When vengeance strikes in the form of a bullet out for the princess's blood, Princess Aleia VonAuclair must flee the heart of her country in order to protect the people she loves and take back the pieces of her soul she'd lost to the girl she once l...
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My knuckles rapped three times on Bryan's office door. I wrung my fists at the nerves prickling my skin.
At the gruff, Come in, I pushed down on the door handle and swung it open.
Bryan was sat behind his desk, in his leather office chair with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. His eyes rove over the brightly lit screen of his laptop a moment before they glanced up. When he noticed it was me, a single cut eyebrow inched up his forehead in question.
"I need to go to the store."
He frowned.
"It's almost-" His eyes fleetingly dropped to his laptop, then back to me. "- midnight, Aleia. Why don't you just get Greta to go for you in the morning?"
My heart stuttered an agonising rhythm beneath my ribcage, begging to be let out, to be released from the horrors of its cage. The letter that I'd found in my bag shook violently in the hand tucked behind my back.
"I need to go to the store, Bryan."
This time, at the desperation in my voice, the caramel hues of his eyes darkened into rims of black.
"Give me the letter."
I took a shaky step forward, the letter crumpling with the sheer force of my grip, before I passed him the paper from behind my back. Bryan pried my fist open, my knuckles a stark white against my olive skin in eve of the acute horror spilling through my veins.
Once he unfolded the paper, it was within the split second that his eyes scanned through the contents of the anonymous letter that the anger was palpable. It was in the clench of his jaw and the stiffness of his muscles. It was in the very air I breathed, and it was within that split second did I realise just how large the target on my back had grown.
His face, his eyes, his body - they went blank; blanketed by a carefully curated cloak.
Another coil of dread snaked through my blood and settled a leaden weight inside my chest.
"I need to give this to forensics, Aleia. I can't take you to the store. It's not safe- especially with this."
He waved the letter around in the air.
"Why even bother?" I said, frustrated. "The last two came up empty. What makes you think this one will be any different?"
He let out an aggravated grunt, the paper crumpling even further under the pressure of his hand.
"Because Aleia, no matter how smart or careful a person may be, they will slip up. The bastard is smart," he said with a bite to his tone. "But he will make a mistake. You need to be careful, so I can't let you go to the store."
I shook my head.
"I know I need to be careful- I am being careful, but right now, I need to- I need..." I groaned, running an anxious hand through my hair. "God, I don't know what I need. I just need to clear my head."
