The Dragon Fae She Freed

ONE

Amy

It was time to go.

It literally could not have been a worse time to finally grow a spine and make the decision.

I moved across the floor of my bedroom to look out onto the grounds out front.

Everything was white, not white like the ugly, sterile starkness that my mother decorated our home in.

Outside it was expansive, new, fluffy, blanketing the whole world in freshness.

Snow always looked like new beginnings to me.

Even as an adult, I would stay up late and watch the flurries turn into a blizzard.

Just as I had the whole night before, not falling asleep until the pre-dawn hours when there was already a good twelve inches deep covering everything as far as the eye could see.

Over a foot of snow and I was going to be trudging around in it for days with no shelter, limited food resources, and little working knowledge about the geography.

But the fact of the matter was, I had little choice.

If I didn't run and run that evening, my fate was sealed.

That fate, well, let's just say it was infinitely worse than possibly dying of exposure to the elements in The Green.

So it was time to go.

I had been planning my escape since I was fourteen years old.

Luckily, as unhappy as I might have been my entire life in the confines of a house that was more of a prison, I had always been prudent enough to know that I was too young, too naive, too uneducated, and too small to be able to survive on my own, even if I left in the ripeness of summer when food would be plentiful and shelter all but unnecessary.

That had always been my plan.

When I was older.

When I had studied more.

When I felt 'ready.'

But I was never ready.

And at twenty-two, I had accepted that maybe I would never actually feel ready.

It just so happened that situations outside of my control were pushing me into doing something I was terrified to do, in conditions that would make it infinitely more difficult, with no real, concrete plan because I literally only had one day to try to come up with one.

My belly twisted, a pang uncomfortably familiar. I had spent most of my life with my stomach in knots. I guess that was a side-effect of having a living, breathing, evil entity as a mother who played me like a toy, pulling my strings because she liked to watch me dance.

My father, until I was seventeen, had been no better. In fact, throughout the vast majority of my life, those two were perfectly matched. There was not one redeeming quality to either of them - no lightness, no kindness, no good. There was certainly no love for me.

I truly wasn't even sure if I even fully grasped the concept.

But that, I decided as I exhaled hard and pulled out the bag of dried fruit, squeezing as much air out of the bag as possible so it would fit better, was something I could think about when I was free.

Hopefully.

No, not hopefully.

I had to get free.

I had one chance.

And I was not going to screw it up.

My bed was splayed with my supplies. I had two cross-body bags I had bought in the human realm, conveniently made of cotton so I could bring them back with me.

One was packed with what food I could find to spare - several large bags of dried fruit, another two of mixed nuts, and a few pieces of fresh fruits and vegetables for the first several meals when they would still be good to eat.

The other bag had the other things I thought I might need: honey and some dried herbs for possible ailments, extra socks to switch off to, some gemstones and talismans, and human money.

My clothes were there as well- the warmest things I owned.

I had boots that went up to my knees and lined in wool, another find from the human realm as all of my clothes were.

We had no wool in The Green, but being that it was, for all intents and purposes, a natural product, I had no issue bringing it back in with me.

The pants were wool lined, as was my jacket, with leather on the outside.

Then I had three layers of thick cotton sweatshirts and pants to slip into as well.

I didn't know much about the concepts of frostbite, but I figured it was something unpleasant that I would do my best to avoid. How well I would do that with my few supplies, I wasn't sure.

I guess all I could hope for was to move fast and not have any more snow.

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.

That wasn't good enough.

I wasn't the only one prisoner in that fortress.

There were the men in the dungeons, sure, but I always knew there was no way I could free them, no matter how much I wanted to.

But I could save him.

Him who I had watched suffer for so many years of his life for no reason other than him being different, special, rare, a trophy pet for a powerful family.

I had needed to stand by and watch my father's men keep him in iron chains that burnt the flesh beneath, whack him with canes to make the shields pierce through his skin, damage those strong but delicate protective barriers, making it harder for him to heal.

For no reason.

Just their own evil, sadistic enjoyment.

So the plan always included freeing him as well.