This is not treachery.
This is freedom.
In the middle of Heaven and Hell, the days of rain and mist are long gone. Now, the Gap World is a kingdom of light and darkness, goodness and evilness, sunshine and clouds. When clandestine forces weave toget...
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AN EARTHQUAKE RUMBLED in the distance and the chains were broken. The doors banged open. The shadows were chased away be the endless light that baptized the room. And the magic that had been bottling up in me all that time almost slipped away from my fingertips, as if it were magnetized by that beatific sense of freedom.
With a vision blurred with tears and the echoes of their words still on my mind, I willed my legs to move and my body to find the strength to run. It wasn't difficult. The urgency made it seem like a game in which I was obligated to risk everything no matter the cost.
I passed through the door, leaving the room behind me.
I started running as fast as I could, ignoring haunts and wicked voices, striding down the long corridors of the castle, descending spiral stairs, and secretly hoping that no one would stop me, that I wouldn't be halted by guards or Amanda herself. Maybe there were sentinels patrolling on the second floor, maybe someone was running after me, calling my name desperately. I didn't know. I didn't care. The urge to step away from the castle was insurmountable.
Turning down hallway after hallway, I made it to the main hall and almost lost my balance when I stepped on the polished marble floor. I didn't though, and that was all that mattered.
The sunlight hurt my eyes and resulted in more tears staining my cheeks. But the back door that led straight to the ocean was wide open, and that was enough. A few more seconds of running and I would be free.
I sprinted.
I would make it. I had to make it. There was nothing holding me back now.
Deprived of any sense of dignity, I kept running, trying not to think of the news that would be spread all over the kingdom about the legend---the killer---who had escaped the Castle of Sunlight, crying and swathed in a gray dress that was far from what an aristocrat would wear.
A sudden gust of wind brought some strands of hair in my eyes and made me slow down for a while. And that short amount of time was enough for whoever was following me to wind up next to me. Slightly angling my head to the side, I came across a face I knew, and all at once I didn't know if I needed to stop or run away from him, as well.
Denfer.
He'd come for me. That should have been enough. But . . . for how long would he have to fight for someone like me? How many days did I have left until he deemed me unworthy of his kindness? I didn't deserve him. I would abruptly end whatever relationship we would build. That was what I always did. I burned bridges, I ended friendships, I stopped caring enough. This time, I cared so much about him that I had to let him go for his own good.
"Where are we going?" he asked as we passed through the back door.
Fresh air. The setting sun and the ocean. I was still close to the Castle of Sunlight, though. I had to keep going.
