She nodded. “I agree. Cut it loose. We’ll go faster without it.”
Without another word, I went to work cutting the ropes that tied the carriage to the horses’ saddles. We had to slow them so that they didn’t get hurt, but I made quick work of it.
“Ready?” I asked.
Sage gripped her horse’s reins tightly and I hacked the last rope loose on either side, seconds apart. It swayed left, since I cut that rope first, and then right, before finally crashing to the ground. Our mares picked up speed then, and I almost fell off with the sudden haste. Clinging to my mare with my thighs, we burst forward with double the speed and set off for Light Fey City.
‘Sawyer, I’m almost there. Are you still okay? You’re not answering me.’ I knew it was probably pointless, but I had to try.
I was beyond relieved when he answered. ‘Sorry, love. I got thrown in solitary for the day.’
My stomach turned to knots at that. ‘Why? What happened?’
‘Got in a fight. Someone jumped my roommate. Had to help him out.’
I’m one day away from breaking my felon hubby out of jail and he’s getting into fights! ‘Well, I wish you weren’t fighting, but that’s good that you protected Walsh,’ I sent back.
He bristled between our bond and I could feel pain in my shoulder and under my left eye for a moment before he sucked it all back into himself. ‘No, love. My roommate isn’t Walsh. They would never let us room together. It’s Luka … a vampire.’
I froze, clutching the horse between my legs tightly. ‘You went to solitary for a vampire?’
Sawyer sighed inside of my head and I kicked myself for starting a fucking fight when we had such little time to talk.
‘He’s not like the others. He’s saved my ass more times than I can count over the last year. I need you to trust me. He’s family.’
Family! Geeze. A vampire and Sawyer becoming besties? That was … weird. I blew air through my teeth. ‘Okay, I trust you. Is there anything else you can tell me that would help me get you out of there? Like how far is Walsh’s cell from yours? What floor are you on? What’s your schedule?’
‘Walsh is on the same floor as me, eighty, the top one. He’s in cell fifty-seven. I’m in cell sixty. We eat lunch together and work out together every day.’
Relief ran through me at that information. That was something I could work with. ‘They let you work out? When? Where?’ An idea hatched in my mind as I tried to remember what the map of the eightieth floor looked like. Seam said all the cell block floors were laid out the same.
‘For one hour a day. No weights, just running, basketball, and other non-lethal things. Four p.m. sharp, before dinner at five. It’s a training room on the same floor. We don’t leave the top floor. Ever.’
Unless you get thrown in solitary, I wanted to say, but thought better of it.
‘How many people work out together?’ It would be riskier to break into a room with a bigger group, but probably easier than getting both Walsh and Sawyer out of two separate cells.
I could physically feel him getting further away, like a radio signal going out.
‘There are ten guys in my four p.m. workout cohort and ten armed guards.’
Damn. That was a lot of guards for ten men in cuffs that rendered their magic useless.
‘Okay. I’ll try to aim to get you guys out then, so that—’
‘Babe,’ Sawyer interrupted me, and I could feel his agony tighten in my chest through our bond. ‘If anything happened to you while trying to get me out … I could never live with myself. I’m on the top floor. Even if we do get out, how will we get down and across the river and—’
His concerns were valid. I think a year in that place had made him lose hope, but I don’t think he understood that I wasn’t going to stop until he was with me, consequences be damned. How could I look my son in the eye when he was older and tell him I let his father be beheaded?
I couldn’t.
‘Fragile like a bomb, Sawyer, remember?’ I reminded him of his own words and what they had meant to me. Everyone underestimated me, Rab, Arrow, even Sawyer. In fact, I think the only person who didn’t underestimate me was Astra. I was going to show everyone just what I was capable of. I was going to finally go off, like a bomb.
‘Also, I have a flying dragon,’ I added.
His shock ripped through our imprint and filled me up so quickly that I gasped. It felt so good to feel him like that, but with it came a darkness, pain, depression, anger, desperation, love, devotion. So many things he’d been keeping from me.
‘A dra—’
His words cut off mid-sentence and then all of his energy was sucked away from me, leaving me feeling like I had a gaping hole in my chest. I clutched the base of my throat, gasping at the sudden loss of him. Tears slipped from the corner of my eyes and I swallowed down the sobs that wanted to rip free.
“You okay?” Sage yelled over the sounds of thundering hooves.
I wiped my eyes and nodded, tightening my grip on the reins and pushing my conversation with Sawyer from my mind as best I could. “Let’s ride fast and hard until the Light Fey border. Once we get over, they will stop following us.” I looked behind me at the blurs in the distance. Hopefully, Trip didn’t have any other animals that could ride faster than a horse. We had a decent lead, so if he was following we should still outrun them. I’d heard rumors of the dark fey binding animals to them like a shifter would have a wolf. Marmal had confirmed this and more.
Sage pushed her mare harder, then I did the same. My eyes flicked to the sky and spotted the white blur that was Pearl and Marmal. They were tracking us above. We just needed to get to Light Fey City, steal a car, and then make it to the harbor without being spotted.
Easier said than done.
We rode quickly for nearly an hour, my ass slamming into the hard leather saddle of the horse with each trot. As the border of Light Fey City came up in the distance, we finally slowed.
“Whoa, whoa,” I called to my mare and pulled back on her reins. She slowed, her nostrils flaring as she sucked in more air from the rigorous sprint.
“Thanks, girl. You did good.” I patted her neck as she pulled to a full stop. Sage and I dismounted swiftly and pulled the packs off the horses. After giving them some of our water, I felt the internal tug of moral obligation.
“What do we do with them?” I asked Sage. They were Paladin horses, horses we probably couldn’t spare.
Sage looked up at the sky to see Marmal circling with Pearl.
“Just let them loose? Maybe Rab can send someone to try to intercept them. Horses are good about finding their way home.”
Yeah, but how good? We’d crossed a lot of ground. Maybe if they ran along the border wall and straight into the Wild Lands, through the Ithaki treehouses, they could make it back quicker…
I nodded to Sage, stroking my horse once more. “Go back home, baby,” I whispered to her, and aimed her along the stone wall that bordered the two lands. If she ran the length of it, she would hit the Wild Lands. I just hoped she could sense my meaning, if not my words. With a light pat, I swatted her rump and she took off, the other mare right behind her.
‘Rab, I’m heading into Light Fey City. Might not talk for a while until I get Sawyer back. I’ve set the horses free. I’m hoping they will run the length of the border and end up in Wild Lands at Dark Fey border.’