Sonya’s face crumples like she doesn’t know what to do with it. She’s entirely at a loss. I was joking mostly before, but maybe she really has never been told no before. She’s acting so shaken and unsure. “Come, Harper,” Caleb says, leading me toward the balcony. “There is something I want you t
More and more people start to notice. Then screaming and panic begins. People start running for the doors back into the hall. Caleb and I, closest to the railing of the balcony, are left pushing at the back of the fearful crowd. Behind us, more and more parachutes blot out the sky. A few come unco
Leah’s angry shriek at Samuel has alerted every single danger in the stairwell to our presence, and some in the hallway too. Their thunderous footsteps come closer to us. Samuel uses his body to push Leah and me inside the stairwell. I yank closed the door behind us and turn the inside lock. Fro
“Caleb said to follow him!” I reply, pushing back. But Samuel is much stronger than me. “Your king is the target here. He’ll only lead us into death!” I continue to try to fight against Caleb, but he doesn’t give me an inch, He said to follow him. He said the lowest floor was the only way out.
Maybe I should be more worried about myself. There are unfamiliar soldiers walking around the streets, and gun battles seemingly around every corner. Here, underground, where everything already echoes, it’s disorienting, not knowing which way the gunfire is coming from. I move to step out of the c
I’m not a trained soldier and I don’t know much about stealth, but I keep to the shadows as best I can as I move around toward the alleyway where I saw Caleb fall into. Fortunately, as this area is underground, it’s already dark. And many of the streetlights have been shot out, making it even darker
“You would fight me,” Samuel repeats slowly, as if in disbelief. “For him.” “Not just for him, but for your sense of honor as well as mine,” I tell him. With that wild look in his eye, I don’t trust him enough to even turn my back on him for a minute. Of all the dangers out here, the invaders and
The man moves closer, coming right for us. I tense all of my muscles, ready to fight, when I blink and realize the identity of the man in question. It’s Tristan. Breathe exhales my lungs so sharply, I feel like it’s been punched out of me. Tears well in my eyes, relief flooding through me. Tri
That’s… odd. I was expecting more fight from him. At the very least, I thought he might just storm off and leave me alone. But now he wants to… help? Maybe my words got through to him. Does he now see how important it is for us to work together to survive? Containing my pride, I return to my wor
For a brief moment, Caleb’s entire face goes slack with shock. In that instant, I feel vindicated, like maybe he’ll learn something now. However, in the next second, his face hardens instead. His words like ice, he says, “What did you just say to me?” Any other day, maybe I would have backed dow
My main worry is for Tristan and his safety on his dangerous mission. My second worry, however, is for myself, as I’m now alone with him in this farmhouse. There are no other slaves, or servants. No cooks. No cleaners. No other harem women to sate his needs – although that makes me more pleased than
Tristan and Caleb, talking lightly. I also notice that the clothes I left on the coffee table for Caleb are gone. Standing from the couch, I cross the room, closer to the door. “You can’t just go back storming through the gates,” Tristan says. “We don’t know the state of anything right now. Geor
Bethany keeps her head down, completing her work scrubbing the blood from the balcony while trying to not to panic about the very clearly bear soldiers still in the capital, posing as King’s guards. All the while, she waits for her chance to come forward and warn the Gamma about what she’s seeing.
Eventually, once the shooting and the screaming ends, Bethany crawls out from under her bed. There are so many safe rooms in the capital but each one she tried was taken with people of higher rank than her, unwilling to share their space with her. In the end, with nowhere else to go, she retreated b
Caleb pats his thigh like he wants me to come sit on his lap. He can’t be serious. The man could barely walk across the room on his own and now he wants to have sex? “We should wait,” I start to say. His eyes narrow. “You dare deny your king?” He adds a frown. “Or do you think your king incapabl
Caleb gently twists his body this way and that, feeling each poke of discomfort. “That explains why I feel like swiss cheese. Help me to the couch then, damn it.” Tristan and Harper both help Caleb to his feet and together they shuffle toward the floral-pattern couch against the wall. “A bed wou
Caleb’s vision is red as he closes his hands around the traitor’s throat. He has her up against the wall, her feet dangling, kicking wildly. She claws at Caleb’s hands with her dull human fingernails, as if that would ever be enough for him to not see justice done. “C-Caleb…” she gasps, the villai