“We have to hurry!” Mira pressed.
The growling they heard was now accompanied by heavy thuds that were closing in on them. And just as they rounded a corner, Mira jerked to a stop, causing Lucas to run straight into her back and Francine into his solid back.
Mira raised her hand and whispered a chant to counter the hazy overcast of red smoke that blocked their way. Then she moved into the cloud of mist in front of her.
“You go first,” Lucas said to Francine and motioned for her to go ahead of him. He nudged her back to push her to continue when the vampiress suddenly paused.
Francine took a deep breath to suppress a sudden annoyance and followed Mira close behind. As soon as the mist enveloped her and Lucas, they felt their stomach abruptly lurched forward. When they finally emerged on the other side, they released a breath they hadn’t known they’d been holding. They all looked up as in front of them was a large solid steel door with no handle.
Lucas looked around. The silence around them was eerie enough to make them think that someone or something was watching them.
Mira held her right hand against the door and spoke another chant. Without any effort, the door cracked open. “This is as wide as my powers could make. The magic wrapped all around this door is too heavy for me to complete the lift.”
Hurriedly, each one of them slipped through the crack. The cold breeze of the night soon greeted them as they stepped outside.
As soon as they stepped onto the landscaped grounds, Francine stopped. The cold breeze outside felt sharp against her open cuts. She hissed as she couldn't go on any longer without a break.
"Why the hell are you stopping?" Lucas growled at her when he noticed.
"The potions is wearing off. I took it minutes earlier than you,” Francine winded. “I need a moment. Every movement I make is slowly beginning to be so painful.”
"We need a plan,” Lucas huffed, then turned to Mira. “When your potion would soon lose its power, we’d be lucky enough to reach the gates.”
Mira gave him a nod. “I have a plan. We need to get to the middle of that hedge maze.” She pointed to her left.
“Hiding in that crazy labyrinth is your plan?” Lucas asked, his eyes trying to make sense of how the towering and neatly trimmed hedge could be such a good plan. As far as he was concerned, as soon as Viessa would find out that either him or Francine were no longer in their cells, the alarms would be set off, and every guard would be on the ground to look for them.
“I don’t think that’s exactly a pla―”
Before Lucas could finish his argument, they heard another loud and powerful growl reverberating inside the castle.
Mira arched her eyebrow at him. “You were saying?” She stomped her feet slightly and walked away.
As soon as another growl broke off, both Lucas and Francine ran limping behind Mira. Even though their legs were exhausted, they did not stop a second. The torture that they could be subjected to had pushed them to quicken their pace. Neither one of them had no interest in ever seeing Viessa or Draven again. No, they had to keep moving despite the protest from their weak and aching bodies.
When they reached and stood at the entrance, a wide opening of the massive maze, Lucas looked up and thought that the hedges had to be at least about thirty feet tall; and he wondered how extraordinarily thick it was.
Then they walked inside altogether in silence. They entered the maze, and Mira pressed her right palm into the hedge at the first intersection. In just a matter of a split second, a passable sized entryway appeared. She’d done it every time they came face to face with a mass wall of leaves as they made their way further into the maze, and until they reached a small clearing, a cascading fountain in the center.
“I guess we’re here. Now what?” Lucas asked.
“I’ll open the door to where you shall hide,” Mira answered.
“A door exactly to where?”
She pressed her lips together then let out a loud breath. “Moorland.”
“Moorland?! Are you fu―”
“Actually, it’s the other realm, *Nebiru*. But portals to *Kingdom Hansteria* and *Lemelherv* would take me years to at least crack―”
“So, you’re sending us to Moorland instead?” Lucas repeated his shocked and quite pissed reaction
“It’s the back door to the two kingdoms.”
“A shitty, and might I add, extremely dangerous back door, Mira.”
“You haven’t been there.”
“Clearly, I haven’t! I’d never crossed any stupid laws in The Treaty and sentenced to rot in that god-awful place. But I have read a ton of books about it.”
Mira’s eyes narrowed at him, her body growing stiff by the second. Then she snapped her head at Francine. “Your choice, my lady. Stay here and run and hide for the rest of eternity. Or take a chance for another life with Alex in *Nebirus*, without The Treaty biting at your assess.”
“What life is there in Moorland for us?” Francine asked.
“As I’ve said, Moorland is just the back door. You could live in *Hansteria* or *Lemelherv*. You choose. The Council and pretty much The High Chairs don’t have much authority over those lands.”
“According to the books I’ve read, no one could leave Moorland that easy.”
“For vampires, it isn’t. The walls separating Moorland from the other two kingdoms were built specifically to ward off your kind, considering how many times vampires had exploited the barriers in the previous centuries.”
Francine sighed, suddenly irritated.
Mira turned to Lucas. “But he could help you. *The Moorers* favor the wolves more.”
“No way I’m going to that place!” Lucas exclaimed.
“The minute you’ve helped Alex and Francine escape, you’ve already made yourself a marked man, Lucas. There’s no way now for you to leave the castle alive as soon as they get what they want from you. Just like Francine, I’m just giving you a choice to live. It might not be as luxurious as the life you have here, but at least you’d still be fucking breathing.”
“No. The life you’re offering me is not the life I want,” Lucas choked out, his voice raw with anger and anguish.
“What is your whole plan?” Francine rounded back on Mira.
Mira’s eyes, like that of a fox, was icy and calculating. She took a step closer to the cascading fountain. “You and Lucas escape to Moorland and wait for me and Alex there. I;m the only one who could take him there."
"How convenient," Lucas snide.
"Because there's no easier way to do this," Mira countered. "You and Francine can't stay here any longer. So off to Moorland you both go. Once Alex and Francine are reunited, you can come back here to die. If that’s what you’d prefer.”
“We have to take this chance, Lucas,” Francine said softly.
In one smooth motion, Lucas heaved Mira up, dragging her against the thick hedge. He lifted her until she was upright, but he was still towering over her. “And how am I supposed to believe that you don’t have any hidden agenda, Mira?”
“Because Francine’s mother and Alex’s mother begged me to save their son and daughter,” Mira replied coolly.
Lucas let go of her arms. Never taking his eyes off of hers, he took a step back and then another. “Is this the truth?”
“If you do want to waste the little time we have left, you can call Alicia and ask her yourself.”
He paused for a moment, considering whether or not he should fact-check Mira’s claims. But there was really no reason for him to doubt her other than that Alex dumped her when Francine came. But then again, Mira had made a valid point when she said he was already a marked man. So even when the mage had some sort of hidden agenda up her sleeve, Moorland could still be the only safe place for him and Francine at the moment.
*But what about Harper?*
“You could come back here and live someplace where no wolf or bloodsuckers could smell you. Your choice,” Mira added as if reading his mind.
Francine looked at Lucas like she was trying to beg him to come with her without actually saying it.
“So we hide in Moorland and wait for Alex there? How’s he supposed to know we’re waiting for him in another realm? Shit! This sounds so insane.”
“I told you, I will take him there myself.” Mira turned to Francine. “I will bring Alex to you, my lady. I promise you that.”
Lucas shook his head. “You don’t even know where he is.”
“I don’t, but you do.”
“Bullshit.”
Mira pointed at him. “Listen, I have enough of this, Lucas. This is a great risk for me to be here with you, but I’m doing it anyway. Now, in order for you to get out of here alive, you either put a little faith in me, or you die. Take your pick!” she retorted, challenging him.
She tied up her red locks, and then, with a skillful wave of her hands, she conjured up a bright red luminous glow in the air with molten rays of neon red around it. She stretched her palms out and slowly began moving them as if pushing aside an invisible door. The molten light stretched and formed a sparkling, shining, red door that held an eerie dead forest on steam within it.
“Here’s your temporary freedom.” She turned around to Lucas and Francine. “Your move.”
Lucas took a deep breath, taking unwilling steps near the portal.
“Wait,” Mira stopped him. “Tell me where Alex is?”
“We don’t have much time. The pain is coming back strong, Lucas. We won’t make it out of here alive. Tell her where Alex is,” Francine urged.
“And I no longer have any potions to help you walk further,” Mira said to both of them.
"Lucas, hurry!" Francine yelled.
“Lucas? Tell me where Alex is, and I’ll take him to you myself,” Mira assured him. “You have to trust me.”
Lucas hissed at the throbbing pain in his side where the silver rod had hit him badly. His eyes showed so much uncertainty, but with the situation at hand, he had no choice. Tentatively, he leaned closer to Mira. "Trust isn't something I don’t easily give, Mira. It’s something I make people work to earn."
“Well, I’m afraid you don’t have the luxury of time to demand that I prove to you that I can be trusted. So it’s either you go and make sure Alex’s little princess is safe while both of you wait for us on the other side, or you stay here and die. Again, take your pick,” Mira dared back.
Lucas smirked at her then leaned in closer to whisper something into her ear. Her eyes narrowed at once then she glared at him. “What’s he doing with your assistant?”
But before Lucas could reply, Francine grabbed his arm and yanked him with her towards the portal. In a flash, both him and Francine were swirled through a vortex of air before falling into a dark abyss.
Mira took a step back, raised her right hand, then closed her palm tight. Suddenly, the door snapped shut and immediately disappeared. A shadow of a smile crept onto her lips as she retrieved her steps out of the labyrinth.
“See you soon, Alex.”