Page 77 of When Kings Fall

As he fell back, I burst to my feet, executing a brutal push kick that sent Royce sprawling into the forest.

As the guy on the left went to grab me, I ducked, then came up with a harsh uppercut that had his head snapping back.

A sense of coming victory rolled through me.

But I was still shaky from what had happened, the threats of it, and the callbacks to that awful time.

I was basically still trying to fight off an episode.

It had me fumbling with the gun to flick the safety off, then take aim at Royce, and Lefty was there smashing his fist into my face and then wrenching it back from my grip.

I stumbled back, but managed to catch my footing.

But then Righty was there with Royce coming back too, the three of them surrounding me.

I leapt up into a spinning kick and blew Lefty back.

But it cost me as Righty shoved me and, as I stumbled, Royce was there snatching up a hefty branch and sweeping it at my back.

I grunted at the brutal impact that sent me crashing onto the snow on my stomach.

I scrambled to get up, but then there was a knee on my back driving down painfully and pinning me there.

I strained to look up to see Royce staring down at me with a malicious look in his eyes as he grabbed at his belt.

No. No. No.

Rapid-fire movement caught my eye, rushing through the dark forest.

And then Levi burst out from the trees and barreled into the fray, roaring like an unhinged animal when he saw what was happening to me.

That was exactly how he laid into them in the very next moment too.

Like an animal.

A feral beast.

And I loved him for it.

He was here for me, just like he had been back then during our attempted escape.

“We’re here together. You’re not alone,” I told him.

He smiled out at me. “Couldn’t have asked for anybody better to be in this nightmare with.”

“Right back at you.”

I blinked and focused through the shock of it all, noting that he was covered in blood and dirt, something that had occurred before he’d even come at Royce and his two soldiers just now.

Screams sounded as Levi broke the knee of one of the guys, then the other’s arm.

He was snarling as he snatched a gun, then put a bullet between their eyes in quick succession.

And then he turned his unforgiving gaze on Royce who was standing there in absolute stunned silence.

“Yeah, not a kiddo anymore, am I, motherfucker?” Levi spat at him.

As I pushed back to my feet, Levi lunged at him and tackled him across the waist, taking him down to the ground brutally hard.

---