Chapter 231: Grace
I couldn’t breathe, but I didn’t stop. I could hear the pounding of guard’s footsteps as we ran. Leon kept pace with me, but I knew he could run faster if he wanted to. I questioned why the guards didn’t shift, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. We were far enough away from them now that I couldn’t see them, but not safe enough to think that we lost them.
I fought to steady my breathing as I forced myself to put one foot in front of the other. Could I shift if I had to? How long had we been running? Were we close to the border? I didn’t know. I didn’t even know if we were going the right. All I knew was that we couldn’t stop.
“Grace!” Kinsley’s sing-song crazy voice came from somewhere in the distance. “I have something that I think you want!”
I forced myself to keep moving but shot Leon a look in fear.
“Keep going.” He grunted. “It’s a trap.”
I gave him a single nod and forced myself to keep going. Goddess, I couldn’t freaking breathe, but there was no choice but to keep going.
At least until screams began to fill the air. It might be a trap, but they had someone, and they were torturing them.
I slowed my pace, and Leon gave me a warning glance, but when I didn’t speed up again, he shoved me into the nearest, thickest brush he could find as we both fought for air.
“Graceeee!” Kinsley’s crazy-ass voice rang through the forest again. “Come out, come out wherever you are! You wouldn’t let this poor girl die for you, would you?”
I hated that pout. How often in my life had she used that same tone with me growing up, telling me that I ‘wouldn’t want dad to know about all the trouble I was getting into, now would we?’ My heart leapt at the memory. I didn’t want to be that girl anymore. I didn’t want to crumble at Kinsley’s words, but I felt like I was drowning all over again.
“Grace.” Leon hissed, his eyes locking with mine. “Pull it together.”
I took a steadying breath and knew that he was right.
“I can’t let whoever that is die for me.” I told him once I finally could breathe without gasping.
“I know.” He muttered, running a hand over his face. “So, what do you want to do?”
“I-” But I didn’t have an answer. It wasn’t fair. I was supposed to have an answer if I was going to do something like that and drag Leon into it with me.
“Come on, Grace, I’m not going in blind. Give me a plan we can work with.” Leon growled as footsteps started to close in on us and our hiding spot.
I racked my brain, forcing myself to calm down to a manageable level. Fear was reasonable. I had every reason to be terrified, but it was unproductive. My brain was my best asset, and I needed to use it.
“We need to split up.” I said after a long moment, as I waiting for warriors to pass our hiding spot.
“Grace.” He hissed again in irritation.
“No, I’m serious. I’ll give myself up, and while I’m the distraction, you’ll help whoever they’re torturing.”
“And then what? I go back to Rhys empty-handed? Not happening. Try again.”
“You wouldn’t be empty handed.” I mumbled, earning an eye roll from Leon.
“Give me something real.” He demanded, “Or else I pick you up, and I carry you out of this godforsaken territory against your will, and I will not look back.”
“We don’t know what we’re walking into.” I answered uncertainly.
“And you’re still not 100% and neither am I.” He admitted, and I suddenly felt terrible for keeping him from crossing into a safe territory.
“You go from the front, and I’ll put myself as bait. But I won’t get close enough for them to grab me... While eyes are on me, you grab whoever it is, and then we run.”
“That’s not a real plan, Grace.” He grumbled.
“Perhaps not, but they aren’t shifting either. And I don’t know why, but it doesn’t matter right now. It levels the playing field.”
“What if most of them can’t shift, but some can?” Leon questioned.
“That’s a risk I have to take, but you don’t.” I answered quietly.
He rolled his eyes again, and I knew he was in. It wasn’t a plan. He was right about that. It was more of a hope than anything. A dream if you will, but if I could protect whoever they were using against me, then I would. And maybe that would be my downfall. Our downfall, but it would be worth something. The bigger problem would be that multiple warriors had already passed us. Unless Kinsley was dumb enough to recall them all back to her when we showed up, then we’d have to get past them to get to Rhys... The distance was huge; there was no way they could successfully cover it all, but we also wouldn’t know where they were until we crossed them. But I wasn’t afraid anymore. There was no room for fear, and I had to shut it off. I could feel it when we made it out of this alive.
Alive. That was my only goal.
I split from Leon, forcing myself to double back toward the screaming. No fear. No fear. I chanted in my head as I made my way back to the hell I had just escaped. I just hoped Leon and I would time this right. Everything would fail if we didn’t. It was a half-ass plan at best, but it would be fine. It had to be... At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
However, when I finally made my way back to stand in front of my sister, I couldn’t hide the surprise on my face as I took note of her prisoner. She looked so much like her brother, my heart felt like it was being squeezed out of my chest. She wore the same look of indignation and fight that he had so often in our time together. I missed him so much, and with that I realized this mission got a whole lot harder.