Page 75 of Tide Touched

My hand splayed over my face, I gape at him between my fingers. He just hit me. I try to cool the fire burning through me, my rage. ‘Have you hit her? My friend.’

His cool blue eyes seem to crackle with ice. ‘I do as I like.’

‘And you like hitting people, don’t you?’ I get slowly to my feet. ‘Like your nephew? I saw the marks on him.’

Julian doesn’t so much as raise an eyebrow. ‘Tell me, would you care if I said I beat the daylights out of him for letting you escape?’

Something tight grasps my throat.

‘I see you do care,’ he muses. ‘Take her away.’

Two guards grab my arms. I try to kick out at them as the blade tumbles out of my sleeve. For a long moment, I stare at it, dumbfounded. Then anger grips me. I reach out, snatching for the blade, but Julian grabs it out of my grasp.

‘Ah. Did you come here to butcher my nephew?’

‘No,’ I hiss. ‘Where is she? Where’s Moira, you fucking bastard?’ I try to kick out, flailing as much as possible. The guards struggle to keep a grip on me.

‘Ah, I see you’ve gone and discovered some courage to match your mouth. Now wherever did you pick that up?’ he drawls.

I stop struggling long enough to contemplate his question. I never noticed a change in myself, but now I feel it. It’s come from being cared for. From being loved. I twist in the guards’ grip. ‘From my real mate.’ I stomp down on the guard’s foot to break something. He cries out, briefly releasing me. I elbow the other one in the face and run like my pants are on fire.

I run past the four sets of staircases until I find a door and hurry through it, then crash into something. Someone.

A little shriek escapes her.

‘Katie!’ Ella whispers. ‘What—’

I drag her into a shadowed alcove and press my fingers to my lips to silence her. My former handmaid holds statue-still as the two injured guards hobble down the hall, swearing and cursing me. Of course, they’re too badly injured to notice the alcove, and hobble off in the opposite direction.

When they’re out of the hall, Ella exhales and grasps my arm. ‘What are you doing here?’ she whispers.

‘I need to find my friend, Moira.’

‘Oh.’ Ella’s face softens. ‘I volunteered to be the one to bring her her meals. I’d hoped she’d find a way out. She’s upstairs, near where your old room is.’

‘Is she hurt?’ I whisper urgently. They’re bound to be more guards after me. I have to hurry.

‘A little,’ Ella admits. ‘But… well, Carter is badly wounded. He kept stepping in to protect her.’

Surprise washes over me. ‘Where is he?’

Ella shakes her head. ‘I’m not sure. Last I saw, he—’ She swallows, clearly upset. ‘Alpha was beating him. I tried to get to him, to bring him food, but Courtney, she’s so suspicious now, she won’t let anyone take him anything.’

‘Because of me,’ I mutter.

Ella nods.

I grasp her hands. ‘Thank you, Ella. For everything you’ve done.’ I pause. ‘If you want to leave this place, you can come with me.’

‘Really?’ Her blue eyes light up. She nods.

I follow her through the halls, both of us straining to listen for any guards coming. Ella pushes me into a nearby closet and shuts it behind me. That is not cool. My arms don’t like bending this way, but I listen as she tells more guards that she thinks I went ‘that way’, which I can only assume is the opposite way we’re going.

She yanks me out of the closet, and we keep running until the hall becomes familiar. Ella knocks on a door. ‘Moira? It’s me, Ella.’

‘Come in.’ My heart jumps at hearing her voice and I practically knock Ella over once she unlocks the door to clamber into the room.

‘Oh!’ Moira jumps up and runs to me, both of our bodies smashing into the other in a rather brutal hug. ‘Katie, what the hell are you doing here?’

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