Smoke and Mirrors
Chapter Twenty-Six: Leaving the Cage

Sapphire Ragna Nightborne

Ten more metres till I escape this labyrinth of doors and hallways.

Nine. I could almost taste my freedom.

Eight. Tears welled in my eyes, I had been trapped here for 2 months and now I was about to be free.

Seven. My heart pounded with excitement, my freedom was in my grasp.

Six. Damien would probably put out a search for me so I can either run to my cousin’s pack or lay low with the humans for a while.

Five.

Four.

Three. I could see the door and I could almost reach for the handle if I just stretched out my hand a little further, just a little bit more till I was free, the pounding in my heart increased as I pushed harder, I was almost there when someone grabbed me and pulled me into a small closet sized room before locking the door.

Did I do something wrong? Every time I try to escape or do anything at all, something always replaces its way to stop me. I huffed as I grabbed the throat of my assailant before slamming them to the door of the room the wood creaking under the strain, one quick snap should do it, I had no time for theatrics anyway as Damien would probably be up and searching for me now. I turned to look into the eyes of my kidnapper before my own widened in shock.

“Chloe?”

Her green eyes shone with tears as they looked at me. I lowered my hand from her throat before placing my hand against the door handle, I was not afraid as I turn my back to her as I found through my months of living in this accursed place that she was the only decent human being living here. I began to turn the door handle when she gripped my arm, her nails digging into my skin.

“Chloe, I have told you a thousand times, I will not stay and try to love your brother, I…”

“Take me with you!”

I thought that there would be nothing that could possibly shock anymore, what with the past lives, the soul switch, the puppeteering but yet here, it was, one of the biggest bombshells that had been dropped on me during my lovely stay here.

“Let me make sure that I heard you correctly. You, want me to ‘kidnap’ you and take you away from here, knowing that if I take you, Damien, who is already going to try and chase me to the ends of the Earth to reclaim, in his words his ‘property’, will hunt us down twice as hard as you are in case you forgot, his sister.”

I spoke slowly to emphasise the gravity of the situation I was already in case she did not grasp it, I took a good look at her clearly for the first time and sighed, this was really not going to work out. Yes she was a slim little thing but there was a difference between being slim and being fit, her body did not have excess fat but it did not have the muscles that came with years of training, she would not survive the distance I was going to go and the pace I was going to take to reach there as fast as possible.

“I know that you are in a hurry but please Sapphire, this could be my only chance to leave this place and live my life without having Damien control every aspect of it.”

Her eyes sparkled with tears as she clung to my arm, her nails digging in with desperation as though she would not let me go unless I bring her along with me. I could not help but sigh as I saw the utter desperation in her eyes, she was practically begging me to take me with her but I could not let my guard down so easily.

“This better not be some kind of ploy that you cooked up with your brother. If I bring you with me only to replace out that you have been sending my location to Damien I promise you that death would be the easy way out.”

She clung onto my arm even harder as her body wracked with sobs as she frantically shook her head from side to side like a spring toy, I heard the footsteps outside the door of the room we were in causing me to clamp my hand over Chloe’s mouth, her lips still trembled under it causing my hand to shake with it. I glared at her with enough intensity that she immediately sobered up with the occasional hiccup here and there. The footsteps outside our door thankfully stopped but unfortunately, they stopped right in front of the door. My whole body stilled as I heard voices, my ear pressed against the crack of the door.

“Where do you think she could have gone?”

“Probably not far enough to cross our borders yet.”

He was right, I have not even gone far enough to cross the threshold.

“We better replace her fast or Alpha Damien would have our heads”

Poor things.

They proceeded to sniff the air in hopes of catching my scent and I thank the stars for all the clothes hanging in this little room, they masked my scent and from the smell of them, they could mask a whole pack’s scent. Their voices began to trail further and further till they were barely audible. I turned to Chloe and placed a finger to my lips before using it to tap the hand that was covering her mouth, she nodded her head and I hoped that meant she got my message to keep quiet, cautiously I lowered my hand and thankfully she stayed quiet with the exception of a sniff as she rubbed her red eyes. Repeating my gesture of the finger against my lips I turned the door handle to open it by a small crack before checking the surroundings, the coast was clear.

I turned back to Chloe.

“You better be sure of this decision right now because once I start running I am not going to stop until I go pass your pack’s borders, and remember, once you cross those borders you will be labelled as packless like me meaning that you are no longer protected under the same laws that your pack members are after.”

She nodded her head before gesturing to the door.

We bolted right out of the room and ran towards the door as if the hounds of Hell were chasing us, we had just managed to clear the front doors when the shouting of multiple people caught our ears. Will I ever get a break?

Pretty soon we were chased by at least half of Damien’s pack, some were chasing us as humans while some chased as wolves, either way, they still could not catch us, Chloe was surprisingly fast for someone that had not undergone military training.

We dodged branch after branch and jumped root over root till the howls were only a soft sound in the wind. We stopped near a humongous Oaktree as Chloe collapsed against it to catch her breath, her ragged breathing the only sound against the eerie silence of the forest.

“Don’t get too comfortable, we have to start running again soon.”

A small whine left her mouth as she began to slowly regain her ability to speak again.

“Run now? We are almost at the Northern Border, can’t we take a short break.”

I snorted at her statement.

“Exactly. We are almost at the Northern Border not passed it, we are not truly safe till we cross that border. For as long as we remain on your brother’s land the chances of us getting caught is astronomically high, the only thing that could really slow him down is if we cross the border as he cannot risk going into another Alpha’s territory without starting a war, besides it is written that Alpha’s have to give any packless wolves asylum till they are proven guilty of whatever crime they had supposedly ‘committed’, a law that your brother forgot.”

My jaw clenched as I heard a howl in the distance, Chloe quirked an eyebrow as I stripped myself of my shirt before tearing it into strips, I ignored her question of my reason for doing so before tying a strip to a low-hanging branch before hooking another strip on a young tree.

“This might not distract them for long but any delay now is good enough for us to take a decent lead.”

I gestured at her to follow before picking up speed and running again.