“Isn’t it obvious?” She made a vague gesture that reminded me all too much of the earl. Her father. “I was trapped here. Never had any freedom. My only friend was my mother, and when she died, I didn’t want to stay here anymore. I didn’t want to be under his thumb. He tried to marry me off, you know, to a neighboring lord. In exchange for land. Land.” She shook her head, as if that were the most insulting, preposterous thing she’d ever heard. “Like he doesn’t have enough of it already. So I ran. Met the others in the village, and the four of us took off together.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “Most of us are tied to our lives one way or the other. You’re lucky you had the option of running.”
“We all have the option of running,” she said. “It’s just a matter of whether or not you’re brave enough to do it. It isn’t just running, you know. You have to change yourself completely. Become the person you need to be in order to survive. It isn’t easy, but it has to be done. That’s the only way you can choose your own life, you know?”
I did know, and I nodded, running my fingers through the ends of her tangled hair. Somehow her braid had come undone. “I won’t let anything happen to you or the life you want,” I said quietly. “I promise.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” she said, and she stared at the pendant in her hand, a hint of sadness flashing across her face. “I knew what would happen when I asked you to steal this. Well, actually, I figured the guards would kill you. Sorry.”
She gave me the tiniest of smiles, and I grinned back. I’d already guessed as much.
“I just…I’m prepared. I knew this might happen, and I was willing to swallow the consequences. But for Mac and Sprout and Perry…” She bit her lip. “Is he okay? Do you know anything?”
I hesitated. “I know he’s in good hands. The best there is in literally the entire world. If anyone can save Perry, it’s him.”
“Thanks,” she whispered. “You didn’t have to do that. You didn’t have to do any of it, yet you did anyway.”
I pulled her in toward me. She rested her head on my shoulder, her breaths coming in deep and uneven. “I did, though. Chosen family and all.”
“Even if you’ll outlive us all?”
My chuckle was void of all humor. She had no idea how much that reminder twisted the knife already buried deep inside me. “There’s an afterlife, you know. My uncle runs it, and sometimes I help escort lost souls there. What do you think will happen when you die?”
She hesitated. “I don’t know. Hell, I guess. Eternal fire and torture for everything I’ve stolen and done and…right.”
“No, it’s nothing like that.” Or at least it wouldn’t be for her—I refused to let her think that way. “It’s the best place you can imagine. The happiest moment, the people you love most—it’s whatever you want. Whatever you believe deep inside of you.”
Tuck didn’t move for a long moment, and at last she whispered, “I don’t want to die. And I don’t want Mac and Sprout and Perry to die, either.”
“I won’t let that happen,” I said firmly. “Just trust me, all right? Hard as it might be, I won’t let anything happen to you. We can leave now, you know, if you want.”
She peered up at me. “We can?”
“Sure. Just say the word, and you and I will walk out of here without a care in the world.”
“But—Mac and Sprout—”
“I’ll come back for them, of course,” I said. “I wouldn’t leave them behind.”
Tuck shook her head fiercely. “No. If you can really get us out of here, then they need to go first. The moment my father discovers I’m missing, he’ll have them killed. I can’t let that happen.”
I laced my fingers with hers. They were cold and much smaller than I thought they’d be. “All right. Mac and Sprout first. I’ll bring them to a safe place in the woods, and then I’ll come back for you. Deal?”
“Deal. Wait a little bit before you go, though.”
“Why?” I said, tightening my grip on her hand. “Like spending time with me after all?”
Tuck snorted. “Yeah, right. The later it is, the less likely you’ll be spotted, that’s all. Sorry to shatter your hopes and dreams.”
I gazed down at her in the flickering torchlight. She was practically a kid—a mortal kid, no less. But there was something about her that made me want to stay in this cell forever with her. Just the two of us curled up together in the hay, waiting for morning to come. Despite everything that had happened, I hadn’t felt this sort of warmth in eons, not since Persephone.
Lives with mortals weren’t impossible—they weren’t exactly encouraged, of course, but several council members had mortal spouses and children they visited often, Zeus included. It was a leap, since twenty-four hours ago, Tuck could barely stand me, but in that moment, I saw a future. A real possibility of happiness, even if it would eventually end with her death. But a little happiness, no matter how temporary, was better than none at all.
“Hey,” I said as the minutes ticked by. “When we get out of here, why don’t we build a cottage somewhere as far away from this place as we can get?”
She peered up at me, her brow furrowing in confusion. “Like a home?”