“It’s not that we wouldn’t let her go free, if Ashley asked. It’s that we couldn’t have her anywhere except in the safety of our manor right now. Not because we want to control her, or possess her – but for her own protection.”
I shake my head.
“Gods, an enemy could capture her, and use her as leverage against us! Who knows what they could do to her!”
Danielle is trying to regain her composure. She’s trembling, and I realize that it’s not my display of rage alone that has her like this.
With a broken heart, I realize that Peter Paradooli must have been prone to fits of anger like the one I just demonstrated – only his probably didn’t end with a sincere apology.
It pains me that Ashley had to live beneath a tyrant like Peter Paradooli for her entire adult life – and her view of powerful men has been shaped by that bastard’s fiery temper and pathetic lack of self-control.
I should have slit his fucking throat myself.
The weight of the world is suddenly on my shoulders. I was the one who made the decision to keep Ashley here, and I didn’t take a moment to explain myself to her. If I had, maybe she’d have understood.
Maybe she’d have stayed.
I need to find her, and fast.
“Where would she go?” I demand.
Danielle looks up at me blankly. They’ve both spent their entire adult likes in Paradooli’s mansion. They have nowhere to go.
“I’ve taken our Reaver back,” it’s Conan, communicating through the Bond. “I’m making a pass over the city right now to look for Ashley. I’m also sending out recon droids with her signature on them.”
Danielle steps forward.
“I don’t know where’s gone,” the former slave admits, “but she knows you guys were planning on taking over the entire city. She’ll probably try to get out of your sphere of influence.”
But where? And how?
Ashley left without any money. She has no food, and no water. She’s out there in a hostile city, trying to escape us before we can pin her down.
I regret deeply not communicating better to her. Conan needed to tell her the reason we couldn’t let her go – that it was to protect her, not possess her!
But would it have mattered?
If I had my way, she wouldn’t be out of my sight – not ever.
Our entire future is in her hands. Our bloodline is in her beating heart!
None of that matters now, though. All that matters is getting Ashley safely back under our protection – and if I have to turn over every stone in this fucking city, I’ll do it!
“Where is Draven? The swordsman has been useful so far. We’ll need to assign him to find her.”
20
Ashley
I’m cold and I’m hungry.
But I’m free.
Or, I will be – as soon as I get out of this complex.
The walls of the compound are usually well-protected, but now they stand empty. Almost everyone who once guarded Peter Paradooli’s mansion is now dead, or they escaped when they heard the violence and destruction inside.
Normally, at night, there’d be more sounds than this. Any sounds, in fact. There’d be guards laughing with each other, joking and slapping each other’s back. The soldiers and gunmen who worked here were toiling for a monster – and many of them were monsters themselves – but they were still people.
But not anymore. The Aurelians brought the silence of the grave to this place.
There’s a small doorway kicked open at one of the exterior walls. It must have been broken apart when the Aurelians and Draven broke inside the complex. I push open the splintered door, which moans on its twisted hinges, and step through it out into the night.
The moonlight casts a pale light across the exterior grounds of the compound.
I hadn’t been outside the walls of Peter’s mansion for years. The soft ground mulches under the soles of the slippers I’d stolen from the guest room. The ground is clear for a hundred feet all around the stone walls of Peter’s fortress – all to prevent the chance of a surprise attack.
I rush across the clearing until I get to a thicket of woods on the other side. Brambles scratch at my bathrobe and pajamas as I claw my way through them.
I lose one of my slippers on the way, but eventually I get through the tangled undergrowth and emerge out on the other side.
I find myself standing on a hillside that overlooks the city of Lipa. I can see the glittering lights of my destiny in front of me. Once I reach the top of the hill, I know I’ll have an even better view.
Lipa is just a start. I’m free now!
Free to live on my own terms! Free to make my own choices! Once I get off this planet, I’ll truly have my entire future open to me.
But the hilltop isn’t empty.
Basked in the moonlight, I suddenly see the outline of Draven, the swordsman from the casino. The one who aided the Aurelians in storming Peter Paradooli’s mansion, and then drove the blade of his rapier through my former-owner’s gullet.
I freeze, my senses flaring at the sudden danger, but I don’t think Draven has seen me. He’s just standing there, staring out over the city, lost in thought.
I consider my options.
I could turn back and hide in the forest until he leaves – but that leaves me in a precarious situation. I’ve barely any food, only one shoe, and no money.
Rather than posing a danger, Draven might actually be my only chance of getting out of here alive.
I creep up the hillside slowly. I’m worried that I might scare him – that he might think I’m trying to sneak up to attack him…
…but just as I’m about to raise my voice and announce myself, he shifts.
“Ashley.”
His voice is a low murmur, and he stands there still staring out at the city below.
“How did you know it was me?”
He turns, and grins sadly. “I wouldn’t be
