AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her mittened hand brushed over my forehead. “Milady, you’re sweating.”
“Ladies don’t sweat,” I assured her as I took a shaky step forward. “We shimmer.”
“Coco!” His voice caught my heart before my ears even registered it. At the base of the hill, Fitz waved his arms back and forth like he was flagging down a 747. “Coco!”
A beleaguered smile managed to lift my cheeks. If I could make it to him, everything would be fine. One step in front of the other. I just had to—
A groaning rumble sounded again, and my heart dropped to my feet as the earth began to shake once more.
Fitz
Her eyes widened with utter terror. Her hand tightened on the girl in her arms. It was as if she knew before I did. Before the screams started and the sky opened up again. Michaela knew what was about to befall her even before I was able to register the earth's aftershock in my system.
“Run!” I screamed as I started up the hill toward them. I was entirely unsure of what had me afraid, only that I had to reach her. I had to keep her safe. She stumbled forward, child in her arms, tumbling more than running as the earth raged, makeshift crown barely perched on her head, falling from one foot to the next as gravity and inertia took hold.
Twenty feet. She only had to make it twenty feet.
Like the mouth of an ancient demon, the ground opened up in front of her. I screamed my warning, but the child obscured her vision and she saw the cavern a moment too late. Over the edge she tumbled, followed by rocks and dirt that collapsed inward. The old caves opened up to swallow them whole.
I sprinted the remaining distance and collapsed near the fresh dirt, staring at the sunken piece of earth, unwilling to believe it. My knees collided with the ground as air ceased to fill my lungs. Dirt burrowed under my fingernails as I clawed at the earth, frantic to free her from the cavern that had taken her captive. Clods of mud created piles on either side of me as I worked. But no matter how fast I dug, it was to no avail.
She was gone.
The woman I loved more than life itself had vanished.
I stared at the sinkhole, unwilling to concede. Raindrops pelted the mud, as if the sky itself offered to mourn my loss. Silver flashed in the dirt, a spec of beauty in the bitter ugliness of the moment. I grasped the wire and pulled it from the mud.
A simple tiara of wire. My mind brought up the horrible memory of her fall, tiara on her head, the child in her arms, and a scream that would haunt me until I died.
Anguish seized my chest as I fell forward into the disturbed earth, unwilling to be consoled in my grief, wire crown tight in my grip. My final call for her sounded like a battle cry over the fallen.
“Coco!”
But I heard no response.
I was left with nothing but the silence of her freshly dug grave.
Fitz
Two days. I couldn’t believe two days had passed.
I rubbed my shaky palm over my mouth as I stared at the saturated earth. It couldn’t be real. It had to be in a nightmare. Nothing could ever be this horrible.
Fourteen dead. Countless wounded. This was the start of my legacy? This was what would become of the Fitzborough line? My subconscious clawed at reality, trying to capture hold on reason, but in my desperation, it all became threads, impossible to control or grasp.
“Leonidas.” Mother’s sharp tone jarred me from my thoughts.
I sniffed and straightened. Years of training left me unable to be anything but regal at the sound of her voice calling me to attention. Even in the remnants of the suit I hadn’t changed in days, I assumed my best stance of power. But she wasn’t convinced.
“Your father’s health is deteriorating. You need to make your choice.” Her piercing eyes stared right through me as if I’d become a ghost. “We don’t have time for these games any longer. You must return to the palace at once.”
My hand dug into my pocket, searching for the silver wire tiara I’d pulled from the dirt. “No. I won’t leave yet. Rescue attempts are still underway. My people need me here.”
Her face tightened with anger. “We both know it’s not your people who keep you here, Son. What your people need is a king who—“
“I’m not leaving!” My outcry filled the emergency tent as if a bomb had exploded. I turned away from her but met the uncharacteristically stoic face of my cousin. For two days, he stayed at my side, executing my wishes, keeping vultures like my mother at a distance, but his eyes, once full of mischief, reflected ghosts and guilt as though he’d opened the sinkhole himself.
“Son,” her soft hand rested on my shoulder, “you’re risking your future by staying here.”
