Chapter 35
ADRIANNE
The heavy dress was slowing me down, but Sasha never released my hand.
My lungs burned as we ran through the corridors, the sound of our footsteps being drowned by the heavier ones that followed us.
Vladimir’s men shouted to each other, Russian words that held no meaning to me.
“This way!” Sasha tugged on my hand, pulling me toward a side door that led straight to the lawn outside.
The night was giving way to day, the snow falling so hard it coated our heads in white in just a few seconds. I looked back, trying to see the men and assess how close or how far they were. Out here, their shouting wasn’t as evident, and honestly, I didn’t know what was worse.
At least in the house, I could tell if they were catching up. Because eventually they would. I was no match for heavily trained men. Not to mention this damn red dress and its ballgown skirt that weighed a ton.
Snow crunched under my bare feet as we ran, so cold it burned. Both of the red dresses offered no protection, no warmth against the blizzard.
I looked back again, relieved to see that our tracks were quickly being covered by the unrelenting snow.
“The maze!” I gasped, pointing toward the dark hedges looming ahead. “Nikolai said if anything went wrong…”
“Let's go.” Sasha’s voice was steady despite her exertion, quick in her reply, showing me her blind trust in Nikolai. Her collar now hung around her neck, jumping with the movement and hitting her bare chest again and again.
The maze entrance rose before us, and I plunged in without hesitation, in the lead now, pulling Sasha’s hand as she ran behind me.
Left at the rose bush.
I found it, the withered plant barely visible under snow, and turned as Nikolai had instructed.
Behind us, the sounds of pursuit grew louder. Their voices. The shuffling of their feet in the snow. They would catch up to us soon; there was no outrunning them.
“Sasha, wait.” I grabbed her arm, pulling her to a stop.
“What are you doing? We need to keep moving!”
“Listen to me.” My mind was racing as I tried to steady my breathing enough to speak. “If we stay together, they’ll catch us both. But if we split up…”
“No. Absolutely not.”
“You go left at the split oak,” I said quickly. “That’ll take you out the other side, back toward the house. Find Matt and the others. Get help.”
“I’m not leaving you alone with these men!”
“You’re not leaving me alone. I know the path to the center. Nikolai taught me.” I squeezed her hand. “I’ll be safe there. But you need to get out, get help, and come back for me.”
“Adrianne, this is insane.”
“Your brother betrayed everyone to keep you safe, and I can fully understand him,” I said. “Let me help him fix that. Let me do this.”
Sasha’s eyes filled with tears. “He’ll never forgive me if something happens to you.”
“Then make sure you come back with help.” The footsteps were closer now. “Go. Please. Trust me.”
She hesitated one more second, then nodded. “Left at the split oak.”
“Left at the split oak,” I confirmed.
She pulled me into a quick, fierce hug. “Don’t you dare die.”
“Same to you.”
Sasha ran in front of me, taking the turn I knew would end up with her spit out of the maze, like Nikolai had told me. She’d find them and come back for me. Meanwhile, I just needed to stay alive.
Easy, right?
Right at the split oak.
I found it and took the right fork, just as Nikolai said.
The hedges carried the sound up into the sky, and I could hear the men arguing about which direction to take, the falling snow covering our tracks enough to confuse them.
There were two sets to follow now, and they must have been exactly where Sasha and I split up.
I stopped running. Stood still for just a moment.
Then I screamed at the top of my lungs. The sound tore from my throat, piercing and terrified, echoing through the otherwise silent night.
“Over there! That way!” Good. Follow me. Leave Sasha alone.
Pulling the damn skirt of the dress up, I ran as fast as I could, the cold seeping into my feet and hitting my bones.
Straight through the hedge gap.
Where was it? My vision blurred with tears and terror. Everything looked the same in the darkness. Endless walls of snow and shadow.
“I know you’re in here, Addy.” Alexei practically chanted.
The fear was like a living thing, setting itself deep in my chest. My heart hammered so hard I could feel it in my throat, and heard it thrumming in my ears.
“Come out, come out wherever you are.” He sang, his voice eerie and macabre.
He was hunting me and enjoying the hell out of it.
I ran faster, my bare feet slipping on the ice.
Straight through the hedge gap.
There. The gap. I squeezed through sideways, branches tearing at my dress, scratching deep lines across my arms. The fabric caught somewhere, and I couldn’t break free.
I was trapped.
“Found you.” Alexei’s face was an inch away from mine as he jumped in front of me. I screamed at the fright, my eyes burning with tears and despair.
I yanked hard, ripping the fabric, and finally stumbled through to the other side. My knee hit the frozen ground, and pain shot through the joint, but I forced myself up.
Run, Adrianne, run.
Left at the fountain.
My feet were numb now, beyond cold. Each step sent shooting pain up my legs, but the pain meant I was still alive and moving. I still had a chance.
The fountain appeared ahead, frozen solid, snow piled on its edges, while the dripping water formed sharp spikes of ice.
I turned left.
“You know what your little trick accomplished?” Alexei’s voice was conversational now, like we were discussing the weather and not in this cat-and-mouse chase. “Now all of us are following you. Every single man. Sasha got away clean. So congratulations. You just made yourself the only target.”
A sob tore from my throat before I could stop it.
“That’s it.” He laughed. “Let me hear it. Let me hear that pretty fear.”
The paths were narrowing, growing more complex. I had to be getting closer to the center.
But which path? Which turn?
I chose left, then immediately knew it was wrong. The hedges here were different, unfamiliar.
“No, no, no,” I whispered, spinning back.
“Lost?” Alexei’s voice came from somewhere behind me. To the right? No, the left. I couldn’t tell anymore. “That’s the problem with playing hero. Eventually, you run out of moves.”
I retraced my steps, my hands shaking so violently I could barely see them in the moonlight. The cold wasn’t just stealing warmth anymore. It was stealing my thoughts, stealing reason, leaving only the primal panic of being prey.
My dress caught again. I yanked it free without looking, feeling more fabric tear away.
“I’m getting closer,” Alexei sang out. “Can you feel it? That pressure on the back of your neck? That’s me. Right behind you.”
I wanted to scream. I wanted to collapse. I wanted to wake up from this nightmare.
But I kept running.
The fountain. Left at the fountain.
But I’d already passed it. Hadn’t I?
I couldn’t remember. Couldn’t think past the terror that filled my skull like static noise.
My foot caught on something hidden under the snow. A root, maybe a stone. I went down hard. Pain exploded through my knee again as I hit frozen ground.
Snow filled my mouth while the cold burned my face.
Get up. GET UP.
I scrambled to my feet, my knee screaming in protest, and kept moving. Limping now. Leaving a blood trail in the snow from where I’d cut my foot on something sharp.
“There it is,” Alexei’s voice was so close I could feel it in my bones. “That’s the sound I wanted. Desperation. You’re bleeding now. I can smell it.”
The paths blurred together through my tears. Was this right? Had I been here before?
Then, I saw the dome.
Rising through the darkness like salvation, glass panels reflecting moonlight, a warm glow from within, casting golden light across the snow.
But with Alexei right behind me, it didn’t mean that much now. There was nowhere else to go.
I pushed through the final turn, my lungs burning and my vision tunneling. The door was right there. Right there.
My numb fingers fumbled with the handle. Come on, COME ON.
It opened.
I fell inside, the warm air hitting me and making me gasp. Butterflies stirred, disturbed by my violent entrance.
I turned to close the door, to lock it, but a hand caught it.
Alexei pushed through. We were both inside the dome now. Him and me. Alone.
His face was flushed from the chase, his eyes bright with hunger and satisfaction as he cornered his prey.
“End of the line, Babochka,” he said, pulling out his gun and pushing it against my forehead. “And I’m going to enjoy every second of this.”
Steadily, I walked back as he pressed his muzzle further into my skin, stumbling and falling down. I searched the ground behind me as he closed in on me, his hand stretched to pull me up. Right before he grabbed me, my fingers wrapped around a rock, and I hurled it straight at his head.
Alexei cursed upon impact, and I took that moment to run out of the dome again and back into the maze.
His roar of fury almost shook the ground, but there was nothing that could stop me from running now.