Page 37 of Dark Reign

After how much time had passed, attempting to save the girl I’d witnessed being mauled in the garden was pointless. With the scent of fresh blood in the air, it wouldn’t have surprised me if others had joined her‘Master’in the feast. These fancy gowns and tuxes didn’t change what they were.

Savages.

There wasn’t likely anything left of her. Her fate was sealed, confirming what I already knew; this place wasn’t meant for humans. I needed to get away from Lord Wilford’s palace and down the street, roughly a block away where Banks and Jonesy would be waiting in the van. Once I made it to them, I’d be free, well on my way back to reality.

Myreality.

At the foot of the stairs, a sudden flash of light made me recoil, but it didn’t matter because more photographers and reporters rushed in right behind the first.

“What’s your connection to the prince?”

“Was arriving with Cecelia McNamara just a ruse?”

“Tell us, willyoube the next empress of the Eastern Dynasty when Prince Julian takes the throne next year?”

Questions flew at me from all directions.

More camera flashes.

More questions.

Somany questions.

Shielding my face from their lenses, I pushed past. A clean break through the front door was no longer possible. There were sure to be more of them on the lawn, waiting to pounce on me the moment I stepped onto it. My best bet was to leave through the back, although I knew it wasn’t my safest option. Just a moment ago, an Ianite feasted on his Doll in the very garden I’d have to escape through. There was a chance he still lurked about, but it was my only way out of there.

Darting in that direction, I rushed out, and had it not been for the sentinels stopping the mob from tailing me, I would have never made it. I ran—hard, fast. Coming tonight had been a mistake. Not only did I come up short where information concerning HIN-190487 was concerned, I learned something about myself.

I wasn’t the infallibleBlackbirdso many believed me to be. The moment Julian had turned on the charm, I lost my way, compromising the entire mission because I couldn’t control my emotions.

Bursting into the night air, I could nearly taste freedom.

“Tell Banks I’m on my way,” I panted through the com.

“On it,” Felix answered right away. I could only imagine what he and Liv were thinking as they listened to the sudden commotion. I’d explain everything to them when I got back, but right now, all that mattered was getting as far away from here as possible.

Bypassing a stone bench on my left, I was finally to the thicket of bushes that marked the entrance of the garden I overlooked a short time ago. It was a straight path to the edge of the property. In preparation for the barrier I’d have to scale to get out, I intentionally tore the split of my dress a few inches higher, leaving the knife holstered against my thigh visible.

My heartrate spiked again when I thought of the hellhounds. With a property this size, there were at least three packs lurking about. How long until one caught sight of me in its peripheral vision, and alerted the others that a meal on two feet was getting away. Imagining what they’d do if they caught up, I moved faster.

I was close. Close enough to make out the slight variation in color of the opaque brick wall that divided Lord Wilford’s palace from the outside world. However, even having put so much distance between the palace and myself, between Julian and myself … it wasn’t enough.

“I’ve got her,” a deep voice rang out just before I was snatched backwards by my waist. A solid arm cut off my breathing with the tight squeeze, as he bound me to his side.

Glancing over my shoulder, my worst nightmare was confirmed.

A sentinel.

He knew my secret, and with one word, I knew what had given me away.

“Sweat,” he informed another who approached. “Just like you said.”

This was all my fault. Desperate to get away, I’d forgotten the importance of keeping my cool.

Literally.

An unavoidable, very human tell, had been what brought the entire plan down around me.

Ianites bodies may warm when the right variables aligned, but never, under any circumstances, did they sweat.

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