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Eventually, I sink onto the bed, my face in my hands. Winthorp Manor looms, my virtual gallows. Once I enter beyond those gleaming walls, I know I’ll never come back out. At least not as the woman I am now—Mischa’s spiteful Little Rose.
Something tickles my nose and I jolt to awareness. There’s no one around. My door is still closed, but cool air ruffles my hair…
Coming from above.
“Please hurry,” a soft voice calls.
Looking up, I see the vent hanging open and a pale hand reaching from beyond like the madness only possible in a dream.
“All I have is a sheet,” my rescuer says weakly. “It’s secured to my waist, but you need to climb quickly.”
As I gape, a tightly curled strip of ivory descends from the darkness.
I don’t hesitate to grab it. But within seconds, I realize the full daunting nature of what my reckless planning requires.
I’m still physically weak, healing from multiple fractures and a severed finger. Climbing at all is hard—but without Mischa’s ruthless strength to spur me on, it’s damn near impossible. My feet dangle helplessly, inches off the ground.
It’s hopeless…
Enough!I shake my head to clear it and reach higher. Then higher. Sweat beads on my forehead and pours down my shoulders, slicking my nightgown to my flesh. I’m moving too slowly. Any minute, Robert will return and this will all be in vain.
Fear of that outcome spurs me faster even as my muscles scream in protest. Closing my eyes, I focus on inching higher despite the searing pain. Higher. Finally, I lift my hand and my fingers strike a firm surface.
“I’ll help you,” Ama whispers and her hands grab mine. It’s a struggle to pull myself the final distance, but finally, I’m fully inside the vent, panting on the frigid metal.
“We need to move,” I say as Ama wrestles the vent closed after me.
She’s pale up close, with long, dark hair shrouding her lithe frame. Behind her, an even smaller figure huddles out of sight.
“I don’t think these extend far,” she whispers. “They might be able to hear us through them.”
My blood runs cold at the thought.This is insane,a part of me insists. I should climb down. Wait for Robert. If he finds us now, it will be so much worse.
“I think we can go this way.” Ama tugs my hand and shuffles forward.
I follow, suppressing a cough as dust and grime catch beneath my fingers. I don’t know how far we go before she reaches back.
“It’s a dead end.” Her voice shakes, racked with terror. “We have to go down.”
Downleads into darkness glimpsed only through the slats of another vent.
“I’ll go first.” I lift the grate and reach for the coiled sheet still trailing from Ama’s waist.
“I’m okay,” she whispers as I hesitate. “Just…hurry.”
I climb down, suppressing a groan as my muscles strain, pushed to their limit. Feet from the floor, my arms give way and I drop down, landing hard.
Bang!The solid thud echoes as my heart stops. Any moment, Robert or one of his men will come rushing. Seconds pass as the air sticks in my lungs.
But no one comes. Yet.
Scrambling upright, I race to get my bearings. Smooth tile flooring betrays that this isn’t one of Robert’s suites. Faint light enters from a single window, providing just enough context to the shadows to make out where we are: a room filled with towering metal squares stacked one on top of the other.
A laundry room?
“Is it safe?” Ama calls from above.
“I…I don’t know,” I admit. “But we don’t have a choice.”
