Page 4 of Lily of the Valley

Josiah led the way, flanked by two guards who looked as haggard as he did, fighting their way through…

Through men dressed in black and sporting tunics bearing a snarling, three-headed wolf.

In the cellar, Lily pulled up the ring of keys that hung from her chatelaine and unlocked a door hidden by enormous barrels of beer. Sounds of fighting, bellows of rage, came from behind them. Too close behind.

Lily got the door unlocked and Josiah shoved it open, snapping orders to three of the guards that remained with them. They stayed behind, sharing grim looks, and closed the door as Lily and the others vanished through it.

Two guards remained, with Josiah making three. Clarissa and Penelope. "Where's Alice?" Leigh was still in bed; hopefully they wouldn't hurt her.

"She was going for Ferdinand last I saw her," Clarissa said grimly. "Doubt she succeeded, but the threat to him slowed down their attempts to kill you, and that was all she really wanted."

Lily's heart hurt anew, but she ignored the pain. Grieve later. Alice had sworn to protect her at all costs, and that was what she'd done. Lily hated it, but what could she do right now?

Live, so Alice's sacrifice wasn't in vain.

Another explosion rocked through the basement, making Josiah swear and Penelope give an aborted scream. Pounding feet. Rough voices calling sharp orders. Metal clashing. The stench of smoke and blood.

The cretin from that morning rounded the end of a rack of wine barrels, grinning like a rabid wolf as he saw her. "There you are, little princess."

"Over my dead body!" Josiah roared.

"That can be arranged," the man replied with a slithering laugh that made Lily shudder. "Do you think I'm scared of the likes of you? I've dealt with worse than you, bloodsucker."

"Bloodsucker?" Lily echoed. "What—"

"Get her out of here! Now!" Josiah snarled at the remaining guards. "Protect your queen with your lives. Go now!"

"No! Josiah, you can't—" Lily screamed as the last two guards dragged her away, helpless to do anything but watch as Josiah and Clarissa stayed behind.

She was sobbing as they left the palace, following a secret path hidden in the walls of the royal gardens and out into the woods that surrounded the palace grounds.

Woods she'd been warned to never go into alone and to never enter at night. Woods filled with ghosts, old magic, and the sound of laughter, despite there being nobody around…

If only she could hire some ghosts to exterminate the wolves that had overtaken her palace. Murdered her father. Her friends. Gods knew how many other people were dead or in danger of dying.

Her people needed her, and she was running away into the woods.

They stopped in a glade, sending birds and foxes fleeing from their water hole. Lily doubled over, gasping for breath, struggling not to cry as all the tumult hit her at once. Her father, dead. Josiah, dead. Alice, Clarissa, dead. Penelope and Leigh…

Why? Why so much death? Because people had to pay more in taxes? Money they had so much of, they'd never have noticed if they gave a bit more to the crown? Her father had wanted it to help people, damn it. Why were they so angry about helping people? It was their job.

Anger and grief wove through her like thorny vines tangling with choking ivy.

"We have to keep moving, Your Majesty," one of the guards said.

Lily nodded, gathering up her skirts and knotting them so they'd be less of a hazard as they trekked through the woods. Hopefully they would reach safety soon. While the guards were well-armed, and their uniforms more practical than her gown, none of them was equipped to spend a night sleeping out in the open.

"Where are we going?" she asked, because she had to assume that if Ferdinand was behind this, then all the safety measures he'd helped put in place were compromised. The Black Wolves had known about the cellar escape, after all.

"Sergeant Josiah arranged a place," the guard in the lead said. "He said he didn't—" She broke off at the sound of shouting. "Damn it, let's move."

They didn't get far before wolves—actual, real wolves as black as night, broke through the scrub and came after them. "Run!" the guard in the lead said as she swung around to fight the wolves with her companion. "Your Majesty, you have to run. Find the ruins. Wait there. Run."

So afraid it was hard to breathe, tired of running away while people died, Lily nevertheless obeyed, abandoning her heeled shoes once and for all, scooping up her skirts. propriety be damned, and running with everything she had.

Until her feet burned. Until her lungs ached. Until she couldn't see for the tears, until the only sound was her own desperate gasps for air. Until her legs finally gave out.

She lay on the forest floor heaving for breath, tears streaming down her reddened face.

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