Chapter 115: Escape and Rescue

Adolph looked up at the three vampires, “We have a deal.”
“Good,” the man said.
The two vampires rounded the canyon toward another path, but the man who spoke didn’t move for a moment before turning away. When they were out of hearing range, Adolph turned to Sam, Lynn, and two others.
“You four, will follow that one back to their camp and get as much information as you can about what’s actually happening. You are not to engage if you can help it.”
Sam nodded, “And if we find Luna Laurel?”
“Bring her back to our camp.” Adolph turned, “The rest of you will follow me to storm the castle. If there's any chance we might finally be free of the vampire queen, we’ll take it.”
They agreed. Sam, Lynn, and the two others handed off their cloaks and began tracking the vampire away from their meeting place. Adolph sent up a prayer to the moon goddess for Laurel’s safety and followed the pair of vampires down another long road. Chasel drew close.
“Sire,” Chasel began. “What’s the plan?”
“Retrieve my wife and kill the vampire queen if we can manage it… in that order.”
Chasel nodded, “As you wish.”

Laurel looked out the window to the canyons below and shuddered, drawing back as her stomach roiled. The sight made her dizzy and she stumbled back to bed. The tower room was opulent and nothing like a prison. If it weren’t for the chains on her wrists, she couldn't have faked herself into believing that she was just on vacation somewhere.
A knock sounded on the door as she tried to breathe through nausea and panic.
“Come in,” she called, holding her head in her hands.
Eden entered, dressed in all black, armored, and armed for war. It was so strange to see him like this after only seeing him in well-cut suits and plain traveling clothes. He was broader than she first thought. He seemed stronger too, yet his expression was as kind as ever. Was this Eden’s real face?
She didn’t know anymore.
“Adolph has arrived in the vampire nation with full fighting force.” He lifted the gold charm bracelet. “He owes you ten silvers.”
She stood, wide-eyed to stare at him.
“He’s agreed to help storm the castle with my forces… I’m leaving you here for your safety.”
“Why won’t you let me leave?”
He sighed, “I’ve told you already, Laurel. You’re essential.”
Laurel narrowed her eyes at him as Eden smiled, “Once… you considered it, didn’t you? Leaving the werewolf nation and never looking back. Escaping the darkness that you are trying so hard to forget?”
Laurel’s heart lurched. How had he known? What had he seen in her to make him say that?
“It will all be fine in the end,” Eden said. “Though, if you were with me, you would be better off. What is it that Adolph Raymond can give you that I can’t?”
Laurel crossed her arms.
“Are you really satisfied with pursuing him because you were *destined* to?” Eden shook his head.
“We are fated mates, Eden. I know you don’t–”
“Fate?” Eden asked, “It was chance that you met him at all, Laurel.”
She flinched.
“It was chance that we met as well. Why should one path be considered more than the other? Because he is a king? I never thought you were the kind of woman to care about that.”
“I’m not,” Laurel said, narrowing her eyes. “I love Adolph.”
“Because you do or because your instincts say you’re supposed to?” Eden smirked, “Werewolves have such an interesting belief system about the lunar goddess and the pantheon of gods who watch over the realm.”
“You’re saying that vampires don’t?”
Eden’s lips twitched, “I wasn’t raised as a vampire, Laurel. I was raised, mostly, human. Wiccan to be specific.”
He crossed the room and sat on the couch in the small parlor area. He gestured to the seat across from him. Laurel hesitated, but she crossed the room. Anything he might say was something she could use for the future and her escape.
“You’re planning to escape,” Eden said. Laurel’s eyes lurched. “Your eyes don’t lie, Laurel. And you may even succeed… Everyone on guard has been ordered not to harm you in any way. How about something to consider before I leave?”
Laurel eyed him.
“What is the difference between fate and destiny?” Eden asked. “Is one more powerful than the other?”
“Fate is an event that will happen no matter what choices you make… Destiny is the result of the choices you make.”
Eden smiled, “One of my elders said something like that to me once… So I’ll say the same thing I said to him to you.”
Laurel frowned.
“Fate is a beggar on the street,” Eden said. “Destiny tosses coins occasionally. Sometimes to its benefit and sometimes not.”
Laurel frowned, “I don’t… I don’t agree with you.”
Eden shrugged, “If you had never left your village, would you have ever met Adolph?”
Her eyes widened.
“Had you decided to leave, would you have ever been poisoned?”
“I…”
“Had you chosen another path, another destiny, would you have become luna?” Eden smirked. “I find more often than not that the word fate is used to excuse and explain results of choices we don’t want to examine.”
Eden stood and crossed the room, “Call down the hall for anything you might need. Though I believe they stocked the room. I will return when this is done.”
Eden left the room, closing the door behind her and Laurel slumped in her seat.
His words swirled through her mind. Was he wrong? Was she wrong? Was either of them wrong and this was all just a matter of perspective?
She didn’t know. How many werewolves meet their fated mate? As Laura, she had never met Adolph. As Laurel, she wouldn’t have met Adolph if she hadn’t gone to the next town over.
Had she run from her fated mate, would she have been dragged back to him by unseen forces, or would have all her choices and Adolph’s choices led them back together?
She shook her head. Why was she even thinking about this? What difference did it make if they were fated or destined or just *right* together? Laurel had made her choice to be with Adolph, to stand at his side in defense of the werewolf kingdom.
Maybe they had just been fated for each other before, but now they were destined and she had to get out of here.
She wrinkled her nose at the thought of Eden knowing she planned to escape. It seemed like he had a much wider view of the situation than many others did like a chess master reading the board.
*You may even succeed*…
Did that mean aside from locking the door, he wasn’t even trying to keep her here? Why tell her where they were going?
She worried her lip. Was there a chance that she could make it to the castle to stop Adolph in time from losing his mind to the bloodshed or something?
If Eden was telling the truth, then it was very likely that Adolph didn’t believe anything Eden told him. Still, Adolph would want to at least take the chance to get rid of Morrigan once and for all if possible. He would go along with Eden’s plan, especially if Eden intimated that she was being held in the castle.
Morrigan hated Adolph, there was a good chance that if she had been taken to the castle she would have been tortured to death out of spite.
She stood and went to the door. It was bolted from the outside, so she couldn’t open it, but unless they were all vampires, there was no one nearby.
Her stomach turned as she turned towards the window. There were no bars and no impediments to keep her inside aside from the dizzying canyon below the castle. She heard people hurrying around through the castle, bidding goodbye and leaving with a call to war. There were fewer guards in the castle because they were attacking Morrigan’s stronghold.
The window was her best chance to get out of the room. She looked out the window and down the canyon. The dizzying feeling surfaced again. Her heart pounded with terror and she drew back sharply.
She paced, shaking her head. She had to get out. She had to get out. There was no time for fears of death right now when Adolph could be rushing into a trap designed to rob him of his mind.
Was Chasel with him? Were there people with him that could pull him back from the edge? Had there been anyone who could before? She looked down at the chains around her wrists and took a deep breath.
She cast her gaze around the room and stopped at the bed as an idea began to form. She leaned out the window, eyeing the distance between the tower’s window and the nearest battlement. It was a distance, but she could make it.
She just had to try.