[[Until We Become Lions]]

Chapter 38

The city that Danijela loved was set ablaze and flooded with blood. Escaping Torre de Leon had been one feat. Her sister Evee had lovingly left out the tiny detail about crawling through feces and piss but that paled in comparison to what Danijela saw once she reached beyond these walls. Soldiers occupied nearly every city block. Most of them were divided up into pairs as they went door to door, demanding papers and shooting those who refused. Danijela could not tear her eyes away, much like that fateful night when she was just seven years old playing with her red ball until the bad man came tumbling down the stairs, head open for all to see.

She tried to justify the violence as she kept to the shadows and corners that kept her out of view.

They're criminals.

They're traitors.

Possibly terrorists.

If they were True Yarans, they would go into this draft willingly.

But that was a bit hypocritical, wasn't it? She had been a criminal. She was a traitor by blood.

But Antón, he had looked past all that and saw her, the broken girl underneath the guarded woman.

But she did not see the faces of would-be criminals, traitors, and terrorists. She saw parents being torn from their children, cousins holding each other as they were riddled with bullets. Grandparents were thrown from the front steps of the only homes they had ever known.

This was not the paradise Antón had promised her. This was not a paradise she wanted anything to do with.

There has to be some misunderstanding .

Danijela pushed forward, following Evee's instructions. Follow the main road to the northeast corner of the city, right before land meets the sea. Taking the main road was risky but her lithe movements and soft feet allowed her to remain unseen. There were some points she had to divert to taking the rooftops but that was child's play. She even snatched a nice-looking shawl hanging from a clothing line to wrap around her, masking her identity. This would have been such an extravagant experience to share with Evee. The two-former pickpocket sisters reliving their glory days. If only it was not under such dire circumstances.

When she saw the aforementioned boat, she wanted to cackle. It was so obvious, that it was blunderingly stupid how the soldiers had not noticed yet. There were a few people ahead of her. The two men who seemed to be in charge weren't even looking at the payment the others offered to board - they were just trying to get them on as fast as possible. Upon closer inspection, Danijela saw the man in blue rubbing his throat, while a man in orange behind him was soaking wet, looking utterly befuddled.

The man in blue didn't even look at her as he waved her on. As soon as she stepped down the rickety stairs, she was met with the pungent smell of dead fish and piss. The hatch shut behind her as the men above shouted to the captain, she presumed. There were so many bodies packed together down here, it was hard to see above anyone's heads effectively. Danijela herself even had to tilt her head some to avoid scraping her scalp against any sharp-jutting pieces of the boat.

Finding Diego amongst this group was going to be harder than she had anticipated. It was not like she could just go around shouting his name. The people of this boat would descend upon him like sharks at the whiff of blood.

The sudden jerk of the boat signaled that they were taking off. Danijela cursed under her breath.

That brought her to her second issue. What was she to do once she found Diego?

Threaten the captain to turn the boat around in the middle of an already brewing storm? She'd be thrown overboard in a heartbeat, and she wasn't exactly the strongest swimmer. As she ran through other possibilities, she felt a sharp pressure against her back.