by Penelope Sky
“I’m not sure if this will make you feel better or not, but I’m scared too.” She didn’t look scared, not when she was decked out for the wilderness, not when she broke in to my cabin just minutes after Fender left.
My eyes shifted back and forth as I looked into hers.
She pulled the flashlight out of her pocket and placed it in mine, along with a bottle of water and a plastic bag of nuts. “We can do this.”
“Did you get a horse?”
She shook her head. “It’s bolted.”
“How far can we get on foot?” I whispered even though no one was around.
“We just have to hide from them. They’ll eventually give up, and we can take our time.”
“Raven, we won’t survive long enough to take our time—”
“I’m going. Are you coming with me or not?”
I hesitated again.
“Don’t make me leave you here…but I will.” It wasn’t a bluff. If there was a chance of freedom, she would take it even if I wouldn’t. I watched her look at me like she assumed my answer would be no, like I wouldn’t be brave enough to do this.
I would never be brave. Not in my nature. But she made me brave. “Alright.” I put on my boots, pulled on my jacket, and then opened my drawers to stuff my pockets with the extra food I had, since Fender gave me everything I could possibly want. I had extra water, so I took that too. “Okay…let’s go.”
Raven wrapped her arms around me and hugged me for the first time since Paris, giving me that maternal warmth, giving me love that I didn’t deserve. She squeezed me tightly. “We’re gonna make it.”
I clutched her harder and felt my eyes water. All I could do was nod.
“Let’s go home.”
This was a mistake.
The snow slapped our faces in the wind. It was so dark we couldn’t see our noses. My lips instantly cracked because it was so cold and dry. We continued to move forward, but we had no idea where we were going. Raven pretended to know, but I knew it was a lie. She would fake it until she made it.
She’d always been that way.
The snow was different from the mounds that arrived in the camp after a storm. It was as tall as we were sometimes, and we had to push through it and hope we wouldn’t suffocate. Our flashlights were practically useless. Clouds covered the starlight because we were in the middle of a blizzard.
A fucking blizzard.
But Raven said it was our best chance because they wouldn’t be able to find our tracks.
They wouldn’t be able to find our bodies either.
“Raven, we have to go back—”
“We aren’t going to die.” She screamed into the wind so I could hear her. “And even if we do, we’d die if we went back anyway.”
“Not if they don’t know we’ve left—”
“I’d rather die out here than die there.” She kept going, pushing through the snow, trying to conquer the unconquerable.
It was impossible to gauge the passage of time.
We seemed to be out there for days, but the sun never came up. Minutes felt like hours. We were moving so slowly that I doubted we were gaining much ground. When they realized we were missing, they would catch up to us in an hour. “We shouldn’t have done this…” I faltered behind her because I didn’t have the strength or the grit to keep up.
“We’re going to make it, Melanie.”
“We’re going to die, and you know it!”
She turned back to look at me, her hair blowing everywhere in the wind, but she still wore that ruthless expression. She wouldn’t admit defeat, even as she experienced the final beat of her heart. Her eyes flicked past me, and her face changed.
I followed her look.
Torches.
“Fuck.” She grabbed my arm and tugged me. “Come on!”
We moved as quickly as we could across the field of endless snow, waist-deep. Our flashlights were turned off so they wouldn’t see us, so we blindly pushed through the snow, getting closer to the dark outline of the trees.
We finally breached the tree line, and the snowdrifts were a little lower here since most of it was caught up in the branches above.
“Run!” Raven led the way, leaving a trail of footprints that they would see when they arrived.
I kept up as long as I could before a stitch entered my side. “Wait…I can’t.” I stopped and bent over, heaving for air.
“Yes, you can.” Raven came back to me and tugged on my arm. “Come on, Melanie.”
I pushed her hand off and breathed through the pain in my waist. I’d never been athletic, never been one for a hike, barely went to the gym. I was a couch potato, and now I was out in the middle of nowhere, in a fucking blizzard, and she acted like I was weak.
I knew we would be captured. I knew we would be taken back to the camp. Fender would probably protect me, but she would be hanged. She would be stabbed until her guts spilled onto the ground and stained the snow. The image brought me to tears. “I’m so sorry—”
“We don’t have time for this.” She flashed me an angry look, immune to my tears.
“Raven.” I wiped them away and straightened. I couldn’t die without earning her forgiveness. Or worse, I couldn’t survive if she didn’t…and carry that for the rest of my life. “I just—”
“We need to keep moving.” She grabbed my wrist and yanked me, forcing me up and forward.
I yanked my hand away, heartbroken and angry. “You’re never going to forgive me, are you?” We were on death’s doorstep, and we both knew it. We had an hour, if we were lucky, before we were captured, and she was still so angry with me that she couldn’t forgive me, not even if it was the last chance she had. That was how deep her hatred went. She’d rather die with her resentment than let it go.
She turned around, her eyes unsympathetic. “Melanie—”
“We’re going to die out here.” If we managed to escape the men, we’d die in the snow. If we were captured, the result was the same. “I need you to know how sorry I am.” I needed her to understand it haunted me every night, every day I looked at her in the clearing, every waking moment…except when I was with Fender. He was the only thing strong enough to give my heart a break from its mental torture.
“I do know you’re sorry.” She still didn’t have the look she gave me in the cabin, when she hugged me, when she loved me. Her expression now was packed with endless layers of resentment and pain. It was full of accusation, and even worse, shame.
I was on the verge of tears, afraid this would be the last meaningful conversation I would ever have with her. “I need you to forgive me…” My eyes watered and tears dripped, hot for just a split second before they turned ice-cold and slid down my cheeks.
Raven turned around and continued to walk away.
Leaving her answer in the wind.
Eight
A Brother’s Plea
Fender
Two flashlights attached to my horse lit the path to the main road.
But I could make the journey in the darkness if I needed to.
I’d done it before.
The blizzard was approaching from behind, so I was unaffected by it as long as I made it to the road before sunrise. The wind did pick up subtly, stinging the back of my neck above my collar and below my hairline.
My satellite phone rang in my pocket, the only source of communication from the camp when I was in Paris and elsewhere. I fished it out and answered it. “What?” I held it to my ear, one hand on the reins.
“Boss, two girls escaped.”
My hand immediately tugged on the reins and forced my horse to a stop. There was nothing to look at except the circles from the flashlights and the darkness that surrounded them, but I stared like there was something there. “Which girls?” I already knew the answer before I asked the question.
But I needed to hear it anyway.
“The sisters.”
I inhaled a deep breath of rage, the exhale coming out as steam from my nostrils. I
released a loud growl into the night, loud enough to make my horse neigh and jolt in fright. I yanked on the reins and forced him to turn around, to face the wind and the blizzard that had been on our tail. I kicked my boots into the sides and urged the horse into a sprint. I screamed into the phone. “Find. Them. Now.”
I sat in the armchair in my cabin. A glass of scotch was on the table in front of me. I was in desperate need of a drink, but I was too angry to do anything other than stare. “Do you know anything about this?”
Magnus sat across from me, his hood pushed back, his brown eyes locked on my face. His brown hair was tousled from the wind, and his skin was pale white from the cold. His stare lasted a long time. “No.”
I trusted no one in this world. Not a soul. Eyes were in the back of my head because I expected to be stabbed in the back by my own men. My butler had served me for years, but I kept tabs on him too. There was only one exception to that.
My brother.
So I accepted his answer without doubt. He wouldn’t lie to me—especially for a woman. “How did she escape?”
His forearms rested on his knees, and he leaned forward, massaging his hands so the ice in his knuckles would thaw. “She must have taken something from the clearing to allow her to pick locks. The doorknobs aren’t busted.”
“She’s the one who took the bow and arrow.” That fucking cunt was sneaking around in my camp, right under my fucking nose, making a fool out of me.
“We searched her cabin and found nothing.”
I clenched my jaw as I thought about Melanie. She couldn’t be forced to leave her cabin. She went willingly. She went out into a fucking blizzard with her dumb-ass sister to get away from me.
When I asked her to come with me, she said no.
Did she say no because they had planned this?
I stared at nothing as I waited for news. The men had been sent out with horses and hounds, and they would find them—dead or alive.
Magnus bowed his head and continued to rub his palms together.
The door opened. “They’ve returned.” Alix stood in the doorway, his face hidden.
“Dead or alive?” I was on my feet instantly, already moving for the door.
“Alive.” Alix stepped aside.
Before I got to the door, I turned to Magnus. “You. Stay.” I spoke to him like a dog because that cunt had turned him into a dog for pussy.
His eyes shifted back and forth as he looked at me, his face indifferent but his panicked eyes giving him away.
“You don’t want to watch your whore hang, right?” I turned away and listened to Alix close the door behind me. I marched through the snow and approached the clearing, desperate to hang that bitch who dared to mock me. No one escaped this camp—and I would prove that now. I wouldn’t let my brother’s interference change her fate, not this time.
The girls were pinned to the cold ground, their wrists bound behind their backs.
I approached Melanie on the ground, her cheek against the snow with her eyes on her sister. My boots thudded against the earth then I stopped directly beside her. She could sense me before she even looked at me. It was obvious by the change in her breathing. She was scared…and she should be scared.
“We’ll hang the other girl first.” One guard gave a gentle kick to Melanie’s foot. “And make this one watch.”
“No!” Raven sobbed. “Please…”
I almost didn’t speak because her tears brought me some satisfaction. “Just this one.” My eyes burned into Raven’s face, her round face, her plain lips, her plain everything. It was hard to believe the two of them were related because she was a fucking hag compared to Melanie.
Raven’s eyes shifted to mine, and the hatred in her gaze was volcanic. She writhed on the ground like she’d do anything to break free of her ropes and lunge at me. “Don’t fucking touch her!” Her screams were mixed with angry tears, and she yanked so hard on her wrists that she rubbed red marks on the surface of her skin. “You motherfucker!”
One of the guys kicked her hard and made her gasp for air.
I’d love to do that myself—but I had more important shit to do.
I kneeled and placed my hand to Melanie’s cheek. My eyes bored into hers, sharing an entire conversation with her with just my look. It was one of those rare times when I was so angry, I was actually speechless. My look said it all.
She breathed harder because she knew.
“Get her up.” I rose to my feet and watched my guards yank her to her feet.
I grabbed both of her wrists and yanked her into me, her back hitting my chest, and I leaned over her slightly, looking down at her, my lips near her ear. I’d never manhandled her like this—but she’d forfeited her rights tonight. “You trying to leave me, sweetheart?” I squeezed her wrists hard before I released her. “I’ll take you with me tomorrow, then. Take her to the cabin.”
The guards took her away.
She fought the whole way. “Raven!” She dragged her feet and sobbed, looking at her sister on the ground, knowing it was the last time she would see her in this life. “No! Please! Please don’t do this.” She was dragged away against her will, pulled across the snow, her cries becoming quiet when she was far enough away.
Melanie could beg all she wanted, but I wouldn’t spare her sister—not after this.
When she was gone, I moved to Raven, my boots close to her face. “Congratulations.” I kneeled and got a closer look at her, seeing dull eyes that didn’t sparkle like Melanie’s, seeing nothing appealing whatsoever. Disobedient. Opinionated. Annoying. Fucking pain in the ass. Not the least bit attractive. “You’ve made it farther than anyone. I hope it was worth it…but I imagine it wasn’t.” I nodded to the men.
They pulled her to her feet.
The executioner approached her, ready to take over and do the dirty work. “I’m really going to enjoy this.” He slammed his fist into her chest and knocked her back to the ground—where she belonged.
I turned away to head to the cabin where Melanie was waiting for me.
“Up.” The executioner continued his taunts. “I said up, bitch.”
But I halted in my tracks when I saw someone approach.
Magnus.
He’d disobeyed my order and come here anyway.
His eyes locked to mine as he spoke. “We aren’t hanging her.” He held on to my look of fury with his own, silently making a stand that would result in his death if he were anyone else.
The executioner turned to Magnus. “Not this time.”
He broke contact with me and walked over to the executioner. “She’s the strongest worker we have—”
“No.” The executioner stepped toward him. “She stole from us. She tried to escape. She killed two of our own. How dare you stand there and ask for her to be pardoned.” The other guards stayed back, watching the two of them stare each other down.
I stayed silent, watching the scene play out, floored that Magnus stuck out his neck for her—again. It made him weak. It brought the two of us shame, and he knew that, but he fucking did it anyway.
“I’m not asking for her to be pardoned. She should be punished.”
The Executioner stepped closer to him. “She deserves to be executed. Your dick is not part of this discussion.”
Magnus hadn’t blinked once. “She’ll be whipped.”
“No.” The executioner turned back to grab her. “You can’t save her this time.” He snatched her by the back of the hair and yanked on her scalp as he forced her to her feet so the noose could be wrapped around her neck.
Helpless, Magnus just watched.
Then he turned around and looked at me.
I didn’t say a word because I didn’t need to. My answer was on the wind, in the air we breathed, as obvious as the darkness that surrounded us. It burned white-hot like the torches that flickered around the clearing.
But he continued to stare anyway, silently begging me.
No. I would not lose the respect of my men by sp
aring her. I wouldn’t do it for Melanie. I wouldn’t do it for him. Raven had already evaded one Red Snow. She stole from us. She ran from the camp. Some of my men were killed because of her foolishness. I do not negotiate.
Magnus took a breath before he stepped closer to me, so we could converse without being overheard. They prepared Raven for her execution behind him. His eyes burned into mine with a desperate intensity that I’d never seen before. “Fender, a whipping will suffice—”
“No. Your request insults me.”
He took another deep breath, pathetic and frantic.
“You’re asking me to humiliate myself in front of my men—for her.” I glanced at her behind him, showing all of my disgust for that bitch that had been the bane of my existence. If she weren’t in the camp, Melanie would have agreed to come back with me a long time ago.
Magnus held his silence.
That had better be the end of it.
But it wasn’t. “Please…” He made his voice louder, so people could hear him beg, so the men would know he was the weak one, not me. He threw himself on his own sword, humiliated himself…for her.
My respect for him just dropped by half.
I turned to the executioner and gave a sight nod.
The executioner gave a loud sign in pure frustration, but he obeyed.
I gave Magnus a final look of disappointment before I walked away.
Nine
The Coldest Fire
Melanie
I sat on my bed, the fire gone because it’d burned out in the hours after I’d left with Raven. My chest convulsed with sobs, so grief-stricken I couldn’t take a sip of water or a bite of food. My body was frozen solid and a hot shower would be perfect for thawing, but all I cared about was Raven.
She was probably dead by now.
When I went to the clearing tomorrow, I would see her blood on the ground.