Chapter 1 Escape
Chapter 1
“Escape”
POV Angelique
I wake in the wee hours to Lisa slamming her head into mine as she fights off a slave attacking us in our bed.
My dragon, Snow, is livid. Living as a slave is not in her blood.
Snow takes over my body, grabbing the attacker and zapping her with so much power that the girl’s heart stops. She falls to the floor with a loud thump.
I carefully carry the dead girl back to her shared room and put her in her bed.
When I return, I realize Lisa has been stabbed multiple times with a knife.
She’s bleeding all over our bed, gasping for air.
I panic and quickly carry Lisa to the bathroom, laying her on the floor.
Lisa’s dragon, Eclipse, needs water to heal. I cup my hands under the sink, gathering water and pouring it over her wounds.
Ten minutes later, her wounds have closed on the surface. However, without enough water to bathe in, it will take time for them to completely heal.
We spend the rest of the night cleaning up her blood, washing the sheets of any evidence, and putting the knife back in the kitchen.
The minute we lie down to sleep, the slave bell rings and we’re back to work.
A loud scream comes from the dead girl’s room.
If they didn’t work us to the bone, leaving us so exhausted that nothing could wake us, the girls sharing her room would have witnessed me putting her back to bed.
Lisa and I are cleaning dishes in the kitchen when the masters call us all together.
Jacob, head of the household, walks back and forth confidently, peering down at all of us.
“This is the second death by heart attack this year. Who is responsible for this?” he seethes, his eyes landing on Lisa and me.
My chest tightens.
No one dares speak up.
“I will get to the bottom of this, and one of you will be sent to the fighting games to die. If no one speaks up, I’ll send you all,” he snarls.
I was only fourteen, sleeping blissfully in my bed, when my original pack was attacked. My father had drugged me with sleeping pills.
He knew being taken as a slave was my only chance of surviving.
As a slave, I could eventually rise to become a keeper and one day be eligible to marry and have children.
I’ve spent nearly seven years in this house, and I’m still no closer to becoming a keeper.
After Jacob dismisses us, Merida, the head slave of the house, grabs Lisa and drags her off to work in the horse stables.
Something about it seems suspicious.
Is she trying to put the blame on Lisa for the girl’s death?
At lunch, I duck out and sneak to the stables to check on her.
A large man has Lisa chained up and is beating her with a whip.
Snow snaps, taking over my body.
Before I realize what’s happening, the man is lying unconscious on the floor, and I’m pulling the chains off Lisa to free her.
I grab her hand and we run.
I know we won’t get far, but we have to try.
If we stay, we die.
If we go, we die.
Our fate is out of our hands.
The family estate is massive, with a river running along its edge. We sprint toward it as fast as we can.
If I can just get Lisa into the water and heal her, we might actually have a chance.
I hear the roar of the Vesper House dragons behind us.
Do they know we’ve escaped already?
The moment we jump into the river, it turns an ethereal blue, warming us and healing Lisa. It pulls us under, hiding us from the world before bringing us to the surface near a forest.
Our dragons call to our protective elements, and they keep us safe.
We crawl out of the water. I’m up first, pulling Lisa after me.
We run and hide deep inside a bush and wait.
The Vesper House dragons pass.
Perhaps they aren’t looking for us yet.
We gather twigs and build a small bed in the bushes, then set traps for rabbits while we hide until nightfall.
Only one of our traps is successful.
We cook the rabbit quickly with our dragon fire, afraid the smell will give us away. The outside is well done while the inside is still raw, but we eat it anyway.
We follow the river toward the outskirts of Vesper, searching for freedom.
We don’t get far.
A female Vesper House dragon is waiting for us in her human form.
The girl is stunning, with long red hair, green eyes, and fair skin. Apparently, the rumors about Vesper House dragons being breathtaking are true.
“Thought you two were escaping to freedom?” she laughs. “What house are you from? Why has no one reported you yet?”
Her eyes narrow, and her hands ball into fists.
Lisa and I look at each other, surprised.
Was our house too embarrassed to report us after the girl died? Maybe they wanted us to be found and killed so they wouldn’t be held responsible for our deaths.
The girl runs toward us and takes a swing at Lisa.
Snow takes over to protect Lisa, blocking the girl’s punch and grabbing her hand. She doesn’t let go.
“You’re a pureblood.” The girl’s eyebrows rise. “How did you escape being killed? Are you a spy?”
Lisa and I shake our heads and show her the slave ‘V’ markings on our backs.
“Those are old markings. You both joined us when you were young. Interesting.”
Before I can grab Lisa and run, more Vesper House dragons emerge and circle us.
A few move up behind us.
I barely have time to turn before something slams into the back of my head.
Everything goes black.
