Total pages in book: 82
Estimated words: 78507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 314(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“It was supposed to be a public audience.”
“Of course that’s what they said. Anything to get her inside the palace. That place is like a heavily guarded warren. She won’t be able to get out.”
“The royal right is impossible to withstand. Even a young woman like Darcy is going to submit. They will not give her a choice.”
“We should never have let her go.”
“What was the alternative?”
“Fight for her? Take her into the hills and refuse to allow her anywhere near that old fucking man?”
“She wanted to go.”
“She didn’t understand what she was getting into.”
“She would have gone, and if she hadn’t, the academy would have come for her, and if they hadn’t found her, the King’s Guard would have come…”
“And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could never have put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” I say, helpfully finishing his sentence.
The three of them spin around to see me standing naked at the back of the van.
“Darcy?” Kirin says my name questioningly.
They look at me as if they’re seeing a ghost.
“Yeah. Obviously.”
“How did you…”
“Well, I ran away. Oh, and I am pretty sure I killed the king. So. That’s done.”
Rafe reaches out and physically drags me into a hug, and into the van. He slams the doors shut. Then he turns to Kirin, who is already in the driver’s seat.
“We need to get out of here. Blend into traffic. Keep moving.”
Kirin doesn’t need instructions. He’s not stupid. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He gets us into traffic as quickly as possible. Within a couple of minutes, we have blended into the never-ending moving sea of vehicles that flow in and around Eclipse.
“Are you okay? Did he touch you?” Rafe and Einar ask me those questions practically at the same time. I am absolutely surrounded by them, encircled by their arms and observed intimately by concerned gazes.
“He wanted to. He didn’t get a chance. I am okay.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I just killed the fucking king. I think. I mean, if I didn’t… I don’t know. Do you remember when I used to be terrified of it, and now…”
“Wolf form is different from human form. And you were in your wolf form, I assume?”
“Yes. I was.”
“You acted on instinct to protect yourself. That’s good. You did what you should have done. What you had to do.”
“I know. He didn’t give me a choice. I mean, he knew he wasn’t giving me a choice, he just thought that I’d have to let him…”
“Good girl!” Kirin shouts from the front. He’s absolutely thrilled. The other two, not so much. They look concerned. I think they’re more worried that this all happened on their watch. They shouldn’t blame themselves. They should blame me. No matter how many times I was warned, I did whatever I felt like in the moment.
“Can you guys check the news?” Kirin calls back. “Could be intel on where we should go.”
The back of the van has a television in it, along with other surveillance equipment. Einar flicks the picture on. Immediately, we see a very cheerful lady making cupcakes. Einar changes the channel, and we see some dogs being cute.
“I don’t think there’s any news on this. Check the mobile apps.”
Rafe is already on his phone, scrolling.
“There’s nothing,” he says. “Trending tags are limited to sports and the Delivery 2 Go murder.”
“Wow, that’s a whole murder ago,” I say. It’s hard to believe there was a time when I really couldn’t do anything all that violent and in a couple of days I’ve quintupled my body count. I don’t know how to feel about that. I don’t know what to feel about it. I’ve become a talking point in Eclipse City.
“Looks like the social media has her name,” Rafe says. “Darcy. Someone from the academy must have leaked it.”
“That’s okay. Nobody is charging her for that.”
“Why isn’t there any news about it? They didn’t really even raise a lot of alarms when it happened. I think they did at the end, but… I got away really easily.”
“Half of being a modern royal is keeping things quiet,” Rafe says. “They will not want it to be known that someone attacked the king and fled the castle. It makes everybody look bad. Makes the palace look as though they have security problems. Telegraphs to enemies that an attack is likely to be successful in the future. Makes the king look weak.”
“He wasn’t really the king.” I say. “He had common wolf markings when he shifted. The guards would have seen that too. I don’t know if they’d do anything with that, or…”
“Those guards are already dead,” Einar says. “They allowed the king to be attacked and potentially even murdered on their watch.”
“Told you we didn’t need to worry about her.” Kirin throws the words over his shoulder. “You couldn’t keep Darcy in captivity if she wanted to be there. She’d escape on principle.”