Page 80 of Savagely Mated

I run, bounding through the window in a torrent of fur, blood, and glass. The roofs of the various gardens act as a path over which I can run—and I do run, at full speed, knowing I am quite literally fleeing for my life.

When I am not tackled off the roof and onto the ground below, I realize that the guards must have stayed back to try to save the king. The alarm has not been raised yet. I don’t know if anybody saw me come out that window. If they did, they might still be in the process of reporting it.

It doesn’t take that long to escape the palace. It is very well defended, but that’s from people who are trying to get in, not people who are trying to get out.

I leap from the garden roof line to the wall and then down the other side into the street.

Now the alarms are starting to sound. I hear them in the distance as I flee down toward the river, taking cover in the dense bushes that grow thickly along the edges.

And that’s when I see a van.

I know that van. Well, notthatvan, because I am pretty sure that one is still impounded, but I know in my gut that my mates are in that completely-conspicuous-for-the-area lump of metal.

I approach it somewhat cautiously, keeping an ear out, just in case it’s not who I think it is.

I hear voices though, and the closer I get, the more I hear. My mates have come for me, and are simultaneously planning a rescue and blaming themselves. I don’t know which one is sweeter.

“It was supposed to be a public audience.”

“Of course that’s what they said. Anything to get her inside the palace. That place is like a heavily guarded warren. She won’t be able to get out.”

“The royal right is impossible to withstand. Even a young woman like Darcy is going to submit. They will not give her a choice.”

“We should never have let her go.”

“What was the alternative?”

“Fight for her? Take her into the hills and refuse to allow her anywhere near that old fucking man?”

“She wanted to go.”

“She didn’t understand what she was getting into.”

“She would have gone, and if she hadn’t, the academy would have come for her, and if they hadn’t found her, the King’s Guard would have come…”

“And all the king’s horses and all the king’s men could never have put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” I say, helpfully finishing his sentence.

The three of them spin around to see me standing naked at the back of the van.

“Darcy?” Kirin says my name questioningly.

They look at me as if they’re seeing a ghost.

“Yeah. Obviously.”

“How did you…”

“Well, I ran away. Oh, and I am pretty sure I killed the king. So. That’s done.”

Rafe reaches out and physically drags me into a hug, and into the van. He slams the doors shut. Then he turns to Kirin, who is already in the driver’s seat.

“We need to get out of here. Blend into traffic. Keep moving.”

Kirin doesn’t need instructions. He’s not stupid. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He gets us into traffic as quickly as possible. Within a couple of minutes, we have blended into the never-ending moving sea of vehicles that flow in and around Eclipse.

“Are you okay? Did he touch you?” Rafe and Einar ask me those questions practically at the same time. I am absolutely surrounded by them, encircled by their arms and observed intimately by concerned gazes.

“He wanted to. He didn’t get a chance. I am okay.”

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