Page 85 of The Hunted

They were afraid.

She opened the windows and laughed.

Breathing in the wet air that tasted of a sea she couldn’t even see from her windows, Arelle felt slightly closer to home. She would be a liar if she said she didn’t wonder what mess she’d left back in the depths of the Blu Sea, but for now … it really didn’t matter.

Did it?

If they hadn’t gone after Poe, they surely wouldn’t come for her. No, she would have to get back to them. Even if what she left behind might be a more terrifying fate than what was with her here. Still, the sea was her home. She needed to go back.

As she pulled back inside the window, Arelle noticed the thick wooden lattice attached to the side of the stone of the house and the strong vines growing all through it. She glanced over her shoulder at the closed doors, knowing the guards waited behind it.

But right now?

Everything sounded like a storm.

They wouldn’t even know.

Part of her screamed to stay.

She was with her mate.

Another needed to go.

One way or another, the land or the sea, she would still die.

Arelle climbed out onto the ledge and grabbed the lattice and vines. She made it to the stables and mounted the same horse who had greeted her the first morning she’d awoken on the estate. She only knew how to get up on his back because she had watched others do it over the past three days. At first, the beast didn’t want to venture into the storm, but eventually, he went with her urging.

Then, she heard the bell ringing behind her.

She’d not heard that before.

A part of her knew, though …

It’s for me.

NINETEEN

Eryx

“YAH,” Eryx urged the horse, his palm flat against the animal’s throat letting him feel every single heavy beat of its massive heart. It never failed to amaze him how the animals weren’t as frightened of the storms as people seemed to be.

Ahead on the dirt road that winded through a forested area just outside of the estate’s walls, Eryx could see the current reason for his fury rounding a corner. How Arelle even knew which direction she should take on the roads leading out of the estate so that she would eventually find her way back to the sea, he didn’t know. She’d chosen the right one, though.

She still had a way to go yet.

Unfortunately, she’d thankfully not picked the fastest horse in the stables. And when the guards dared to hesitate to chase after her through the storm, Eryx had quickly lost any semblance of his patience. He took the horse, and he went into the blackness of the night while the rain pelted heavily against his back.

Unafraid.

And entirely fucking angry.

She’d had to know now would be the safest time for her to attempt an escape. How long had she been planning it?

He wanted to punish the guards.

Cage her.

And yet, he was the most enraged with himself.