Chapter 43 Safe in his arm

Chapter 43 Safe in his arm


ATLAS' POV

The room was small and it smelled like dust and old hay. There was a bed in the corner with a thin mattress, and a table by the wall with a cold candle sitting on it, and a window with thick iron bars across it. That was it.

And Lily was there. She was sitting on the floor in the corner with her knees pulled up to her chest and her hair all over the place, tangled and loose. When the door burst open she flinched so hard she pressed herself back against the wall, like she was getting ready to be hit.

When she saw it was me, her face went through about three different things in two seconds. First confusion, like she didn't recognize me at first, and then this huge wave of relief that made her whole body relax for a second, and then confusion again, like she was trying to figure out if I was really standing there or if she was dreaming.

"Atlas?" Her voice came out all rough and cracked, like she hadn't used it in days. "How did you even—"

I didn't let her finish. There wasn't time.

I crossed the room in three steps and grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She was lighter than I remembered, like way lighter, and her wrist felt thin under my fingers. They hadn't been feeding her much.

"We're leaving," I said. "Right now."

She didn't argue or anything at first. She just nodded and let me pull her toward the door, even though her legs were shaky and she almost tripped over her own feet.

Boar was already out in the hallway going at it with two guards. He had one on the ground, like already down and not moving, and he was trading punches with the other one. The one on the ground was real still.

I pushed Lily behind me and stepped in. The second guard saw me coming and tried to turn toward me but he was too slow, and I caught him right in the throat with my fist. He went down grabbing at his neck and making these choking sounds.

"We need another way out," Boar said, and he was breathing hard. "The stairs are gonna be full of them in like thirty seconds, maybe less."

I looked around. Hallway going both ways, a couple of doors, and a window at the far end.

"Window," I said.

Boar looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "We're on the third floor, Atlas."

"You got a better idea?" I asked sarcastic

He didn't say anything to that.

So we ran for the window and I kicked it open, and glass went everywhere, spraying out into the night and tinkling on the roof below. There was a roof down there, slanted and covered in tiles, and beyond that were just trees.

"Go," I told Boar.

He obeyed as he climbed out and slid down the tiles and dropped onto the lower roof with a thud that I heard even from up there.

I turned to Lily. Her face was pale and her eyes were wide and she was looking at that window like it was a cliff.

"Your turn," I said. "Come on."

She looked at the window and then at the dark outside and then at the drop, and she shook her head.

"I can't," she said.

"You can. Just climb out and slide down like he did. I'll be right behind you."

She shook her head again and backed up a step.

"Lily. We don't have time for this." Her reluctance was getting on my patience that I never had.

"I can't leave her."

I stared at her. "What?"

"Anya." Her voice cracked when she said the name. "She was with me when they took us. They took her too. I don't know where she is. I can't just—I won't leave without her. I won't."

Behind us I could hear more footsteps and shouting. They'd found the guards.

"Lily, we have to go. Now."

"No." She said it quietly but she meant it. "I'm not moving without Anya. You can knock me out and carry me if you want, but I'll just run back the first chance I get. I'll find her myself. I'll...."

Boar's voice came from outside, all urgent. "Whatever you two are doing up there, do it faster!"

I grabbed her arm. "We'll come back for her. I promise we'll—"

"You don't understand." She was pulling against me now, not strong enough to get free but trying anyway. "She's the only one who ever, she stood in front of me when Elliott came at me, she shoved him and told him he'd have to go through her first. I can't just leave her here, I can't—"

There was a noise behind us and I spun around ready to fight but it was Raven.

He came up the stairs fast and he was breathing hard, and his usual calm look was just gone. In his arms he was carrying Anya, all slumped over and unconscious. Her face was bruised up and her dress was torn and dirty, but she was breathing. I could see her chest moving.

Raven looked at me. "Found her on the second floor. They had her locked in a closet like she was garbage."

Lily made this sound then, something I'd never heard from anyone before. It was like a sob and a gasp mixed together. She tried to lunge toward Anya but I held her back.

"Easy," I said. "She's alive. She's right here with us. But we need to move right now."

Lily was crying, tears just streaming down her face, but she nodded and let me pull her toward the window.

Boar was still on that lower roof looking up. "Pass her down. I'll catch her."

Raven handed Anya through the window real careful, and Boar took her and laid her on the tiles, and then he looked up again. "Next!"

Lily climbed out. Her hands were shaking so bad she could barely hold on, and her feet kept slipping on the glass that was still stuck in the frame.

"I can't," she whispered. "I can't do this, Atlas."

I was right behind her. "Yes you can."

"The drop is too far."

"Boar caught Anya and I'll catch you."

She looked down at the drop and then back at me, and her eyes were all wet and wide and scared.

"You promise?"

I don't make promises. I don't even believe in them really. They're just words that people say before they let you down.

But I looked at her standing there shaking on that windowsill three floors up, and the words came out anyway.

"I promise."

She let go.

She fell maybe five feet before I grabbed her, and it wasn't a clean catch at all, more like I just tackled her onto the roof. We slid together down those tiles, both of us grabbing at anything to stop ourselves.

Boar caught us at the edge. He grabbed my arm and hauled us both up.

"You two okay?" he asked.

I didn't answer. I just looked at Lily. She was crying and laughing at the same time, with her face pressed against the tiles and her shoulders shaking.

"We need to move," Raven said. He had Anya over his shoulder again and was already backing toward the edge of the roof. "They're coming out the front gate."

I pulled Lily up. "Can you walk?"

She nodded and wiped her face with her sleeve. "I can run."

So we ran.

The drop from the lower roof was softer than I expected, just mud and leaves and something that squished under my bad ankle. Lily landed okay, Raven landed light with Anya, Boar landed loud and cursed about it. We went immediately towards the trees running through the woods with branches hitting my face and roots trying to trip me up. Lily stayed close the whole time, sometimes holding onto my sleeve, sometimes just keeping pace. Behind us we could hear shouting and torches and dogs barking.

We ran until the shouts faded away until the torches were just little specks in the distance, until my lungs were burning and my ankle was screaming and I couldn't hear anything except our breathing and the leaves crunching under our feet.

That was when we stopped. Lily bent over with her hands on her knees, gasping for air. Boar leaned against a tree and checked his ribs where a guard had gotten him. Raven laid Anya down real gently on the ground and crouched beside her, feeling for a pulse.

"She's alive," he said. "She's in bad shape but she's alive."

Lily went to her right away. She dropped to her knees in the dirt and just looked at Anya's face for a long moment. Then she reached out and touched her hair, so soft it was barely anything.

"Anya," she whispered. "I'm here. We're getting out of this."

Anya didn't move or wake up or anything. But she was breathing and that counted as something to Lily.

I stood there watching them, Lily on the ground crying over her maid, Raven checking wounds, Boar catching his breath.

We made it. "We should keep moving," I said after a minute. "They'll send more men. Dogs too probably."

Lily looked up at me. Her face was all streaked with tears and dirt and a little bit of blood from a cut on her forehead I hadn't noticed before.

"Thank you," she said.

I didn't know what to say to that. So I didn't say anything, I just held out my hand. She took it and I pulled her up.

Behind us the manor sat quiet in the dark. Ahead was just more trees and more night and more walking.

But she was with us, Anya was with us. That was what mattered, so we walked.