Concealment - Tiger's Eye Book 2

Chapter 11 - New World Bound

“We have to go,” Carter said. “Before people get out of work and school and see us.”

“He’s right,” I told Selita and Clementine. “I’ll talk to you in a few days.”

“Whatever. As long as you’re happy,” Selita said.

“Thank you!” I hugged her. “Bye!”

            Carter held onto my hand and we turned around to walk up the stairs to the balcony. I didn’t realize until now that going up there involved walking through part of the palace. I’ll finally know what it looks like after all this time of just staring at it.

“It’s incredible,” Carter whispered to me.

“I’m just nervous. It seems so ancient.”

“I know. It is 200 years old.”

I smiled, “That’s true.”

            We ran up the stairs and through the door to the balcony. What I thought was going through a wall or passing a boundary was really just a house. A really old, stone house. It was made of stone and gold. We went up a flight of stairs to another room. This new room was covered in old paintings. They were covering the walls telling some kind of story. Carter pulled me through a doorway but stopped us abruptly.

“I have to warn you,” he said.

I tilted my head, “About what?”

“It’s against the rules to be in here. At least it is in my world. We have to run and when I say run I mean run faster than you have ever ran before. Don’t look around just run. We need to get off the property fast.”

“Okay.”

            I saw him get in criminal mode when he opened the door. Not that I’ve ever known what that term meant before but he got lower to the ground and started creeping through a hallway. We went up a spiral staircase and took a run for it as soon as the stairs ended. My feet flew off the ground. I’ve never liked exercising before but I knew what Carter meant. I’ve never ran so fast but Carter was still faster. We were running so fast I couldn’t even see anything around us. Seconds later we stopped. Carter had to stand in front of me and I ran into him. He turned around and put his hands on my waist.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I tried to catch my breath as I said: “I think so. Where are we?”

“We’re in an alley,” he breathed.

“Carter, who do you have here?”

            We looked to our sides and a few guys stepped out of the shadows. These were his dangerous friends. They were dressed in all black and had designs painted all over their bodies. Carter stood in front of me to protect me and his friends got closer.

“Is this the girl you’ve been sneaking to?” one of them snickered.

“None of your business,” Carter said. “Don’t go near her.”

“You can’t ditch us.”

“I can do it if I want,” Carter replied. “I’m done with you.”

“You can’t be done with us.”

“I don’t want trouble,” Carter said. “I just want to go home.”

“We’re your friends. We should get to meet your girlfriend.”

Carter looked at me, “This is Lily. Lily these are my friends Garrett, Ryan, and Austin.”