*Eliza*
“A trade,” Aeris’s voice echoed in my ears as I looked frantic after Jared, who was stuck in place with shock. The young woman on the stage turned frantic eyes on Jared, and the look on her face...
Sothing snapped in my chest.
A trade. A trade... , for that woman.
“You can have her back,” Aeris bood, a hush falling over the crowd. “If you leave Eliza behind, with .”
Jared looked back at , his eyes cold and void of expression as he looked over. I opened my mouth to say his na. It was the only thing I could think to say.
But then he turned and pushed through the crowd.
He’d gone to her.
“We need to go, now,” Brandt hissed in my ear, his brutal tone sounding so unlike him as he grabbed roughly by the arm and started to pull out of the crowd.
I tasted acid in my throat. My mouth was dry as I tried to swallow. My heart was shattering in my chest as jealousy and confusion roiled in my stomach.
“Who is that woman?” I tried to say, but Brandt broke into a sprint, practically dragging behind him.
We darted between buildings, our bodies cast in shadows as our feet pounded the cracked pavent still wet from last night’s storm. Brandt ca to an abrupt halt, his chest heaving with effort as he peaked around the corner of the building, then pressed himself back into the alleyway, shaking his head.
“Aeris has warriors stationed at the main gate–”
“Because he just offered Jared that woman in exchange for !” I hissed, digging my fingernails into his forearm. “What the fuck is going on?!”
Brandt was in no mood to explain anything to , that was clear. He slamd his arm into my chest, flattening against the wall as three warriors passed us on the street, running towards the gate.
“Co on,” he said under his breath, taking by the hand as we ran back down the alley. My shoes and pants were already wet from stomping through puddles and other muck I didn’t even want to think about. We were well outside of the city proper now, weaving between the run-down buildings along the inside of the wall. I knew where he was taking . It was the temple Jared had told about.
It led outside the wall.
Brandt and I ran up the steps without glancing behind us. I was panting, my legs burning from the exertion of sprinting through the massive city. I tried to catch my breath for a mont while Brandt pounded on the door.
A woman opened the door wide enough for us to pass through. She yelped in surprise as Brandt shoved through a second door leading into the temple, the woman’s voice lifted in an exclamation I didn’t catch.
“Eliza, we have to hurry!” Brandt cried as I caught my toe on a cracked stone paver and fell to my knees.
Pain ricocheted up my legs and settled in my hips as I grunted, clawing Brandt’s arm to get a better grip on him as he hauled to my feet.
“Guards are everywhere!” a priest shouted as he stepped out of the shadows and hurried over to us.
“I fucking know that!” Brandt snapped, tugging toward him as the priest approached.
“There’s a tunnel, right through that doorway. Turn left at the end of the hallway–” the priest began, but Brandt and I were already running toward the door at the far side of the temple. Darkness blanketed us as we crossed through the doorway. A chill licked up my spine as Brandt led down the stairs and into a narrow, damp tunnel that seed endless.
“Brandt!” I cried, trying to pull him to a stop.
It must have been the only mont we had to catch our breath before bursting out the other side of the tunnel and into the world beyond the city. “Who is that woman? Please!”
Brandt was struggling to catch his breath. He let go, resting his hands on his knees for a mont. I could barely see him. The only light in the entire tunnel ca from a single torch burned down to nothing more than a smoking ember at the far end.
“Carn,” he panted. “Her na is Carn.”
“Is she one of the won–”
“She was Jared’s–Jared’s lover. His girlfriend, for a long ti.”
I opened my mouth to reply but couldn’t find the words.
“We need to get out of here. I feel like the walls are closing in on ,” Brandt whispered through a heaving breath. “I’m sorry, Eliza.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” I breathed, running my fingers through my hair. The ribbon holding my hair away from my face had co loose and was tangled in my curls.
“He didn’t–he didn’t feel what he feels for you–”
“Don’t,” I said firmly, my voice dropping an octave as I walked past him toward the end of the tunnel.
I heard him curse under his breath as he straightened up, his heavy footsteps echoing on the dirt floor as he followed behind .
“Eliza, listen to !” He grabbed my arm and whirled around to face him. The torch sent an amber glaze over the sharp planes of his face as his eyes bored into mine. “She left him, okay?”
“I don’t care, Brandt!”
Truthfully, I was on the verge of tears. I was deeply embarrassed by the feelings of jealousy that were twisting my stomach into a knot.
“Do you really believe for a second he was going to trade you in for her?”
“How would I even know? He never ntioned anything about her, or anyone else he was involved with for that matter! He went to her, though. He turned from and went–”
“I’m getting you out!” Brandt practically scread, the two of us nose to nose. “I’m getting you out. Jared told to get you out. He wasn’t going to leave you behind! You are his WIFE!”
“Only because we thought it would stop Aeris from laying a claim to , and now look what’s happened! It didn’t even matter! It didn’t work!”
Shouts echoed in the distance, coming from the temple’s end of the tunnel.
“We need to go,” Brandt whispered, gripping my arm.
I let him lead out of the tunnel, helping him push open a trap-like door that showered us in sunshine once opened. He helped climb up and out, and I crawled on my hands and knees away from the wall surrounding Aeris’s fortress, free at last.
“We can’t wait for them,” Brandt said hoarsely as he tossed his backpack on the ground and began taking off his clothes.
I gathered his clothing in my arms as he shifted, a startling beautiful brown wolf with piercing blue eyes looking over as he stretched and shook out his fur. Both of our heads snapped in the direction of lifted voices coming our way.
Warriors, many of them, were rushing along the wall, heading right toward us.
I barely had ti to scoop up his backpack off the ground before I swung a leg over his back. I gripped his body with my thighs and leaned into him as I adjusted his belongings, trying to free up a hand to hold on to him.
I didn’t know which road would take us along the southern trail, but I knew for a fact it wasn’t the way we were currently going. We passed the place Aeris’s warriors had roughed us up when we’d first arrived. The grass still had imprints from where the heavy bags of pilfered treasures from the witch’s house once rested.
I briefly wondered if the n had gone back for those riches over the past couple of days, but the thought was gone in a flash as the Dark Forest lood in the distance, nothing but a black shadow surrounded by rolling hills of pale green spring grasses.
“Why are we going to the forest!” I cried.
Brandt made a low guttural growl in his throat in response, a noise I couldn’t decipher.
I gritted my teeth and held on for dear life as Brandt continued to barrel through the hills like a rocket, his feet barely touching the ground.
But I heard wolves closing the distance. Their howls pierced the air as Brandt turned and skirted the treeline of the sparse outer edge of the Dark Forest. He was panting hard, his feet thundering across the grass as two dozen wolves crested a hill and ca sprinting down after us.
I prayed to whoever was listening that he wouldn’t turn and run into the forest. I could feel the forest’s pull already, the darkness beckoning to co to it, to let it embrace .
“Brandt!” I cried as he leapt over a fallen tree, his body not touching the ground for what felt like several seconds, just as the first of the other wolves closed in on us.
Brandt snarled in frustration as he wove between the trees, the forest getting more and more dense with every step he took. A searing heat pierced my calf as a wolf clamped down on my leg. I scread loud enough to spook the birds from the trees overhead as I kicked at the beast, who reared back and yelped when the toe of my boot firmly t its teeth.
“Fuck you!” I scread, kicking wildly until the wolf cried out in pain and retreated. I caught my breath, but then lost it again as another wolf leaped over us, curling its claws over my shoulder.
Then I was falling, and falling, and falling. I hit the ground, the air rushing from my lungs and my vision blurring as I started to roll head over feet down so kind of embanknt.
I had a split second to gasp as I rolled right into rushing water, then was fighting against the frigid pull of a swift current.
I broke the surface of the water, gasping and crying out before being sucked under once again. Subrged logs and sharp rocks shredded my legs as I fought to the surface, the river fighting against my every move.
I was drowning.
“Help!” I scread before being sucked under again, my body slamming against a huge rock that broke the river into a fork.
The impact was enough to temporarily stun into stillness, my eyes open to the riverbed below.
It was... calm. I must be dead. What a relief.
I floated on my belly in the water until sothing brushed against my head, sothing sharp digging into my scalp.
“Ahhh!”
The pain was enough to shock back to reality and I scread for breath. I lifted my head, fighting for air as I blinked frantically to clear the water from my lashes. I was floating along the side of the river, the current ripping past only a few feet away.
My backpack was caught on a tree branch, the only thing keeping in place.
I clawed my way to the bank, my fingers slipping over rock and wet branches until I felt my fingers sink knuckles-deep in a bed of moss. I cursed like a sailor as I hauled myself out of the water, choking and snarling as I fought to clear my lungs.
I laid down, looking up into the darkened canopy of trees over my head. The forest whispered my na, the new spring leaves rustling in a stiff breeze.
“Who are you?” ca a small voice behind , just out of my line of sight. “And why do you have my Cryptex?”
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