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“Be damned, all of you!”
I glanced back at Datura, who had rightly gone mad. But I could not wait, so I ran as fast as I could, sure she would at least need time to reload. I was so concerned with getting away, so panicked, that I did not see the well, the stone wall of it long since broken, and before I could catch myself, I was falling. All I felt was the rush of air passing me before my chest slammed against the earth, knocking the air from my lungs.
“Ah…” I groaned in agony, rolling onto my back to breathe. It did not take long before I saw her face high above me.
“Did I not tell you to be good? You never listened to me,” Datura said. And once more, I felt myself to be that small child in the darkness, unable to move. “This is your punishment.”
She left, and I shook my head clear. I tried to push myself up when I felt pain spread through my foot and arm.
“I am not a child anymore,” I whispered to myself as I stared up. It was too high, and there was no place for me to climb, nor could I in this condition. Panic only spread further as the sky darkened.
Someone would come. I was not alone.
“Help!” I screamed.
“Someone help!”
Theodore
It was another day of failure, not that I expected anything different. But as I watched the sun set behind Everely House, I felt an odd dread take me over and could not bring myself to leave.
“When will this form of harassment end?” came a voice from the woods to my right. The duke was upon his own horse, and suddenly, beside him were two huntsmen, one holding his gun and the other his mark—hares. Quite a few of them. That explained the gunfire I thought I had heard.
“That is for you to tell me,” I said to him.
He exhaled hard and then pulled the reins of his horse. “Do take care not to trespass on this land. One would not wish to mistake you for a hare.”
“I am much larger, so the marksman would either be blind or a murderer,” I replied.
He prepared to ride off when we both heard hooves approaching fast from the direction of his estate. Seconds later, we saw her, and she pulled to a stop, her eyes wide at the sight of us.
“Aphrodite, where are you off to in such a rush? Are you all right?” She did not answer him but looked at me.
“She is not with you?” she asked me.
“Who?” I questioned but then realized it could only be one person.
“Verity? Again!” the duke snapped.
“I only just noticed her gone. It was only an hour at most that I had my eyes off her. The maids were told to stay in her hall as well. We searched, but she is not in the house.”
Not waiting for either of them, I kicked into my horse and sped toward the town. She was so stubborn! What good did this do? It was as if she sought to actively provoke her brother. I knew yesterday she did not intend to keep her promise—no, I was sure she would insist that she had not broken it, as she had left before dark.
“Verity,” I muttered to myself, barely coming to a stop before I jumped down and ran into the inn.
“Good evening, Dr. Darrington—”
“You ought not to keep allowing her into my room,” I said to Mrs. Stoneshire as I moved to the stairs.
“Who? I have let no one up.”
I froze, turning back to her. “What?”
“What do you mean what? What are you talking about?” Mrs. Stoneshire demanded, but before I could reply, the doors opened once more as the duke also entered, glaring.
“Where is she?”
“Who do you mean?” Mrs. Stoneshire called out, annoyed, her hands on her hips.
“Do not play with me. Where is she?” the duke demanded again.
“Your Grace, the only she here today is me, unfortunately.”
His gaze shifted to me angrily, and I shook my head, confused. “If she is not here, where could she be?”
It was not that long of a walk, definitely not an hour. But who knew when she had left the estate.
The duke, also realizing, ran from the inn, and I followed.
“This does not concern you!” he yelled at me as he got up on his horse.
“Like hell it doesn’t!” I yelled back, getting up on mine.
“I will not have you—”
“Is this really the time for you to be worried about me? First, we find her, and then you can bark at me all you wish,” I hollered, taking off.
I tried to tell myself she was out walking, that she was fine.
All would be well.
But that eerie feeling from earlier only grew stronger.
Evander
Hours!
It had been hours.
And I could not find my sister anywhere upon the grounds. Even worse, this darkness—I worried how it would affect her. Dammit! Damn him! It was his fault. Had he left as I had demanded, had he never engaged with her, she would never have been lost.
