Royal Blood

Chapter Thirty

The rebel looks at me in surprise, moving his eyes across my face multiple times before even reacting. Two other rebels with guns make their way through the crowd in an uncertain fashion towards me and stand either side of me.

"Watch her while I call Crow." It appears to be that they were not expecting this outcome. Even the rest of people in the room seem stunned by this. I guess I would be if I were just spectating like them.

"Crow, the Willow has landed if you get what I'm saying." The rebel speaks into something that resembles an old style walkie talkie. It takes an awful lot of strength not to laugh at his code sentence, obviously not a lot of thought went into it.

He walks away, back towards the ladder which leads to the trap door. I have the two other rebels holding onto my arms with a very heavy grip. There is definitely no way out of here for me to escape.

People are risking their lives by looking over at me. I see a few fleeting glances in my direction but as soon as I make eye contact, they look away. No one says anything, the bunker is too quiet. I do not think that silence is down to fright, but instead confusion. I do not think that people were expecting me to actually be here. We always think it will happen to someone else, never ourselves.

"MOVE NOW IF YOU ARE NEAR THE LADDER. HURRY UP AND MOVE!" The rebel who I exposed myself to shouts to the crowd. Shuffling away in fright, people move away from ladder while the rebel points his gun at them. It does not take long for there to be plenty of space around the ladder.

All at once, the trap door open and figure begins to crawl down. To begin with, all I can make out is the basic shape of the person but as they crawl further down the ladder, I can soon see what they are wearing and the colour of their hair.

The light blonde hair is the first thing I recognise about this person, shorty followed by the clothes. It was not that long ago since I saw this exact same outfit, the same black trousers followed by the grey tee shirt he wore in front of the whole camp. He certainly got here fast enough anyway.

"Where is she?" Crow snaps the rebel before he has even put his foot on the floor. "Never mind, I see her." He turns around and gazes my way.

Automatically the crowd splits into two, making a clear pathway for Crow to get to me. Instead of walking towards me though, he stays exactly where he is. For what feel like an eternity, Crow just stands there and watches me, cocking his head from side to side, a grin forming on his face. I have nothing to do but watch him in return. His cold eyes look to be calculating something.

"Hmm I honestly can't believe that you're here, your highness." He spits in my direction and mockingly bows, never breaking the eye contact between the two of us.

"My mother was beginning to suffocate me. Besides, every teenager goes through a rebellious stage, do they not? Surely you know a lot about being rebellious, Crow?" I mock back at him.

I watch as Crows lips curl into a grin even more. "Oh I certainly do princess." He sends a shiver down my spine when he calls me 'princess'. I have become so used to Jasper and Max calling me that, that I have begun to like it as a nickname. Crow is using something that is personal to me.

"Now why did it take you so long to show yourself? I made it very clear what the deal was in my little speech back there, you come forward and the attacks stop. As simple as that. By the way, the next hour is almost up and as I haven't actually got the princess where I want her, shoot who you want."

"NO!" I yell at him, struggling against the two rebels who have a tight hold on me.

"I've not finished talking to you yet princess. We are staying right here, you should have come forward earlier if you didn't want to see a bullet go through someone else's head.