He would drag her back by the neck, strip away every single ounce of her freedom, and make her pay for every step she had taken tonight.
"Run," she whispered to herself, her voice swallowed by the roaring wind. "Just run."
She turned away from the golden lights of the palace and plunged into the thick, freezing fog, her cloth shoes slipping against the sharp stones of the downward path.
She had no map, no system, and no strength, but she had the open sky ahead of her, and for the first time in weeks, she was the one choosing where her feet would take her.
........
The mountain path was a cruel, jagged thing that seemed to have no end.
Lin Wan stumbled forward through the dense white fog, her hands extended blindly in front of her to catch herself against the rough rock walls.
The thick wool servant's cloak she wore was heavy, soaked through with the freezing moisture of the high-altitude clouds.
