Fleeting Hope

Chapter 16

Raven's POV:

It's been almost two weeks now, and Damian and I have spent countless hours gathering information and getting ready to make our move. I was up, sitting at the table with Damian, going over possible escape plans.

"What about the East wall," I point to the location on the map to further explain my idea. "We wait until midnight and then scale the wall. We would have three minutes between shifts, but I think it's possible."

"Not with Emma," Damian shakes his head. "We can't scale the wall in three minutes if we have to carry Emma."

"I can manage," I assure him.

"How?" He seems uncertan.

"Haven't you ever heard of a baby wrap?" I stand up and grab Emma from Damian's hands. Then I go to the closet and get the wrap before tying it around me so that Emma was close to my chest. "See?"

"And what about scaling a wall? To not be seen, you need to be close to the wall." Damian stood up and planted a kiss on Emma's head.

"Then I tie her around to be on my back. Once we get past the wall, we can re-wrap her to my chest, but it could work," I think more out loud that to Damian. "Then we run and Emma is protected."

"And what about if she cries?" Damian crosses him arms.

"I have been thinking about that," I took a step back, knowing that Damian will not like this. "There is a spell..."

Before I could say anything else, Damian interrupts, "No."

"But it's harmless. It just causes people to sleep for a few hours. I have done it many time when I was running missions for my father." I knew Damian didn't want me using magic on our child, but this seemed like a rational idea.

"Have you ever done it on kids?" Damian shook his head.

"Yes," I cringe, as I know that sounds bad. "When I didn't want to harm families, I would put them to sleep with the spell. I have never done it on someone so young, but I have done it on a one-year-old."

"And there were no side affects?" Damian looked at me, clearly hesitating.

"They woke up just fine a few hours later," I assured him, swearing with an "X" over my heart. "This way, Emma won't cry. She will sleep in our arms and we have six hours give or take. Honestly, when she has her restless nights, I think about casting the spell just so she can get some rest."

"No," Damian shook his head. "It's smart for us to use this spell for our escape, but never use this to make her go to sleep."

"Fine," I swore, knowing that Damian was firm on this. At least he agreed to let me use the spell for our escape. "Now that it is settled, lets go back to planning."

We walked back to our seats, me softly rocking Emma in my arms