The Kingdom Thief

Chapter 5

I open my eyes as the wind pushes my hair back behind me and gape as the gardens of the palace move under my feet. I turn towards Mason to find him clenching his teeth with his eyes squeezed shut. I smile slightly at him. At that moment he looked like a little kid.

"Stick your feet out" I say to him. We are almost at the tree and I didn't feel like geting smashed into a pancake. He obeys and sticks his feet out. "On three grab onto a branch" I say as the tree comes even closer. "One..Two...Three!"

On three I let go of the hangar and cling onto a branch. I scramble my feet for a few seconds before I find a branch I can stand on. "Mason?" I ask, hopefully he caught onto a branch.

"Here" he mumbles. I climb up the tree a little to where the arrow Mason shot is lodged into the thick trunk. "We have to cut the rope so they can't follow us" I say and pull out the dagger I got from Mason's room before we left. With a simple chop the rope drops from the arrow and falls to the ground.

"Come on, we need to climb down" I say and hear an "okay" and some leaves ruffling below me. I follow and we slowly make our way down the tree. I get to the last branch when my foot gets stuck in between two branches and I start falling towards the ground.

Suddenly I feel 2 strong arms wrap around me to stop my falling. I look up and find myself in the arms of Mason.

"Thanks" I say in a whisper tone as he stares at me in his arms. "We should get going" he states and I nod, realizing he is right. He gently puts me down and we walk over to the road.

"We need to find somewhere to hide until those shooters are caught" Mason states. I suddenly remember the planning room. Something tells me Jack won't visit there until tomorrow and we would be long gone by then.

"This way" I say and start running in the shadows of the street, grabbing Mason's hand to lead him. At that moment I am incredibly thankful that I wore flats to the ball. We run fast into the night and soon we are only a few streets away.

"Slow down" I say as we both slow to a walk. I didn't want to just run us into someone and get caught, especially Jack. He would probably kill Mason on sight and call me a traitor. Anger rips through me as I remember how Jack lied to me. He brought this betrayal on himself.

We finally get to the street. "Almost there" I whisper to Mason as we are only a few stores away. All of the sudden I feel a hand cover my mouth and another wrap their arm around my waist.

I try a scream but it is muffled. I kick and struggle but whoever is holding me is strong. They lead me towards the whipping post. Once we are on it they forcefully push me to the ground. I am only able to stick my hands out before my body crashes to the floor.

I quickily stand up and blindly throw a kick in the unknown person's direction. "Ow! Chill Bridget" they exclaim. I pause, I know that voice. It's Milo.

I turn towards him and smack him in the chest "What the hell Milo!" I yell, angry at him. "Hey, calm down! We just had to get you away from princey boy. Good job leading him here by the way" he exclaims.

My breath hitches. "Where is he?" I ask, desperately searching the dark street with my eyes to find Mason. "Adam and Ryan brought him to the firepit" Milo answers.

The firepit. It was right at the edge of the woods. It was our little army's secret meeting place. We would go there in the summer for bonfires and the only way to get there is to climb over a specific alley wall. The woods are almost directly behind it.

I immediately take off running towards the alley, only a few stores down from the planning room. I scramble up the dumpster and onto the wall and gracefully drop down to the other side. I immediately see the fire already started.