Beyond The Walls (NOW ON AMAZON!!!)

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For the first time in her life, Hadley was free!

Free from Compound Rules.

Free from shock collars and chains.

Free from expectations borne of legacy.

Free!

But this freedom had come at too high a cost. Her daughter had lost everything – a safe home, a vibrant community, an incredible knowledge base, friendships she would have held for life and the chance at living a life outside the influence and rule of vampires!

"That was awful," Hadley said when she finally stopped coughing up water from her trip down the worst water slide in existence. She walked to the edge of the new cave they'd dropped into towards a pile of camping bags.

"Prison escapes usually are," Kade replied, laughing. "Grab one of the blue bags. Brielle and I stocked bags for everyone and smuggled them here a few weeks ago. Blue for the girls and pink for the boys."

Weeks ago.

They'd been planning this escape for a while.

Hadley still didn't understand why Kade and Brielle would give up everything they had known from birth to free her – no, wait – this was all for Drew, which is the reason Kade and Brielle had given when Hadley had asked. Once they were safe, Hadley would ask them to elaborate on that. Not that she was complaining about being brought along for the ride.

Hadley grabbed one of the blue, fully stocked camping bags and rummaged through. Among the more standard supplies – clothes, food, first aid kit and the like – Hadley breathed a sigh of relief when she found Gram Lee's set of whittling knifes in their leather bundle. However, right next to the set of knives was another blade clothed in a leather sheath. Hadley pulled it out and studied the garishly massive hunting knife that looked more than awkward in her small hand.

"Kade, what's this?"

"Brielle showed me that weak set of your knives as she packed them for you and, no offense, but those things won't save you from anything." Kade said with a shrug. "I thought I'd show you what a real knife looks like. That will take down an army of vampires, with enough blade left over to face a whole pack of vampire dogs."

Hadley chuckled and put the hunting knife back into the backpack. It wasn't her machete, but he was right – it'd do in a pinch.

Kade reached into his own pink camping bag and pulled out a leather-bound book. He handed it to Hadley. "This belongs to you."

"Thank you." Hadley replied, accepting Aunt Zee's journal, grateful that the river water still dripping from her hair camouflaged the tears falling down her cheeks. With her apple seeds gone, this was the only other thing Hadley had to remember Aunt Zee.

"No worries." Kade smiled. Before he moved to help the next person who'd shot out of the water slide tube, he looked up at the cave ceiling. "That's not good."

Hadley followed his gaze. They were in a cavern system, but unlike the main Caves where the Wildlings lived, this cave was small, and had a low rocky ceiling riddled with holes, through which the sky was visible. It was late afternoon, but those skies looked much darker than they should have.

"Are those storm clouds?!" Jamila asked nervously, speaking up so she could be heard above the soughing wind that suddenly whistled through the holes above them. She'd just waded out of the river and was still wringing the water out of her long single braid and her clothes.

"We better get moving before we get caught in that!" Brielle called out, pointing at the dark sky. She was the last to join them. She quickly waded out of the water, immediately grabbed the last blue camping bag, hitched it on her shoulders and started scrambling along the cave's rocky edges, following along with the stream, not even taking a second to recover from the water slide from hell. "You do not want to be in here when it rains unless you can grow gills! So, keep up!"