My paws pounded onto the hard ground as the surface began to change. If it hadn't been for the searing pain of a sharp rock, I wouldn't have realized we had ran so far at all.
We began to slow our pace and I sensed we were getting close to the safehouse. My mind kept replaying the way Aunt Maddie's eyes had pleaded with me to look away; how she had resigned to her fate in that moment and only wished that I wouldn't see.
I shook back the tears that threatened to come. I didn't think I could cry anymore tonight.
I pushed back the dull ache in my chest and decided to observe my surroundings for the first time since leaving the palace. We were far from anything familiar now, deep into the woods and nearing a mountain range. I was shocked.
I could remember just barely observing the poi
