The Chase

The Chase

“Stop!” Gaia screamed at the shape, as she barreled out of Cleta’s bedroom.

With a ferociousness I had never seen her exhibit, even in our most animated training fights, Gaia leapt over me, and darted out the door at an impressive speed. A split second later, Cleta followed. I sprang to my feet and took off behind them.

I ran down the corridor as fast as I could. The mysterious, hooded shape was almost rounding the next corner, but Gaia was closing the distance between them. They were heading towards Luther and my chambers’, Sorka’s wails echoing through the corridors.

“Luther!” I screamed. “Luther!!!”

My lungs were on fire, but I continued shouting, hoping that, if he was already back in our apartments, he would hear us and come outside.

“Ouch!” Cleta exclaimed, from the next corridor.

“What happened?” I yelled in a panic.

When I rounded the corner, I found her sprawled on the ground face first.

“I’m fine!” she said as I was slowing down. “Damn nightgowns!”

I glanced up at Gaia, who was still a few strides behind Sorka’s kidnapper. I redoubled my pace, pushing away the image of the intruder tripping and falling on the ground while holding Sorka in their arms. How would Gaia intercept them without hurting her child?

“Luther!!” I screamed again, desperate.

If he were to come out now, he would block the intruder’s exit on one end of the corridor, while Cleta, Gaia and I would prevent them from turning around. They’d be trapped.

Come on, come on!

I stared at our apartment door, willing it to swing open.

“Luther!!!”

And it did.

Luther was standing on the threshold, dripping wet, looking utterly confused...until he noticed Gaia chasing the kidnapper, and me chasing the both of them. At the last possible moment, he threw himself across the corridor, his muscular arms spread wide to cast a net around Sorka and her kidnapper.

They slammed into him at full speed and the three of them toppled to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Sorka shrieked.

“Sorka!!” Gaia roared.

In a flash, she added herself to the melee, struggling to separate Sorka from the intruder, as Luther tightened his grasp around them. Quickly, I hooked an arm around the kidnappers' throat, forcing them to move slightly away from Luther and to release Sorka, who cried out in pain when Gaia grabbed her roughly.

Gaia stood up and away from us, hugging Sorka to her chest, her eyes wild.

“Shhh. You’re okay, you’re okay.” She cradled her baby, tears streaming down her face.

“Here, help me get him up,” Luther said, grabbing the intruder’s shoulders.

Cleta caught up with us, hugging Gaia and Sorka with ferocity. Sorka appeared unharmed, although Cleta’s lip was split from her fall.

Luther slammed the kidnapper against the wall and nodded at me. I removed their hood.

Roisin spat in my face.

Before I could stop myself, I slapped Roisin across the face, the nagging rage and frustration of these past weeks twisting my stomach.

“Human scum,” she groaned.

I lifted my hand a second time.

“Tatiana,” Luther gasped.

I glanced at him, jaw set, aware of the anger in my eyes, but unable to wash it away. This woman had already tried to take what was Gaia’s once. I wasn’t about to let her off with a fake smile and a warning again.

“You’re worthless,” Roisin hissed.

I slapped her a second time. Roisin stared at me, defiant, matching my fury. At that moment, I wanted to break her, to force her to swallow her words. I pushed her against the wall, until Luther placed a hand on my shoulder, holding me back.

“Let’s bring her to the guards, Tatiana.”

I stepped away, but didn’t stop glaring at Roisin. “She needs to pay for what she did,” I growled. “I’m so tired of all of this hatred…”

The reality of my words sank deep into my body. I didn’t know how many problems I could still bear, before collapsing under the pressure. I wiped my face with a sleeve, realizing that my nose was bleeding.

“Who do you work with?” Luther asked Roisin.

She squirmed under Luther’s grip, attempting to slither away. He pushed his arm against her throat.

“You are a disgrace,” Roisin choked on the words. “All of you. Humans deserve to die.”

That was all we were able to get her to say that evening.



Cleta accompanied Gaia and Sorka back to her chambers, while Luther and I went down to the palace’s jails and threw Roisin in a cell.

She was going to be interrogated all night, but I had little hope that she would say anything. The fury I had seen in her eyes verged on madness, and I feared that it was the very reason Gallen’s parents had picked her to begin with. She was ready to die for her cause.

In complete silence, Luther and I trudged back to our chambers. The violence of Roisin’s words felt worse than the harshest of Franco’s slaps. In a few sentences, she had erased the light-heartedness I was filled with earlier that night.

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” I admitted to Luther, sitting close to him on our bed.

He pulled me to him. “I could tell. I have never seen you so…”

“At a loss?”

“Angry,” he said.

I caressed his face, brushing his temple, tracing the line of his jaw.

“It seems like no matter what we do, people will come in the way of our happiness,” I told him. “Why can’t we just enjoy...this?” I said, cupping the back of his head to kiss him.

There was something warm and comfortable about holding him. He was leaning against the wall, his legs wrapped around me, his arms resting on my hips. We fit together so well. At that moment, I was just so happy, I refused to think about the future.

“We should run away,” I murmured.

I thought about all the times Luther had pushed me away from him, so we wouldn’t find ourselves in love, wanting to marry when it was impossible. He had been forcing a distance between us for my own good, knowing that being in love with him would make my life harder.

“We don’t have to get married if we run away. We can just be...two people in love, without any consequences,” I suggested.

Luther smiled, threading his fingers through my hair. “I suppose we could...we would garden, sell our herbs, flowers and vegetables,” he whispered in my ear.

I let him nibble on my neck. “Have all of our time to ourselves. Surely someone else can deal with Voke,” I replied.

He moved his lips to my collarbone, tugging at the edge of my nightgown with his teeth to slide it further down. A delightful chill tickled my bare skin.

“Someone else will deal with Voke,” Luther asserted. “I’ve sorted it out.”

I let out a squeal when his tongue traced soft circles under my clothes.

“What do you mean you’ve sorted it out?” I forced myself to ask, even though all I wanted was to abandon myself to him. “Are we still talking hypothetically?”

But instead of answering, Luther moved to kiss my lips hungrily, while one of his hands slid up my thighs. I let out a gasp of pleasure.

“We’ll continue this conversation later,” I managed to say, before feeling the last of my resistance melt away under his touch.