Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Natalie

It could've been hours or days that'd I'd been asleep. Either way didn't make a difference, the nightmare that plagued me to the point that time meant nothing. It was all a form of torture.

Amara's voice telling me to get into a cell, she'd thought of me as she arranged it. It was wrong, so sickly wrong. The way she'd looked at Anthony as Brooklyn and I had been dragged down the dungeon steps, was sickening. She'd looked at him with the same kind of longing she'd had when we were all in training. Sebastian had teased her endlessly for it.

Amara had betrayed me, betrayed Brooklyn, betrayed the country she'd sworn to protect. She'd been in league with Anthony the entire time and she'd hid it well to the point I thought I was trusting my friend.

Amara was no longer a friend to me. I had to call her what she was: a traitor. A filthy traitor like the man she loved. That was another thing in itself. I knew she'd had a crush on Anthony, most of the women and a few of the men had crushes on the man, he was gorgeous, there was no denying that. But the fact that Amara led Brooklyn on, telling her that they'd have a future at some point in their lives when Brooklyn was done with school. She'd led her on for nothing. Now Brooklyn was sure to have a broken heart and I knew nothing of how to help her repair it. I was too broken myself over other things to offer her any emotional support.

A hand on my shoulder shook me awake. I cracked my eyes open to see a pair of dark eyes rimmed with red staring back at me.

Brooklyn.

I sat up so fast I fell back down to the bed. That must've been some concussion I gave myself when Amara revealed her true colors. An ache at the front of my head was proof enough.

"You've got a bruise on your head." Brooklyn whispered.

And there was more proof.

Brooklyn helped me sit up slower this time and sat at my side, resting her head on my shoulder. I wanted to stiffen at her casualness about it, but something within me wouldn't allow that. I had to admit, I'd grown used to her company, I would now protect her just as well as I'd protect Naomi and Deacon. She was my adoptive charge now. We'd both been betrayed by Amara, we had something in common now.

"You've been taking care of me?" I asked. She nodded against my shoulder. I sighed. "How long have we been here?"

"Two days. They gave you something to keep you asleep, said it was better that way."

If they gave me something to keep me asleep, they had to have done the same to Brooklyn. Unless they wanted her for other purposes.

"What did they do to you?"

"Nothing." She was quick to answer. "That's the strange part. There's always been someone outside the cell door. Either right at it, or by the entrance to the dungeons." She was quiet before removing her head from my shoulder, I turned as she did. We locked eyes, that bond creating a question she'd answer without my having to say it out loud. "Amara hasn't come down since. Anthony has though." She shakes her head as she stands.

I follow her with my eyes as she makes way for the bars. She holds the bars as if they'll break at her touch, she doesn't look at them with anger, no, she looks at them with regret.