Page 124 of The Vixen

All eyes turn to me. Liberty looks as grateful for my help as she does confused.

The man crouches so we’re eye-level. Before he can speak, I gesture for Liberty to bring Persephone.

“The rest of the children are safe in the compound.” I take the young girl’s shoulders while the brand digs into my thighs. “Luna is making a plan for their escape; it shouldn’t take more than a week. I give you my word, you’ll be the first to know when it’s in place.”

I turn to Liberty. “I need your help.”

The woman cries while Liberty and I work to shift Persephone beneath the fence, the man carefully dragging her shoulders. The girl’s arm grazes electric metal, but she only stirs, a slight grimace pinching her lips. We have maybe ten minutes before the chloroform wears off.

As soon as Persephone is pulled through, the woman—too young to be a mother unless she had Persephone as a young teenager—collapses to her knees. She cradles the young girl in her arms and sobs while the man wraps his arm around her shoulder.

“Go,” Liberty tells them. “We’re right behind you.”

The man pulls Persephone into his arms while the woman peers solemnly toward the forest. He has to drag her by her wrist before she’ll leave.

It’s hard to say who’s false promise is crueler: Luna’s or mine.

I take the branch from Liberty and pull the fence back farther so she can shimmy beneath it. She grunts at the electric current as she crawls through, then stands and holds out her hand for the branch, her breaths coming heavy.

“Pass it through.” She flexes her hand in agive it to megesture.

I toss the branch in the snow, my fingers prickling from the cold.

I can’t believe I’m about to do this again.

“What are you doing?” Liberty steps so close to the fence, I’m worried her nose will get zapped.

I open my mouth, but she interrupts before I can say anything.

“Come on.” She looks pointedly at the branch, jutting her eyes almost aggressively. “We have to go.”

When she peers back at me, her face twists with worry.

“Listen to me… As soon as you can, you need to warn Angel. If you can’t get a hold of him, tomorrow, go wait at a barn about an eighteen-minute and thirteen-second drive from here.” I give her directions to the meetup I read about in Luna’s emails. Right turn, left veer, left turn, right turn. “They’ll pick him up from there at 7PM. Because he’s Angel, he’ll show up early. You have to get there before they do.”

“Wha…” Her shoulders droop. “Sawyer.”

“I know I fucked up. I shouldn’t have brought you here, I shouldn’t have brought you onto my island. I know I’ve done awful things, and I have a long list of regrets.”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” she tries to argue. But I’m not finished.

“But one benefit that came from my island is my understanding of psychopaths. The guy is right. Aurelius will know the police are coming, and he’ll have a plan in place. We can’t be rash.”

“Then we’ll figure this out from theoutside. Wasn’t that the plan anyway? We could?—”

“Liberty, if I leave, he’ll know Persephone didn’t get caught in a coyote trap.”

If he finds out this particular girl escaped…

The rest of the children are as good as dead.

Her jaw works. “We can figure this out with Angel,” she whispers, though it’s herself she’s trying to convince.

We stare into each other’s eyes for a few seconds longer before she breaks away. “Are you sure?”

Am I sure?

I don’t even know what I’m walking back to. I don’t even know if Luna is alive.