Page 12 of I Ran Away to Evil 3
“He really is the best,” Bronwynn agreed, talking about her fiancé. She stored the wine in her storage ring. “I’m sure we could work something out.”
“I’m fine,” I insisted. “Now, enough about my tragic backstory—let’s go enjoy the festival.”
There wasn’t anyone waiting for me back in my old world, and Dale—
Gerda’s troll ex-husband—had only ever gotten the one chance to hurt me.
On the day I’d first arrived …
Five Years Ago
I didn’t see the truck that hit me, but Ifeltit.
While I lay there, listening to the white noise and screaming, it wasn’t my life that flashed before my eyes—it was my TBR. My to-be-read, unfinished books and games and graphic novels and all of the stories I’d never get to finish. Like my current favorite:Dungeon Delves and Debutantes, anotomeromance videogame that I’d adored to excess and played through every route. And I’d finally bought the sequel. It lay beside me, the box broken open and the disc shattered on the pavement.
A wave of nausea struck, and I closed my eyes against the pain. I never opened my human eyes again.
It was strange, becoming Gerda. The white noise continued for some time as our memories met and melded. A long dream that felt so very, very real.
Her childhood in the Baldorin Mountains. My summers at the family lake house. Her childhood friend’s cruel tricks which lead to her gaining the Protector class at age ten. My parents’ divorce in middle school. Her unfortunate marriage to that same childhood friend. Me breaking up with my fiancé in college because of my future mother-in-law’s constant and never-ending abuse. Gerda being forced to hold off monster attacks by herself with her abilities, all while her husband took the credit.
The long, hard days which felt suffocating.
And then, I was hit by cold water. The first thing I noticed when I opened my eyes was the flashing box at the corner of my vision.
[You have beenRevived.]
[Warning! Your Health has dropped below 30%. Rest recommended.]
I dragged my attention away from the notifications tab. There were more, but I had other things I needed to do.
I rolled over onto my back and heaved a deep, uneven breath.
“Get up,” an angry voice snarled. “I didn’t hit you that hard.”
He was wrong, of course. He’d hit Gerda—us—me? He’d hitmehard enough to kill. These thoughts could be sorted later; for now, it was time to show our husband a lesson he wasnevergoing to forget.
Sorry,ex-husband.
CHAPTER 6
The Audacity
Julian
When Julian finally escaped, it was after dark.
He found his way to his old rooms, the ones he’d used as the heir. Everything inside still looked the same as during his childhood. While hecouldhave taken over the main suite, he’d insisted that his mother keep it.
There were too many memories of his father in that place.
He felt stifled and went to open the door to the veranda off of the receiving room. His room in the main tower faced the city. The grand duke’s official rooms were one floor higher and to the left.
Julian always felt restless in the palace. He might not be the level ninety-one Arcane Sorcerer his father had been, but Julian still had a decade to catch up to where Grand Duke Lysander von Slyke had been when his father fought Sumbria in the civil war.
