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.
I sprint down the hill to the fire pit. Jack is already there along with Melody, Teresa, Adam, Ryan and Mason whose hands are held behind his back by Adam and Ryan. They all have hoods on their faces to hide their faces from Mason but I could tell who they were by their ball dresses and suits they still had on.
"Let him go now!" I order, not daring to say their names around Mason. Jack's body turns towards me and can picture him with an evil smirk under his hood. "Come to see the show have you?" he asked, not speaking my name either.
"What is this going to accomplish?" I ask "You're just going to make them put tighter security on the castle to protect the king. It isn't worth it" I try to talk logically with them.
"Aww look at you, acting like the brave little hero" Jack cooes "I know better. This is nothing more than a little brave act and it's going to hurt you in the end".
I slowly make my way towards them and manage a glance at Mason. He is glaring murdurously at Jack while struggling against Adam and Ryan's hold. "Look" I start "just let me take him back to the palace. You will get to go freely. You know that if you kill him you are just going to have guards searching for you and trust me, they will find you" I say coldly.
Jack lets out a little chuckle. "Aww you hear that your majesty" Jack starts "you've got a little protector now huh?" he chuckles and turns towards me. "I know you know better than to fall for someone so out of your reach" he says venomously.
"Yeah I do" I bite back "I did before. Big mistake". Jack clenches his hands "Take out the knife" he orders and in a flash, Jack knocks Mason to his knees and Adams places the tip of a knife right at Mason's neck.
"Please" I beg, going to my last resort, and clinging my hands onto Jack's chest. He doesn't try to push me off so I continue. "Don't make me think of you as a monster. I don't want to think of you like that. I still love you" I exclaim and crash my lips onto his.
He responds by putting his hands on my waist. I smile into the kiss and feel Jack do the same. Suddenly, I bring my knee up to his groin hard. He lets out a groan as I push him hard into Adam, knocking them both down.
Mason responds quickly and grabs Adam's knife and stands up coming over to me. We stand back to back, him with his knife and me with my dagger as Teresa lunges for me and Ryan lunges for Mason.
I deflect Teresa's punch and kick her swiftly in the side and make her fall. I don't want to hurt her or any of them. I watch Ryan go flying to the ground too.
Jack and Adam are up now and Adam quickily goes for me. He delivers a strong punch to my side and I stagger a little. Before he can hit me again I punch him hard in the throat. He staggers and I take the oppurtunity to kick him in the stomach. He falls to the ground and sits up with his back to a tree.
I hold out my dagger right at his chest. "I don't want to but if you get up I will use this" I say angrily. Adam just stares at me, breathing hard from my punch, but he doesn't try to stand up. I take that as a sign to go so I turn around and run over to where Jack and Mason are fighting.
Jack has Mason in a headlock, cutting off air to his lungs. I run full force into Jack and take both of us down to the floor as Mason falls to the floor, struggling for air. Jack gets up and pulls me up. "Traitor" he spits and throws a punch to my face.
The force pushes me to the ground and I land next to Mason. I look over at Jack and watch him pick up Mason's dropped knife and walk over to us. My back hits a tree. We are trapped and I think Mason notices too.
He grabs me and pulls me into his chest, covering my head with his hand as Jack hovers above us. "How cute" Jack says bitterly. "I guess the little slut will watch as I kill the prince" he laughs. I pull myself closer to Mason and close my eyes.
Suddenly I hear a loud bang and a body fall. I look up to see Melody standing over Jack with a frying pan, her hood down so I can see her face. She looks over at Jack and simply says "He'll be alright".
Mason and I stand up and I grab Melody and pull her into a hug as she hugs me back. "Run" she whispers into my ear. I nod and grab Mason's hand. "Let's go" I say as we run off into the woods.
We run for a while, my lungs burning but I don't stop into we are at least 5 miles away from the fire pit. "Stop" Mason manages to say and I comply and drop to my knees. We sit a silence for a few minutes, trying to steady our breathing.
"Did you know them?" Mason finally asks I look up to see that he is now standing up and is a good distance away from me. I can see uncertainy in his eyes as he searches me hard, waiting to try to detect a lie.
"Yes" I say, deciding to be a little honest. "Not well but yes" I say lying a little bit. Mason lets out a little humorless laugh "yeah, that's why you told that guy you loved him and kissed him like that".
I look away "he's a different story" I simply state as Mason walks closer to me. "And that girl that hit him in the head to save us?" he ask. I sigh, knowing the truth will come out "okay fine, I knew them pretty well".
"And their trying to kill me and my dad" he puts together. Suddenly his face goes pale "there actually is a revolution forming then?" he asks. I slowly nod and he takes in a breath. "And you were part of it?". I slowly nod again.
He picks up my dagger and walks closer "you know I should kill you right?" he asks and I look up at him, staring as he comes closer and holds the dagger out towards me. I close my eyes and wait for pain but all I hear is a chunk as the dagger hits the floor and Mason helps me to my feet.
"But you did save me" he whispers, close to me. I shrug "Who knows? Maybe you'll be a good king" I respond and he stares intensely at me. "You really think so?" he asks. I nod, honesty covering my eyes.
He smiles at me "you really are something special" he says and I look down at the ground. "We should rest up" I say. Suddenly I feel his fingers push my head up towards him. "He hit you?" he asks looking at my eye.
I didn't notice until now but my right eye is throbbing in pain. I wave it off "I'm fine" I respond and sit down against a thick tree trunk. "Come on, you need rest" I say and pat the ground next to me. He complies and sits next to me.
I feel his arms wrap around me and pull me into his chest. I close my eyes and put my head on his chest. "Don't worry" he whispers "I'll make sure all of them are locked up". That promise doesn't comfort me like he thinks it does but I'm so tired I sink into a deep sleep anyway.
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"Prince Mason! Your majesty! We found him!" I wake up to a loud voice stating that and some shuffling boots. I lift my head from Mason's chest to see at least 10 guards forming a circle around us.
Mason and I stand up as a single guard walks towards us. He is our age and has cleanly groomed black hair and sparkling green eyes.
He is handsome but kind of threw that whole thing off for me by shooting me angry glares like him losing his prince was my fault. Well, I guess it kind of was.
"Miss you can go home now, we will take it from here" he states. I feel Mason grab my hand. "No" he states "she is coming with us to the castle. We will find something for her to do so she can live there" he demands.
I jerk my hand away from his. "No, I'm going to go to the castle to get cleaned up and to get out of this extremely uncomfortable dress and then I will decide what I want to do after that" I state boldly, not allowing Mason to order me around.
I walk away from Mason and over to the guard. "Lead the way" I say and he stares at me for a second before looking over at Mason. "She will definitely need better manners if she wants a job as a maid".
"And who said I want to be a maid" I snap at the guard sending him an icy glare. He simply shrugs and points to 2 of the guards. "Jerry! Matt! carry the girl. No doubt she is tired".
I scoff at him "I can walk myself thanks" I say and walk next to Mason as we follow the guards further into the woods and closer to safety.