Brook wasn’t that far away anymore - Annabel could feel the developed civilization’s atmosphere grow more and more noticeable. As she and Chase were moving up the North, towns around them were becoming bigger, streets - wider, people - more dangerous. The girl wondered whether it was the available amount of alcohol and entertainment that made the residents so rude and tough to deal with, or maybe there was something special in the air that people called “the smell of the capital”. For the biggest part of the Renezar nation, it was probably the most desirable thing to experience - everyone wanted to get here and stay, work, have families and welfare, because that was exactly what Brook was associated with in their minds. But for Annabel, that feeling was bitter. Watching the residents, talking to them or listening to them speak, she’d realised there were less happy people around her than she’d expected to see. She thought, the closer to Brook, the better the life, just like everyone from the poorest places of Renezar would think. But the truth was just the opposite - no one would show any kind of pleasure from being a part of the richer cities’ communities, no one would say they loved their job or were free to choose where to live, what to eat, and who to love, simply because they didn’t have enough money to purchase a choice. It all made them aggressive, unfriendly, and sad, and it was stressing Annabel out. It seemed to her that the villages considered destitute were actually richer and happier than the cities closest to the capital.

When she told Chase about it, the boy only shrugged. “Those who live down in the South, villagers and farmers, have never seen anything better than what they have. But those who escape the rural areas and go looking for more, they find opportunities. They get drunk on new possibilities and don’t want to leave, and it takes them a while to realise how ruthlessly they have been duped. It turns out that the more money you make, the more you must give to the authorities, including the king and different kinds of aristocracy, and, as a matter of fact, you return to the same state of misery you started with, only now you suffer more because you want your opportunities back.”

Annabel sighed. She forced herself to consider everyone around her as a reminder of how wonderful her origins were, of that she’d never needed more and shouldn’t really need. She didn’t want to turn into someone like that, with her skin and hair pale, her eyes full of despair and hope for a wonder that might never come. The closer you were to Brook, the worse that sight was.

It was a bit easier for the girl to distract herself from those creepy thoughts thanks to Chase and his cold-blooded nature. She only had a chance to get scared once they entered the next city, and right after that her working hours started. Chase was insisting on her practising more with men’s pockets and wallets hanging off their belts, so she had to rob at least three or four men per day, each time using a different scenario in order to master various techniques.

For example, her first victim didn’t notice his wallet being pulled out because they sat next to each other on a cafe couch. He was too busy stroking her hips and listening to her whispering some dumb erotic stuff in his ear. After they talked, Annabel and Chase put on a small show. As she walked out of the table and told the man to meet her outside in a minute, she went to hide in a special spot Chase had chosen for this purpose. The boy himself pretended to be blind drunk and bumped into the man while he was trying to leave the inn, splashing his stinky beer all over the man’s clothes and then apologizing for it for about a minute or two so that Annabel had time to get to the hiding spot. When the man was eventually out of the inn, she was nowhere to be found, as well as was his money. Of course he blamed the drunkard for the stealth and not the pretty girl he wanted to kiss, but by the time he understood everything Chase had already been gone through the back door.

Another man was quite easy to allure: he was almost of the same age as Annabel and didn’t know how to behave with women. His charming face could serve him as a powerful weapon, but he was too naive to realise it. Annabel made him blush and replaced his small wallet that he’d left on a table in front of him with a similar one, but full of cobbles, while he wasn’t looking (he went to buy them both another drink).

The third one was holding himself from drinking, but he spent the whole evening in Annabel’s company and couldn’t resist getting a glass or two, so when he met Annabel the next day and asked about his money, the girl simply explained that the man had wasted everything on drinks. The man didn’t believe it at first, obviously, but Annabel, following Chase’s lessons and instructions, had paid the bartender of that tavern and told him to witness that the man ran out of money at some moment and had to go home with empty pockets. Chase said the plan worked out better than he supposed it would, and offered her to choose a nice inn to spend the evening in, eating and simply resting after the tiresome day.

The place Annabel chose was the smallest one in the city, comfy and comparatively quite. They ordered a meal, a couple of drinks, and even a dessert, and Chase wasn’t against it - Annabel could see he craved for a piece of a sweet apple pie but kept himself very humble. They talked - about everything, different stuff not connected to the job, sharing their thoughts about the towns and cities they had visited, even planning on returning to some of them. Chase told her about other kingdoms he’d been to, wonders he’d seen or experienced on himself. Annabel found his stories more than interesting; she was feeling something very close to excitement, not only because she was hearing things she’d never even thought about, but also because they would rarely sit and spend an evening like that. At some moment she got distracted by the way Chase’s eyes gleamed in the light that came from the inn’s huge fireplace; she saw him brush his messy hair back thoughtfully and felt a slight jab somewhere around her heart. He probably wasn’t paying that much attention to her, and she wasn’t able to stop blushing.

She forced herself to sit back and think of a topic to talk about. Something funny and easy. Something to distract them both.

“I think you’re doing really well,” the boy was saying, sipping on his tea. “Of course you’ll never become a professional like me, but still…”

“Hold up,” Annabel smirked, hoping in her soul that the intense redness of her cheeks wasn’t too recognizable in the fireplace’s light. “You won’t stop reminding me of how great you are at this stuff, but I’ve never seen you do it.”

Chase raised his eyebrow. “You doubt me?”

“Perhaps.”

Annabel cast him a sly glance and then nodded at a young girl sitting alone at the bar table in the corner, reading a book.

“Why don’t you go and prove your professionalism right now?”

Chase turned his head to the girl and scanned her, intrigue and interest shining in the green of his eyes. Finally, he turned back to Annabel, sighed and pulled his jacket down, straightening his spine.

“Watch and learn, amatour.”

Annabel’s lips almost smiled, but she held herself and crossed her hands on her chest, humming in agreement. She could see Chase’s readiness and that kind of professional awareness only true masters could have before starting their work. She wanted to see his masterclass, and so she listened and watched as carefully as she was able to.

Chase approached the girl slowly and politely asked permission to sit beside her. She smiled and welcomed him with a single nod. The perfect victim, Annabel thought. Resilient and modest, very easy to charm. Especially given Chase’s handsomeness and charizma. He was keeping his cutest smile on his face, his eyes studying the girl with a very realistic sympathy, pretending to be interested and allured. Only now Annabel noticed that the girl didn’t have any wallets or money bags with her.

They talked for a while, exchanging compliments in quiet voices, laughing sweetly at each other’s jokes, flirting in any possible ways. Annabel looked down from their faces and saw Chase’s fingers slightly brush the girl’s hand. They were moving up her wrist and then her elbow, then Chase whispered something in her ear, and eventually the girl’s face went rosy. She laughed, answered something to the boy, and decided to leave, definitely sure she was going to meet the handsome stranger again, but in a different, darker, more comfortable place a little bit later, just as he promised her. As she exited the inn, Chase jumped off a stool and returned to his previous seat at his and Annabel’s table. He stretched out his fist over the table’s surface and unclenched it, letting a few silver accessories fall onto it with a barely noticeable clinging sound. The smirk on Chase’s face was unforgettable.

“Impressive,” Annabel said, and she was absolutely earnest. She didn’t notice the moment Chase took all those things, moreover, she didn’t notice them on the girl. There was a silver bracelet, a beautiful kaffa earring that resembled a snake, a thin golden ring and a hair pin decorated with a small star-shaped amber. All that, if sold together, wouldn’t be very profitable, but the main issue didn’t lay in the stolen things’ cost, but in the way they were stolen.

“So you actually did learn this.” Annabel took the bracelet and studied it carefully. She still couldn’t get how Chase managed to take it off the girl’s wrist. “Congrats on that, master magician.”

“Never doubt me,” the boy said in an unexpectedly serious tone, looking directly at her, sending shivers down her spine and making her forget about smirking. His voice was low and even somewhat dangerous, though it was possible Annabel was just imagining things. She cast him a confused glance, thinking of what she did wrong about the entire situation, and then, as Chase lifted a cup to his lips, she heard him murmur, “Never.”

***

The next stage of her studies was even stranger than all the previous ones combined together. No magic tricks, no robberies, even no intimate talks could compete with what Chase had chosen as her new lesson.

Annabel suspected something when Chase decided to rent a big hotel room instead of a small and modest one, as they used to do. He didn’t explain anything and only asked her to help him move the furniture as far from the guest room’s centre as possible. They left a couch under the window, pushed a small table and two armchairs aside, all chairs went to a pile in a far corner, and the rug was rolled up and thrown into the hallway. All those manipulations were managed without a single hint of what they were for. After that Chase shuck off his coat, his vest, and his boots, revealing his narrow pale feet to Annabel and scaring her almost to death by all those weird actions.

“What are you doing?” she asked cautiously, taking a step back from the scene. The door was a couple of meters away.

“Take off your shoes.” The boy rolled up his sleeves.

“Chase?..”

“Annabel, please, take off your shoes and come closer.”

She wanted to trust him, and so she tried to, but even as she did what he said, she felt somewhat unsure of what was going to happen next.

“Jacket,” Chase nodded at her, and Annabel threw her jacket on the couch. “Alright, now listen carefully to what I say, and do what I tell you. Understood?”

“I’ve been doing this for the last few weeks,” the girl murmured.

Chase laid his right arm on her back and pulled her a little closer to him, then told her to put her left arm on his shoulder and took her right hand in his left.

“What are we doing, Chase?” she asked, trying to hold her voice from the nervous trembling.

“I am teaching you to dance. Now relax and follow my step.”

Dancing lessons had become the hardest ones, and even pretending to be flirting with Chase wasn’t as difficult for Annabel as feeling his arm on her waist, his chest and his face so close to her own, their legs almost never parting as if tied up together for the rest of the days. At first, she couldn’t concentrate on what the boy was saying about pace and speed, couldn’t remember the steps or the right position of the head, but even as she stamped on Chase’s feet, made them both stumble every five seconds, or clenched Chase’s fingers too tight, her teacher wouldn’t get mad at her, or raise his voice, or laugh at her clumsiness. She wasn’t grateful for that, though. She felt in a strange way every time they started a lesson, and she wanted them to end, but Chase’s cold and patient character would always continue, keep on explaining and trying again and again, so eventually, Annabel realised she had to study, and study well.

The question about where in the world Chase had learned to dance so many different kinds of choreography ached inside Annabel’s mind, but she didn’t ask him even once, knowing for sure that the boy wouldn’t answer, or would simply lie about it. He seemed to be as professional in this as in theft or magic tricks, which made Annabel wonder whether Chase was even from this world, or maybe another. She couldn’t even imagine when he’d had time for everything. The only thing that the girl cared more about was, why were they doing this?

“Because you’ll need it in the nearest future,” Chase replied and squeaked abruptly, lifting his right foot.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she started, but Chase only waved his hand, grimaced, and returned to the dancing position again. That was all about the purpose of the lessons. Why, for what, or with whom - Chase wouldn’t give her answers and only forced her to jump and whirl around for five hours per day, or more if she wasn’t feeling dizzy.

Annabel had to admit that dancing wasn’t that hard and complicated if there was a teacher like Chase. In a few days, she mastered at least one dance that, as the boy had told her, was the most popular among young aristocrats. She didn’t dare ask where he’d known that from. They continued their trip and had already reached what Chase said people called The Field - a comparatively small empty area between Brook and the other cities, the last reminder on their path of what Renezar really was and what it looked like. The road was two or less kilometers, surrounded with nothing but other roads and one big wild meadow that seemed to go round the capital and far beyond it.

Annabel knew this place.

She and Chase were walking up the same road that Alferdo Morr’s men were riding down after they kidnapped Annabel and took her to The Garden. There was supposed to be a narrow pathway that turned on the right somewhere along the big track. That pathway led to Annabel’s home.

Chase was talking about something, but Annabel didn’t listen. She was walking behind him like a ghost, thinking about her parents, not able to prevent her heart from loud pounding. She was so close to them! She hadn’t seen them for six years, and now they were only a few hours of trip away…

She paused at the junction that Chase was about to pass by, and turned to the road. She wasn’t sure if the boy would appreciate her idea, but she had to ask him, or she wouldn’t feel like a daughter anymore.

“We are ahead of our schedule,” he was saying. “Got at least two bonus days, so we could stop in Brook and have an excursion if you want, but I’d better continue the trip to-”

He stopped and turned to her as he realised she wasn’t paying attention. Annabel froze in the middle of the track, her gaze fixed on the faraway cloud of smoke that was coming from a chimney.

“Annabel?”

The girl cast Chase a short, but meaningless glance, then looked at the path again.

“Can we go there?” she asked quietly, too worried about the whole situation.

“What is there?”

“Home.”

Chase went silent for a minute or two, but when he spoke, he sounded low and serious. “Are you sure about this?” Annabel shook her head.

“No,” she said, “but I haven’t seen them for six years, Chase. They probably think I’m dead…”

Chase seemed to understand, but common sense was something he valued more than any kind of feelings. “Just think of it.” He came closer to her and looked in the same direction. “After you see them again, all those ordeals you've been through - behind you, after they hug you and kiss you, will you be able to leave again? After giving them hope? Will they be able to let you go?”

Annabel felt something heavy rising up in her throat, she couldn’t breathe and wanted to cry, but she didn’t find the right words to answer. She knew that the urge to see her mom and dad, tell them everything will be fine, eat mom’s apricot pie and smell the scent of wood in dad’s workshop, - it was too strong for her to resist. But she also knew that Chase was right. She wasn’t sure if she'd be able to leave, to vanish once again from their lives only to reappear in a few weeks or months or even years after she accomplished the mission Chase had given her…

But then Annabel thought of the reason why she had to leave her family again. It was a plan, a carefully and professionally built plan of coming back to normal life, of getting a new chance that Annabel was going to share with her parents - because they’d deserved it. She wanted to make them as happy as it was possible, and though she felt like they didn’t need any money at all, only her, their daughter, she was surely strong enough to let go in order to bring her parents a better life.

“I will do it,” she said, turning her head to Chase and looking him directly in the eye. “I promise. We will only stay for the night and leave in the morning. They won’t notice.”

Chase was studying her for another minute that seemed to last forever, then sighed soundlessly. “Just remember what we’ve aimed at. Remember about the plan.”

As he made the first step onto the path, Annabel felt like she’d been adoring the boy since the first day they met.

***

Annabel’s home was a tiny, humble hut that her father built after he married her mother. They needed a comfortable place to make their family at, and this quiet rural area with a lot of space to run around, with fresh air to breathe and clean sky to smile to was absolutely perfect for that purpose. A huge meadow covered in wildflowers and a far forest at the edge of it hadn't changed since Annabel's last night at home. The whole picture still filled her with solace and joy as it used to years ago, and the girl felt her heart melt inside her chest, as if it had been covered in thick ice all that time. She almost danced along the road, bouncing happily as she and Chase came closer to the hut and paused on a small hill before it.

"Nice place you've got here, indeed." The boy looked around and then squinted at the building. It sank a bit into the earth, got darker and seemed to leak in some places. His face went pitiful. "Air's healthy, herbs all around."

Annabel glanced at him and sighed. "I guess they were too desperate after I got kidnapped to care for the house." Chase nodded.

"So?.. What are their names? Or maybe I shall wait for you he-"

"No way!" Annabel said, turning to him, her voice and eyes excited, her skin feeling as if glowing with anticipation. She grabbed his elbow and started walking him down the hill. "I want them to meet you. They'll like you, I'm sure of that."

Chase hummed something doubtfully, but didn’t say anything and obeyed..

"Leehna and Daurie Clyde," the girl murmured in his ear and suddenly met his eyes, full of lively interest.

"Annabel Clyde," smiled the boy. "That's a beautiful name."

She didn't reply to that, not only because she didn't really know what to say, but also because she felt blushing again and had to turn away. It seemed like if someone else said that to Annabel, she wouldn't actually react, but it was different with Chase, for whatever reason.

“They may be a bit.. overly emotional. If you know what I mean. Don’t judge them.”

“I wasn’t going to.”

It looked like Annabel and Chase were equally anxious about that meeting, but the girl had to admit Chase was managing a calm face and steady pace much better than her.

As they almost approached the hut, its door creaked open, and a woman emerged with two empty buckets in her hands - she didn’t notice the teenagers and just walked a few meters away to an old well placed in the middle of the yard. Annabel and Chase paused abruptly, staring; the girl's hands went weak and started shaking all of a sudden. She couldn’t believe her eyes. The woman, with her wonderful chocolate hair loose and beautiful dark brown eyes, in her modest green dress, looked like a long-forgotten dream Annabel used to see at night; it felt like she was unreal, and all that was barely possible at all. The same hut, the same face, the same… everything. Annabel’s throat went dry. She swallowed hard and tried to get herself together, to soothe the pain in her heart that ached like hell; she didn’t notice when she took Chase’s hand and squeezed it nervously, and eventually her voice broke the peaceful quiet of the world around.

“Mom,” she said, trembling.

The woman turned her head to the sound. Her eyes went round and big, she gasped and took a step back, bumping into the well, clutching her hand to her chest. One of the buckets clinged and fell on the ground, water splashing all around.

“Hey mom,” Annabel repeated, smiling. Her eyes were too wet to see clearly. “It’s me.”

The woman covered her mouth with the back of her hand, arm trembling, tears shining on her cheeks, happy laughter breaking through the shock.

“Annabel?” she asked, her voice suppressed by sobbing, but as soft as the girl remembered it.

“Yes.”

She didn’t know how it happened, but the very next instant she was in her mom’s tight hugs, her face feeling sore and hot, her heart pushing against her ribs as the woman kissed her forehead, her eyes, her cheeks and fingers, their laughter and weeping mixing altogether, her mom whispering something, they both bursting with tears, unable to stop.

“My dear, my dear,” the woman was murmuring. She cupped Annabel’s face with her palms and looked the girl directly in the eyes, still not believing she was seeing her daughter, alive and free, and not some stranger. “Oh my dear…”

“Mom, where’s dad?” Annabel managed to say, resting her hands on the woman’s shoulders in an easing gesture.

“He’s inside, he’s inside. Oh gods… Heavens, Daurie!” The woman ran to the door and shouted into the wet darkness of the corridor. “Daurie, come here at once!”

Annabel hugged herself, trying to get rid of the embarrassing shaking, but as she heard loud thumping and a low beautiful voice of her father getting closer, she cried again. The man appeared, his face scared, blue eyes wide open, asking his wife what was going on, and then he turned his head to where Annabel stood, sobbing with her trembling hand pressed to her lips.

“Hi dad,” she laughed and jumped to him, feeling his big and strong arms wrap around her, the man’s beard tickling against her forehead.

She didn’t expect this. She was sure she could hold herself from crying like a baby, she though she was capable of taking this easy and calmly, like Chase, but now she didn’t believe she had ever been able to let her parents go once again. They laughed and hugged for a few minutes until Annabel’s parents eventually looked at her with full comprehension that their child was back - their eyes were shining with happiness like small suns.

“Annabel, darling, you broke free!” mom said, clasping the girl’s hand. “What… What did they do to you, my child? Oh gods, we’re so sorry we let them take you away, we-”

“Don’t say that,” Annabel cut her, “it wasn’t your fault at all. You must know it wasn’t.”

“How are you? Have they done something to you?” Father was scanning her with a careful look, afraid to see bruises or any kind of wounds.

“I’m fine, dad, I swear,” she laughed and suddenly threw a glance at Chase who was standing aside all the time, hands in his pockets, kindly smiling at the whole scene. “I’m more than fine. Please, meet Chase. He saved me and brought me here.”

Her parents turned to the figure they hadn’t noticed before, confused and excited at the same time.

“Chase? Oh, it’s so great to meet you!” Leehna Clyde hugged the boy, and Annabel chuckled as Chase’s cold and patient mask fell off his face, revealing the most sincere surprise. “Thank you! Thank you!.. You… You can’t even imagine what you’ve done! What a miracle!..”

“Dear, maybe we should invite them both inside?” Daurie Clyde offered. “We’ll make some tea! We’ll… Oh, I’ll go get some water. Leehnie, children, go inside the house!”

“Oh, of course, sure!”

As Annabel’s dad went to pick up the fallen bucket and fill it with water again, her mom ran into the house, inviting Annabel and Chase to follow her and have a seat at the kitchen table. The girl couldn’t help but look around, holding her breath as she recognized absolutely everything in the rooms, every small detail had been there since her last minute at home. She was smiling all the time, walking slowly, in a stiff pace, paralyzed. Mother told her and Chase to sit down and asked them to wait for a few minutes until the water boiled so that they all could have a cup of the herbal tea, which Annabel had smelled the second she entered the house. Chase was looking around, too, humbly, but with interest and attention in his eyes. The moment Annabel’s mom left the kitchen, the girl placed her elbows on the table and covered her face with her hands, making another attempt of calming herself. It was too much. It was wonderful.

“They’re sweet,” Chase said quietly. “Hey.” She looked at him through a small gap between her fingers. “You’ll be fine.”

Annabel felt shivers down her spine and arms. The boy knew what she was feeling. Of course, he could just guess or imagine, but still - she saw understanding in his eyes, and her heart fell. She hoped she’d be fine.

“Oh, darlings!” Annabel’s mom came back with four wooden cups all Renezar people used for drinking tea or coffee, amazingly smelling dried herbs on the bottom of each one, and then her father brought a hot teapot.

“You sure you’re alright?” he asked.

“Yes, dad, I’m perfectly well.” Annabel noticed his hands were shaking as he was filling the cups and took the teapot, offering to do it herself.

“Daurie, I still don’t believe it, our daughter is back! Darling, we were afraid they… they killed you, you maybe sold you somewhere overseas! We were so afraid we won’t see you again!”

“We looked for you everywhere we could,” dad said guiltily, “we didn’t find anything about the place where they’ve taken you…”

“You weren’t supposed to,” Annabel smiled sadly. “It’s in the South, very far from here.”

“South!” mom gasped. “Oh, Heavens… gods… South!”

“But I’m back now,” the girl took mom and dad’s hands in her and squeezed them encouragingly. “Forget about all that, forget it’s ever happened. No one will take me away again.”

She felt a sharp jab deep in her heart, somewhere inside her very soul when she said that. She was going to take herself away from them. But they don’t have to worry.

As the tea was ready, the four of them were sipping it and talking - about everything, about anything Annabel and Chase could tell Mr and Mrs Clyde. The Garden and horrendous Alferdo Morr had been left behind, no word about Annabel’s slavery was said. She told her parents about her adventures with Chase (without mentioning theft, robbery, and fraud cases, of course), the boy was forced to talk about his origins, but by the tone of his voice Annabel understood he was lying, though she wasn’t going to blame him for anything. Mom and dad were eager to know how the teens managed to make it across the entire kingdom, what they were doing, and whether they were more than friends.

“Uh, no,” Annabel and Chase exchanged somewhat frightened glances, but the girl hurried to turn her head to her parents again. “We’re just partners. Nothing serious, I promise.”

“Me too,” Chase added vigorously. It seemed to leave Mr and Mrs Clyde a bit skeptical, but they changed the subject anyway.

Annabel was feeling dizzy. Happiness rushing through her veins instead of blood, tears still shining in her eyes like little diamond drops, and a smile that wouldn’t vanish from her lips, - it all seemed to make her mind foggy, and she was only concentrating on her mom and dad. Not even on what they were saying, but on how they looked at her, on the silver threads in their hair that Annabel didn’t recognize at first, on the wrinkles on their faces and arms that she couldn’t imagine her parents would ever have. She didn’t hear Chase’s excuse, she didn’t see him take his tea and leave the table, exit the kitchen. The sun was already setting when she realized he was gone - only thanks to her mom who decided to prepare Annabel’s bed and one extra sleeping spot for the guest. The girl looked around, glimpsed into other rooms, but didn’t see Chase.

As her parents went looking for clean sheets and another blanket, Annabel rose, walked through the house, but eventually found the boy sitting at the bench next to the front door, sipping on his tea, bathing in red and purple fires of the dawn with his eyes barely open. She’d never seen him like that. So serene. So beautiful. He didn’t turn his face to her as she sat beside him, still floating in the clouds of his thoughts and dreams.

“Why did you leave us?” Annabel asked quietly, rather interested than anything else. She knew she mustn’t demand from him to stay and spend the time with her family.

He made a slow sip of the steaming tea and sighed soundlessly. “It was your own intimate moment. I am out of place here.”

Annabel didn’t feel like arguing about it or persuading the boy he was a part of her family, too. Chase didn’t sound doubtful. He knew what he was saying.

The girl threw a quick glance inside the house where her mom and dad were bustling around, talking to each other in hushed voices.

“Do you think they’ll understand?” she said, feeling strong pain coming at her heart again.

Chase chuckled - pleasant, low sound. “Annabel, darling,” he smiled at her, “they are your mom and dad. You’ve been taken from them for such a long time, and now they need absolutely nothing but you, their only daughter. They don’t need money or treasure or new life. They will never understand.”

Annabel didn’t want to argue this time either. She knew the boy was right, and there was no use pretending everything was fine about the whole situation. It made her feel sick.

There was a pause. Annabel heard birds singing their evening songs somewhere far away from the hut, the late bugs’ buzzing in the grass. Then she heard Chase’s voice, so quiet and solemn, she didn’t realize it was actually him speaking.

“You may stay,” he said. His tea had already gone cold, but he was still holding it in his hands. “I’ll understand if you do.”

She wanted to stay. She wanted to never leave her parents again, never feel alone anymore as she used to, never look for a spot to hide from slave drivers or Alferdo Morr’s vengeance. But… She was about to break her parents’ hearts again, and she was feeling like doing a good thing. She thought of buying mom and dad a new nice house somewhere in the capital, or maybe even in another kingdom, someplace peaceful and protected by law, where they will all stay together and forget about troubles or dangers hovering above them all the time. They’d deserved to live happily ever after, with Annabel next to them, always smiling, always free.

Still, she knew mom and dad had never wanted anything, but their child at their side. They’d never needed her to go away only to return with money. She knew she was going to give them new pain, and she wanted to be sure she was going to achieve the set goal, and not fail, just leave mom and dad then come back empty-handed, guilty, and embarrassed.

“I want them to have a better living. To be safe. Promise me I’ll get an opportunity to do it.”

Annabel turned her gaze to Chase and looked at his eyes, slightly open as the vanishing sun was setting his skin, his great wavy hair and everything around him on reddish, purple, and yellow fire. And when he answered, when he cast her a soft glance, and a short nod that meant everything to her, the girl somehow knew: that certain boy was supposed to flip her entire life upside down.

“I promise.”