Page 108 of Degradation

She shakes her head, starting to shake and I realise she’s hyperventilating. That she’s having a full blown-panic attack.

I pull her into my arms, engulf her with my body. “It’s okay.” I reassure her, “I’ll protect you. I’ll make sure there are no clues, nothing to get a trace from. We’ll be like ghosts. We’ll just vanish and no one will know where we went.”

Only, my words clearly don’t have any effect. She crumbles more, she starts whimpering, gasping like she can’t breathe properly.

I brush her hair back from her face, grip her chin in my hands and plant as soft a kiss as I can on her forehead. “I’m a Blake and a Reaper.” I tell her. “I have enough money, enough resources, I can ensure we’re safe.”

She nods back, even as the tears stream down her face. “When?” She whispers so quietly I barely hear it.

“In a day or two.” I reply. “I just have one last thing to sort.”

She gulps, looking so impossibly beautiful and yet, so petrified at the same time. My poor little malkta, I can’t wait to free her, I can’t wait to get her out of this prison and show her what real living is.

From the door, Collins makes a slight whistling sound, and I know my time is up, that someone is coming.

I plant one final kiss on her hairline and then let her slip out of my arms. She just needs to be brave, needs to trust me, and by this time next week, we’ll be free of all of this forever.

Pailtyn

My heart thumps in my chest as I make my way down the back passageway. I know if I get caught now, then it’ll all be over.

Collins has his hand around my wrist, leading me on the way someone does an animal going to slaughter and, in a way, that’s exactly how I feel.

He snuck me out, told me to go with him, that Devin asked him to get me and bring me to him. Of course, I was suspicious, but he didn’t exactly give me an option and it’s not like I could make a fuss and risk everyone finding out about this escape plan.

Outside, I can hear the wind howling. A storm must be coming, and it feels even more like a bad omen.

I can’t figure out how to get out of this, how to stop this.

I know if I go with him, if I allow Devin to take me way then it’s an almost certain that Antonio won’t find me. I’ll be trapped, stuck in the same situation as I am now, only I won’t have anyone to help me, and I won’t have any way to escape.

I contemplate calling for help, screaming for the guards, but what good will that do? If Gunther finds out, I’m convinced this will be the final straw, the excuse he needs to send me to Oblivion. He can get a new wife then, one of the other girls. He’s threatened me with it a few times now, threatened to ‘replace me’ because I’m not yet pregnant.

My stomach twists. It’s a small mercy I’m not pregnant, either with his, or someone else’s cursed child.

As we round the corner, we pause, and I hear the sound of light footsteps passing. I guess it’s only a servant and not a guard from the way they walk and once they’re definitely gone, Collins pulls me on, down a flight of steps and into a space that smells musty, earthy too.

I wrinkle my nose, realising that this must be some sort of storage room. Is Devin meant to meet me here? Is that his plan?

We come to a stop, and it feels like the world is on tenterhooks, like something is happening, something awful, only, I can’t see a damn thing.

Suddenly an alarm goes off, it rings out so loud I physically jump in shock.

Collins curses under his breath. Is the game up, then? Have we been found out before this has even started? I don’t know whether to feel relief or horror at that, because Gunther isn’t going to see me as a victim here, he’s going to see me as the instigator, the whore who seduced his guards, who somehow persuaded them to help me.

I can feel Collins twisting, turning, like he thinks we’re under attack, like he can see this entire space suddenly filling up.

“What…?” I murmur, only he flings me forward, practically throws me onto the ground and I slam into the cold concrete. Dry, dusty bits of dirty cover my face, my hands, it gets up my nose, it makes me cough so badly and I try to calm myself before it kicks off my asthma.

I hear his panicked footsteps disappearing off as he runs away and leaves me here. Alone.

I have no explanation for this, no reason to be here, wherever the fuck I am.

I try to get up, try to push myself up and I realise that awful throbbing in my wrist isn’t just a bruise. Did I break it? I whimper, pulling my arm into my chest and I try to shuffle my way over to I don’t even know where. I can’t hide, I can’t exactly conceal myself when I have no idea where I am, where anything else is.

Something wet seeps up from knees. I pause, feeling the strange liquid now seeping through my skirt.

I frown, reaching down to touch whatever it is. If it’s some spilled food, will it leave a trail? Will it become breadcrumbs that they can follow and lead to me being caught?