolen dagger. Whoever is following me will have to force me from this mare’s back.
I yelp the moment strong hands reach out and pluck me from my mount as though I weigh nothing.
Frantically, I flail my arms and legs. “Let me go.”
Instead of listening, my abductor shoves me onto my stomach over his lap like a sack of potatoes.
My surcoat tangles with my legs as I kick harder and harder, but I don’t free myself. “Let me go.”
“Be silent!”
Hector.
He yanks hard on his horse’s reins, bringing us to an abrupt stop. Anger smolders from him as he plucks the dagger from my hand.
“Give it back,” I say with all my rage.
He shoves the blade into his weapon belt and turns his horse back to the city.
“I won’t go back with you.”
I cannot go back. There are too many scars there, too many broken memories. Like Kassandra, Malachi, and the life I shared with Gabriel.
Hector continues like I never spoke.
Without thought, I wrap my fingers around his leg. “Release me.”
Silence.
Frustration blinds me as I dig my nails through the fabric of his pants, trying to wound him as deeply as he has wounded me. “I will only run away again.”
He still doesn’t answer.
“You can bring me back over and over again, and I’ll keep running until you have no choice but to kill me,” I shout over the pounding of Hale’s hooves.
“Is that what you want? For me to kill you?” Hector asks, his tone empty.
Rawness scrapes against my throat as I speak. “No. I want you to release me.”
“I cannot do that.”
He could. He just chooses not to.
