Chapter 5
We ran until the sky turned a deep, silent blue—the kind of blue that only came before sunrise. His body was warm against mine, steady despite the wound in his shoulder. He didn’t speak, didn’t slow. Just kept going. Like if he stopped, everything might collapse again.
I clung to him, too weak to walk on my own, the icy air biting at my skin through his cloak. Trees blurred past us, and for the first time in years, there were no chains around my neck. No men shouting. No blood-soaked snow under my paws.
Freedom felt strange.
We finally reached a small clearing tucked between hills. There was a cave there, half-hidden by twisted roots and snow-heavy branches. He stepped inside, gently lowered me onto a pile of dried leaves, and lit a small fire with quick, practiced hands. It crackled to life, casting orange shadows on the stone walls.
I stayed quiet as I watched him.
He didn’t look at me at first. He just sat across the fire, pulling a cloth from a worn leather bag and pressing it to his shoulder. Blood soaked through fast. His expression stayed hard, unreadable.
“I can do it,” I said, voice raspy.
He finally looked at me.
I reached for the cloth, and he let me take it. I moved closer, slowly, then cleaned the wound as best I could. My hands were trembling, but I focused. It was the only thing grounding me.
He didn’t flinch. Not once.
“Why didn’t you write?” I asked softly, eyes still on the gash. “A message. A sign. Anything. You knew what they’d do to me if I was caught.”
“I didn’t expect them to take you,” he said. “I thought I was the only one they wanted.”
I pressed the cloth harder, making him wince. “That’s not good enough.”
“I know.”
I looked up. “They broke me.”
His jaw tensed. “They tried.”
I shook my head. “No, they did. You don’t know what I had to become just to stay alive.”
His hand moved, almost unsure, until it rested lightly over mine. “Then I’ll remind you who you are.”
I stared at him, feeling the heat of the fire between us, the warmth of his touch, the ache behind my ribs. The truth was, I didn’t know who I was anymore. Not without the cage. Not without the constant fighting.
“Do you even know what I’ve done?” I whispered. “How many lives I ended?”
He didn’t flinch. “Do you know how many I’ve ended to get back to you?”
I wanted to cry, but my body didn’t remember how. So I just sat there, staring at the flickering flames, his hand holding mine like it meant something. Like it was still possible to feel something good in all this darkness.
“We’ll rest for a few hours,” he said. “Then move. They’ll be hunting us by sunrise.”
“Where are we going?”
“To someone who can help us.”
“Someone we can trust?” I asked bitterly.
His silence made my stomach twist.
“I don’t need more strangers,” I said. “I need to know this ends.”
He met my eyes. “It will. I’ve already destroyed two of their bases. There’s only one left.”
I froze. “You’ve been planning this.”
“For years.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I couldn’t. If they suspected anything, they’d have killed you before I ever got close.”
I wanted to be angry. Part of me was. But the other part—the part that still remembered the way he held me before the world fell apart—understood.
“You really did come back for me,” I murmured.
He nodded. “I said I would.”
Five years ago, those words sounded like hope.
Now, they sounded like a promise paid in blood.
I leaned back against the cave wall, closing my eyes. For the first time in so long, I let my guard down. Just a little.
And I slept.
Not because I felt safe.
But because he was finally here.
And for tonight, that was enough.