Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Forty-Seven

Amara

I snarled at Anthony; at the devious smirk he wore on his face. Before, I would've thought that the smirk made him look somehow more beautiful, but now, all I thought when I looked at him was how much I regretted loving him. His face held amusement in it as he studied me, heard my snarl, his grin only widened.

"So, I take it as a no?" he asked all of us, glancing away from me to gauge Natalie and Blake's faces. He lingered on Blake. "You betrayed me and left with a prisoner only to come back and not want to continue playing games, Blake? I thought I knew you better than that."

Blake huffed. "And I thought I knew you better as well. Guess we were both wrong."

"It would seem so."

Natalie was about to speak when Anthony hurled the dagger in his hands towards her. She froze in shock for only a second before leaping to the left, just out of reach of the dagger. She was still falling to the floor when I pounced.

Sword out, I ran for Anthony only to stumble back.

The room was shaking.

It took everything I had to keep the sword in my hands, to prevent it from getting close to Anthony's reach.

As the room shook, all of us, including Anthony, found a wall to balance against. Blake had knelt in front of Natalie in case Anthony decided to throw another dagger towards either of them. I kept my sword pressed tightly into my right palm, ready to strike once the shaking stopped.

But what was causing the shaking? We never got earthquakes here. And it didn't sound like something from the outside was causing this. It had to be something from the inside. Something of Anthony's doing to try and distract us from... where was Naomi?

Just as I thought of it, it seemed Natalie did too. And as the shaking finally ceased, she pushed Blake away so she could stare daggers into Anthony.

"Where is she? What did you do to her?"

Anthony stood firm once more. "What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, you piece of shit. Where's Naomi?"

"Ah," he said. "I thought you'd be asking about the shaking, but I can understand why Naomi would come up first."

"Answer me." The voice that came out of Natalie's chest was nothing but lethal. If he didn't answer her soon, she might just choke him from thoughts alone.

"If the Red Guard did as I instructed, they should have her in their clutches, and she will be returned to me soon."

"As you instructed?" I asked. "What the hell did you make them do?"

He eyed the dagger that was at Natalie's feet and deciding it was best to leave it and count it as a loss, he stepped back to sit on a stair. "Please sit, it's story time."

None of us sat.

Anthony sighed as he began. "Somehow, Naomi got away from me. I tried to get her, but my guards were unconscious, and she told me something that had me stunned. Something I didn't know anyone else knew, but I should have known better than to doubt Naomi, the little rebel has always been smarter than she let on. Anyway, she got away from me, so I enacted a Part B to my plan. I found the nurse that helped me deal with Brooklyn, well, as I figured she was betraying me. So, I used what she had used against us on her." He smiled grimly at the memory, "She told us where Brooklyn had taken Naomi. Said there was only one entrance, but I knew better than that, the King was a smart man, he'd never only have one entrance to something."