Page 64 of Dark Reign

“Um … Elle? It’s boiling back here. Would you mind rolling my window down?” I did my best to sound calm to avoid tipping Julian off that I was up to something.

“Of course,” she quickly obliged, lowering the tinted glass completely.

Perfect.

A sobering breeze and light drizzle grazed my skin, both slowing the progression of my episode, but only a little. It cleared my head enough to help me calculate the distance of the fall I’d take, when I took the only out I had.

It was my father who taught me to think on my toes. To analyze quickly andacteven quicker. So, that’s what I did, ignoring the sting of the window frame as it scraped my stomach when I lunged, snagging buttons off the pristine, white blouse Elle had given me. My wrist throbbed beneath my weight when it braced my fall, preventing my face from slamming against the damp pavement.

“Corina! Stop!”

It was easy to disregard Julian’s voice when he called out to me, but the grip he had on my ankle was harder to ignore. Desperate and losing strength, I struggled against him, eventually slipping from his grasp minus one blue pump that Elle had given me this morning.

I scrambled to my feet, too incoherent to remove the remaining shoe, so I did an awkward shuffle through the multicolored array of vehicles as horns honked from all around. I crossed the crowded lanes of onlookers when the light changed from red to green, bracing my palms against warm hoods where the engines of angry drivers revved as I pushed forward.

“Corina!”

I ignored Julian for a second time, hoping the one thing I knew to be true about him held—that his reputation meant everything. If I was right, stepping out of his car to chase me down was a risk he wasn’t willing to take. It would bring unwanted attention to his precious title.

And that was fine.

No, that was more than fine. That was exactly what I wanted.

A dark opening between two buildings caught my attention as I slowed at the sidewalk. With the light turning, and the few witnesses to my escape having moved on, there was less attention on me now. I kept my head down to avoid eye contact, using my hair at either side as a curtain to hide the color of my eyes from them. Yes, they’dsmellthat a human was in the vicinity, but the open air would at least make me harder to spot.

For a while at least.

My plan was a terrible one—slip into the alley before the seizure started, and then run like hell when I came to, assuming an Ianite—or twenty—didn’t find me first, and make me their lunch.

But at least this way, I had a chance. On the other hand, seizing right in front of Julian was a surefire death sentence.

I dropped to the pavement just as a hard breath left my mouth. Wedging my body between two dumpsters, I panted, hoping I’d made it into this space without drawing too much attention to myself. I needed to be invisible. My life depended on it.

I hugged both knees against my chest. The darkness was so close, and I felt myself slipping away, feeling more afraid than I could recall in recent memory. I realized that this wasn’t good enough. Julian would easily find me here. I had to put more distance between us.

I eyed the tall fence at the end of the alley and stood with my sights set on it. I officially had a new destination to reach before submitting to the fog within me. Whatever happened after that … was completely out of my control.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Julian

Time stood still while I searched, trying to find her scent. With every corner I turned, each time I came up with nothing, frustration swelled in my gut.

“I’m still looking, Your Highness,” Elle’s voice echoed from my watch.

“Keep scanning,” I instructed, knowing she would be thorough.

We split up, her driving a route headed east while I continued westward where I watched Corina disappear nearly five minutes ago. It was like she vanished into thin air.

I didn’t think I’d ever seen a stronger human, one with more grit. To a degree, I admired her determination, but it was currently a huge inconvenience.

Colin was my head of security and Winston his second in command. It was customary for both to accompany me when I ventured off our private property. However, what wasnotcustomary was having them scour the streets with me in search of a runaway human.

I shouldn’t have been out in the open like this, for so many to observe and make assumptions, especially with the current media storm still raining down on my family and I.

But … I needed to find her, the girl who may as well have been a ghost.

As if locating her wasn’t already hard enough, the light rain was suddenly a full downpour, complicating things further, throwing off my sense of smell and any chance I had of catching a whiff of her scent.

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