My intuition proves correct.
My back is scraped all up and down from hitting the jagged stone floor. My shoulder feels ablaze from being dragged by the arms, but I never react.
Finally, I’m dropped onto softer ground. I hear a bird chirping, feel the warmth of the sun, and smell fresh-cut grass.
“I’ll pull the truck around; you watch him.”
I hear footsteps crunching on leaves as the guard walks away.
I wait a second longer, and then I attack. I stand and run at the remaining man. I wrap my chains around his neck and begin to choke him before he even realizes I’m awake. Within seconds, I drain the life from him, and he drops to the ground.
I find his gun and wait around the corner for his friend to return. When I spot him driving the truck up, I take aim and kill him with a single shot.
I don’t know if there are cameras or other guards nearby who could be alerted, but I don’t stick around to find out. I have one mission—find Liesel and get us both out of here.
The door that leads back to the house is unlocked, so I easily slip back inside. My wrists are still bound together, but there is enough space between them for me to use the gun without any trouble. But if a fight gets into hand to hand combat, I’m not sure how I’d fare with the chains and my drowsiness. My goal is to shoot any guards dead before a fight gets that far.
I don’t know where Liesel is being kept. I don’t know her condition or if everything the man in the suit said was a lie. I just know I have to get to her.
I come to a fork, where the hallway splits. The room I was kept in is on the right. I know instinctually to head to the left. Our captor would keep us at either ends of the castle to make it as hard as possible for us to reach each other.
There are several doors through the hallway. I want to burst through them all to see if Liesel is in each and every one of them, but I don’t know who is on the other side of the door, and I won’t risk getting captured again.
Instead, I’m stealth-like as I approach each door quickly but carefully. I place my ear against the thick doors. They may be thick, but they aren’t modern. Thankfully, I can hear beyond the door into each room.
Two men are talking behind the first door, but neither of them mention Liesel after a few seconds.
I move on to the second door, and hear nothing—empty.
Finally, I make it to the third door where I hear sobs that wrap around my heart like prickly vines. Liesel is crying, and it breaks me.
I hold the gun carefully in my hand in case she’s in the middle of being tortured. I’ll kill every motherfucker who dares to touch her.
I pop the door open and aim around the room, expecting to take out the devil and his minions. Instead, all I see is Liesel.
I drop to my knees next to her. She hasn’t looked up yet to realize that it’s me.
“Please,” she begs.
“Huntress,” I say as soothingly as I can.
She lifts her head.
I gasp and immediately wish I could take my reaction back. But her face startles me—it’s black, blue, and swollen. I don’t know the extent of the rest of her injuries, but my imagination runs wild with horrid images of what the man in the suit did to her.
“Are you really here?” she whispers through her tears.
“Yes, I’m here.”
She smiles as she falls against my chest. “You’re here to save me?”
I nod with her head under the crook of my chin. My arms are useless to hold her like I want between how injured they are, the chains, and the gun I’m still gripping.
She thinks I’m her savior.
I will do whatever it takes to get her out of this castle, but I’m not her savior. I always fail at rescuing her until it’s too late. This time is no different.
“You shouldn’t have saved me,” she whispers.