Page 2 of Escape from the Green

It was almost time too.

You would think my best bet would be to wait until my mother was asleep. But the fact of the matter was, she slept lightly enough to hear me moving around in my room and come in to scream at me to get into bed and stop keeping her away from her beauty rest.

So I was leaving while she had company. It was company she was eager to please which meant she wouldn't care overly much about hearing me moving around. It also meant that the guards would be more occupied in watching out for threats than trying to make sure I didn't escape.

They had long since given up watching me as closely as they once had. I had never given them a reason to think I was a flight risk. No, sweet, innocent little Amethyst Winters had no brain in her head, no wishes of her own, and certainly no desire to go out into the big, bad Green.

They were correct about some of those things. Being as cloistered as my family kept me, I was a bit innocent and ignorant. I also had little desire to be anywhere in The Green. And compared to all their awful, twisted selves, I was sweet. But they were wrong as well. I did have a brain and I absolutely had plans and wishes and desires for my life that did not involve being my mother's puppet any longer.

Also, whether I liked it or not on a normal day, I also happened to inherit some traits from my mother - namely a strong will, a good poker face, and the bone-deep need to be the one pulling the strings.

As it turned out, that was working in my favor as I slipped out of the gown my mother had laid out for me to wear down to greet the company when I was called. It was lovely, as all her clothing choices were. It was a silky, almost translucent in the right light, white that didn't cling, but draped over my breasts, butt, and hips. She wanted me to look innocent, but womanly at the same time. Virginal, but with the promise of a good time to the man who would claim me. Which was why I was not allowed to wear anything under to keep my nipples from poking through the thin material despite the cool of our stone house.

Oddly, leaving that dress, expensive as I knew it was, discarded on my floor almost felt like a bigger betrayal to her than my running away.

The heavy layers felt thick and oppressive indoors, making a sweat break out across my scalp under my hat as I carefully slung my bags across either side of my body to distribute the weight, then slipped my jacket on, then my gloves.

My feet slid into my shoes and I was, technically, outwardly ready.

Inside, though, was a complete other story.

I could feel dinner pushing its way out of my belly and up my esophagus, seeming to lodge at the back of my throat, making me genuinely worry that the run I was about to have to do might make it force its way fully out.

Nausea, like the belly-knots sensation, was one I was all-too-familiar with. Truly, it wasn't even all that uncommon for the worrying to make me actually vomit. I would think anyone in my situation would have the same issues. I was, every second of every day when I was inside my mother's walls, a nervous wreck.

Because I always knew she was going to have plans for me someday. When I was old enough to be of use to her.

Apparently, I was old enough.

And my use? Oh, yeah, it would definitely work in her favor.

Never mind that it would be torture for me.

That wasn't a factor in the least.

Daughters, in many ways in the fae world, were still seen as pawns. Funny, that. Fae looked so down on humans. Yet for the sheer millisecond they had been in existence compared to fae, most cultures of humans had still managed to stop such archaic practices with their girls long ago.

Weakness. That would be what my mother called any loving softness toward your offspring. What was the point of reproducing if it didn't advance where you stood in The Green?

"Ugh," I growled, taking a deep breath, holding it, then letting it go. "Now or never," I reminded myself as I moved toward the door to the hall.

And it was absolutely now.

Even if I threw up the whole way.

Each creak of the floorboards made my heart skip a beat as I made my way down the long hall to the side to go out that exit, knowing it was the least likely to be guarded. The stone floors were blissfully silent, but the reprieve was short-lived before I stepped outside, the frigid air biting at my exposed skin, sending shivers across my over heated body.

But I took a calming breath, noticing immediately that my path was clear.

I could make it to the woods in under thirty seconds.

Then I could be too long gone before anyone could even think to look for me.

There was simply one problem.

I wasn't going straight to the woods.

Always, always, as far back as a young teenager, my plan didn't only involve my freedom.