(Adelaide)
The rules pounded in her head. Survive until sunrise. Survive the night, and he cannot claim you. The Pact forbids it. He obeys the Pact. He has to. That’s how this works. Villagers had staked their sanity on that belief for generations; mothers had let their daughters walk into the woods because of it. Surely, surely, the universe would not be so cruel as to twist the rules now.
Her muscles burned as she pushed herself up onto her elbows, wincing when her abused hands brushed the rough ground.
“The moment that sun comes over the trees,” she muttered, “I’m free. You can rot in your hell, you bastard. I won.” She almost laughed. It came out as a broken, breathy sound. The sound of someone stringing bravado across a chasm and pretending it was a bridge.
The forest was quiet. N
