Chapter 130 Chapter 130: Tempting Fate
\[Lilia\]
The silence of the winter woods was heavy, a suffocating blanket that seemed to swallow the rhythmic crunch of Copper’s hooves. I steered the mare away from the treacherous slope, my hands trembling slightly against the leather reins. We were near the boundary, the invisible line where Kael’s absolute authority met the untamed wild of the Russian winter.
I spoke to her in hushed, jagged tones, trying to soothe her nerves—or perhaps my own. Reaching a gnarled, frozen tree, I fastened the reins to a thick piece of bark that protruded like a jagged bone from the ground.
My heart thumped with a violent, erratic rhythm against my ribs, echoing the internal chaos that had defined my morning. I stood there, a small, fragile figure against the vast, oppressive whiteness of the landscape. The fences loomed ahead, a series of cold, metallic towers draped in frost.
Normally, they hummed with a lethal energy, a low-frequency vibration that rattled the teeth and served as a constant reminder that I was a bird in a gilded, electrified cage.
But today, they were silent.
The silence was a siren song. It lured me, promising a world where my skin didn’t bear the marks of a kingpin’s possession and my heart didn't have to break in the silence of a marble hallway.
Freedom was just a few steps away.
Surprisingly enough, thoughts began flooding my head, rushing in to fill the hollowed-out shock I had been carrying since the kitchen confrontation. My mind had been a blank slate of misery, but now, the void was replaced by a cacophony of coercive whispers.
Cross it, they hissed. The power is out.
The beast is distracted. Run until your lungs burn and the snow swallows your trail.
I moved toward the fence, my steps tentative, as if expecting the ground to erupt beneath me. I hadn't even noticed how close I had gotten until my gloved hand brushed against the wire. I recoiled instinctively, bracing for the agony of a high-voltage shock that would fry me to the bone.
Nothing happened.
The metal was merely cold—bitterly, aggressively cold—but dead. I gripped the wire, my fingers curling around the barbs. I could easily climb this. The gaps between the strands were wide enough that I could slide underneath the ice, slipping through the grasp of the Aslanov estate like a ghost. I looked over my shoulders, my breath hitching. The vast, rolling lawn was empty. The forest stood as a silent witness. There was no Val to gently talk me down, no Kael to command my obedience with a single, mossy-eyed glare.
This was it. The moment I had prayed for in the dark. I was alone, and I could be free.
However, as much as the world outside the fence begged me to join it, beckoning my whole being to flee into the treeline, a part of me remained rooted in the frozen earth. A soft, wet snort broke through my panic. I turned to look at Copper. She stood a few yards away, her head lowered, her breath coming in plumes of white steam. It wasn't a sign of alarm, but a quiet, weary submission to the cold.
I looked at the mare, then back at the woods. If I left now, I would have to leave her behind. I couldn't take her through the fence, and even if I untied her, there was no guarantee she would find her way back to the warmth of the stables. The snow was falling harder now, beginning to obscure the path we had taken. If she remained here, tied to a dead tree in a sub-zero wasteland, she would succumb to the cold long before rescue arrived. I doubted Mikanor would follow our trail in time; he was an old man, and the winter was a cruel master.
A long, deep sigh escaped my chest, the hot air fogging instantly in front of my face like a fading ghost. My resolve, which had flared so brightly for a second, began to crumble into a heap of guilt. I meekly retreated from the fence, each step back feeling like a betrayal of my own soul.
I reached Copper and swiped my palm across the flat of her nose, moving up to stroke her ears. I leaned my forehead against the space between her eyes, seeking the comfort of her animal warmth.
“I’m sorry, my friend. I shouldn’t have even thought of leaving you,” I murmured, my voice breaking. I slid my palm down the length of her strong, muscular neck, feeling the steady thrum of her life.
Maybe it was just my conscience. I tried to tell myself I could have freed her reins and shooed her back toward the mansion while I made my escape. But a significant, terrifying force insisted that I stay. It wasn't logic; it was a weight in my gut that told me I wasn't finished with the monster in the mansion, or perhaps, he wasn't finished with me.
“Shall we go back?” I whispered, more to the wind than the horse.
Copper snorted again, a sound of profound agreement. I moved to the tree and untied the leather straps. I cast one last, lingering look over the fence. The pain in my chest welled up again—a sharp, stabbing realization that I was choosing my cage. I prepared to heave myself back onto the saddle, my foot reaching for the stirrup.
Then, the world shifted.
I felt a sudden movement in the periphery of my vision—a shadow that didn't belong to the trees. My body went completely still, my heart stopping in mid-beat. My first thought was of a bear, but I knew they were deep in hibernation. Before I could turn my head to face the threat, a hand darted into my sight. It was large, encased in a dark glove, and it moved with a terrifying, practiced speed.
A thick handkerchief was shoved over my nose and mouth.
The smell hit me instantly—an acrid, chemical stench that burned the back of my throat. It wasn't a bear. It was a man. I felt his chest press against my back, a wall of solid muscle and cold fabric. My mind screamed in a sudden, sharp realization.
Of course.
How could I have been so incredibly stupid? The fences weren't down because of a technical glitch or a blackout. They were down because someone had cut them. Kael’s defenses had been breached. One of the enemies Val had warned me about—the wolves that prowled the borders of the Aslanov empire—was no longer lurking. He was here.
His arm hooked around my neck, locking me in a suffocating grip. I clamped my teeth shut, refusing to inhale, desperate to keep the chemicals out of my lungs. But he was strong, his hand pressing the cloth firmly against my face, depriving me of oxygen. The edges of my vision began to fray and darken.
With the last of my strength, I didn't try to fight him. Instead, I reached out and delivered a sharp, desperate kick to Copper’s hind legs.
“Go!” I tried to scream, but it came out as a muffled whimper against the cloth.
The mare reacted instantly. She neighed loudly, a piercing sound that shattered the silence of the woods. Her front legs thrust into the air, throwing up a spray of white powder as she reared back. Then, she did exactly what I hoped—she bolted. I watched through a mounting haze as she dashed through the snow, her tail a white flag disappearing back toward the stables. I prayed Mikanor would see the riderless horse and realize that I was gone.
The man behind me hissed a curse in a language I didn’t recognize, his grip tightening as I began to sag against him. My knees buckled, the world spinning into a kaleidoscope of gray and black. The last thing I felt was the biting cold of the snow as we hit the ground, and then, I finally succumbed to the darkness.