Page 63 of Take My Crown

After what felt like forever, my feet eventually touch solid ground. I am safe. I rest my head against the drainpipe, sending up a silent prayer to whoever is listening to thank them for watching over me.

But I don’t have time to waste. Isabella can go back to my room at any time. I have to get the boys and get us all out of here. For all I know, the ‘doctor’ my father had called in might be a torturer or an assassin and he could be doing terrible things to all three of my friends.

I creep along the side of the house, trying to make my outline as small as possible. The problem is that since I have never been given free reign of the house, I have no idea where my room is in relation to anywhere else. All I can do is go from window to window and briefly pop my head up, hoping no one inside spots me.

There is so much wrong with what I am doing that a real assassin might laugh at me. I wish I had time to come up with a decent plan, something which had half a chance of succeeding, but I could already be too late.

The first room I check is empty. The second seems to be a security room. Two guards are sitting in front of a number of screens, but they don’t seem to be paying any attention to them, their card game being far more interesting. My heart leaps into my throat when I see Declan and Romy on their own in a room together, both unharmed. Archer is on another screen. The doctor is just finishing up with him and from what I can make out; he is still alive.

Thank goodness.

I also see my room. I was right. My father has been keeping tabs on me. Still, on the upside, I have done a good job of stuffing my bed. It definitely looks like I am asleep or sulking at how badly I’ve been treated.

There is still time for me to find the boys and set them free. The only problem I still have is that I have no idea where they are. Archer looks like he is in the same room he was taken in when we arrived home, so he is on the ground floor, but if the other two are on another level, I don’t have a chance of finding them.

I move on past a few more rooms which are empty until I come to my father’s study. He is on the phone with his back to me, so I decide to listen in for a minute.

“I know, I know. It’s terrible to think that they have the audacity to strike at the Houses in the heart of our own territory. Whoever is behind this has just declared war on all of us and I swear that when we uncover the culprits, they will feel the full force of my wrath. They’ve kidnapped all our heirs and we have no idea whether any of them are dead or alive. I’ve only just been reunited with my beloved Ivy. To have her snatched away from us so cruelly is breaking my heart. I will not rest until she’s back where she belongs with her loving family.”

It takes every ounce of willpower not to let loose a tirade of swearing at what I thought of that. But my father could wait. I will make sure he gets what is coming to him when the time is right. First, it is the boys who need to be reunited with their families.

If that ismy father’s study, then I know I’m not far from the room where Archer is being kept. Sure enough, it isn’t long before I see him sitting all on his own. He looks so defeated it practically breaks my heart.

I put my hand through the bars and tap on the window.

“Archer! Archer!”

Archer looks back, his eyes widening, and he slowly walks over to the window. He pulls it up so we can talk.

“Ivy! What are you doing here? Come to gloat?”

“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“This is all your plan, isn’t it? Your sick idea of getting back at me for seeing Carly. I thought Milly told you, I had it all worked out. Carly is just a decoy. I had it all figured out so we can see each other without our families suspecting. Why couldn’t you have trusted me, Ivy?”

“Wait! You’ve got it all wrong,” I say. “I don’t know anything about this. It is all my father. He’s got some mad scheme to take over the town and pin the blame on someone else. He locked me up in my room. I put some pillows in my bed, but I don’t know how long they’re going to fool anyone. We have to find Romy and Declan and get all of you as far away from here as possible.”

“Really?”

The look of hopeful hurt on Archer’s face tells me everything I need to know about how he feels about me. Impulsively, I reach through the bars and pull his face to mine. The metal pressing against our cheeks is cold as I kiss him passionately.

“I’m going to save you,” I promise. “All of you. I just need to figure out where Declan and Romy are and find my way inside the house without anyone seeing me and get you out.”

I turn to leave, but Archer reaches through the bars to grab me.

“Ivy, I need you to swear that if you find yourself in danger, you’ll run away. Save yourself, no matter what. Romy, Declan, and I are big boys. We can take care of ourselves.”

“Archer, you were shot a couple hours ago,” I remind him. “You’re in no position to take care of anything. There’s no way I’m leaving you here. Besides, my father needs me. I’m his heir. There’s no way he will do anything to really hurt me. He is just throwing threats around to try and intimidate me.”

“You really think so?”

“Yes.”

No. Not after the way Isabella was toward me.

Archer looks like he wants to say something else, but whatever it is, he decides against it.

“Look after yourself, Ivy. You’re far too important to me, to all of us, for us to stand by and let you get hurt. Protect yourself. If you need, go to my father and tell him everything. He’ll look after you. He…”

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