A Royal Ransom

XIII

I scrunched my brows, "Er...why don't we just wait till it stops like normal people?"

Ryder shook his head, grabbing my hand and pulling my lazy self up onto my feet. "They'll get here before we even try. We have to leave now."

"It's freaking moving at a million miles an hour!" I protested looking out the window. 

"More like a hundred, but that doesn't matter. We're dead if we stay here, so it's best we take a chance and hope we don't die jumping out."

I shook my head, "And how do you propose we leave? There's no exit in our train car, if we try using any other one we'll be got."

Ryder scoffed, "Oh how you underestimate me, Princess."

Without warning, Ryder stood up on the train seat and reached up towards the handle of the window, pushing it open. A gust of wind, cross that, a freaking tornado of wind entered the train car.

"You're actually insane."

"If we die, I swear I'm going to murder you." I threatened through gritted teeth.

"Remind me to explain to you afterwards, that you only live once, therefore you can't kill-"

I shoved him slightly, "Shut up, nerd."

He raised his hands in protest, "Geez, if I didn't know you better, I'd think you were trying to push me off and kill me right now."

"How'd you guess?" 

He sent me a smile, "Ready?"

I pursed my lips, trying not to wince as my hair smacked me in the face thank to the wind. "No, not particularly." 

"Perfect. In three we jump."

I nodded, "Okay."

"One!" 

"Two!"

"Wait!" I cut in. "On three, or after three?"

Ryder sent me a glare. "Does it freaking matter?"

"Uh, yeah!" I protested, "If you jump before me, I could get my head lodged between the window and suffocate to my death. Or worse--"

"--On three! On three."

I nodded, taking a deep breath as Ryder counted again.

And with that, the two of us leaped from the ledge of the window.

I kept my eyes closed, awaiting the impact. And boy did it come. 

"My clothes!" I whined, "They're ruined."

Ryder let out a laugh from beside me, "I think your clothes are pretty much the least of your concern right now. Look at your hair."

We'd landed right into a puddle of mud. Just our freaking luck. My hair was caked in mud along with pretty much everything. I felt the murky water soaking into my clothing, reaching places it really shouldn't have.

"Shut up peasant!" I snapped jokingly, "Look at yourself."

"Me? A peasant? Learn to respect those greater than you!" Ryder replied, wiping the mud off of his face.

We shared a moment of laughter. Never had I ever imagined I'd be on the side of a railroad, covered in mud, laughing with a wrongfully convicted heir to the throne.

"Do you think you'll be able to navigate us to your house from here?" I asked, spitting the mud out of my mouth and getting up onto my feet.

"I think so."