Lucky and the Killer ✔

She was Too Late

Zee'd arrested Bella and Sarah, but Bella was great at breaking out of things. She broke out of the cell as easily as she'd broken out of every serious relationship she'd ever been in.

Bella's arms burned and blood seeped from her skin down to the fancy carpet as she walked without a sound. She knew which paths to take. She knew which places had friendly guards and which did not. She knew that they couldn't trace her birthmark without a current emperor, so she inched around the corners as fast as she could. What she was going to do when she got to the right spot, she didn't know—and she didn't care.

"Lucky...," Bella whispered as she walked, "please help."

She grabbed onto the wall with shaky, bloody hands. The guards stood, as they usually did, in the dim light on either side of her door. One of them might turn her in, but the other, she knew, would not.

It was all her fault. She'd messed up. Sarah heard too much, and they were going to kill her because of it. She should have never talked so loosely around her sister. She was just worried. Everyone was. With the former Emperor gone, the throne was empty.

"Damn...," she shook her head and steadied her hands. She was a guard member, after all. She'd gotten out just to find Lucky. She'd left Sarah, bloodied in the corner of a jail cell, for that moment. "Okay, steady."

Her trembling hands unbuttoned the blouse on her chest. She needed something that would catch the guard's attention, and she didn't have shoes, jewelry, or anything else but clothes. Felix wouldn't be a problem, but the other one might. She had to send them away. So, that's what she would throw. The sleeves slid over her cuts. She pressed her face into the wad of fabric and bit.

"God," she whispered, "be there for us, too."

She tossed the shirt as hard as she could down the opposite end of the hallway. The silent flag would be enough to catch any skilled guard's eye without making unnecessary sounds that would summon more. She knew how they thought, and it worked.

"Check the other end," Zachary called out to Felix. Felix nodded and the two men went to investigate. When they'd gotten far away enough from the doors that she could pull them open, she bolted.

Her feet padded painfully against the carpet. Wind rushed past her, and she slammed into the door. The handles slipped beneath her fingers, but she tugged away. It was enough to get her to the doors, but not enough to get her there unnoticed.

"Hey!" Zachary yelled out through the halls.

Bella slammed the door shut in their face and bolted it from the inside. She did it. She made it. She pressed a hand to her chest and tried to breathe.

"Never thought I'd show up to royal chambers in my underwear," she laughed to herself, but it was a broken, little laugh.

She opened the second set of doors and stepped into the dark room. There was a lump on the bed which she assumed to be the princess, but she didn't have time to be discreet. She snapped on the lights and ran over to the bed.

"Lucky!" she screamed. "Please, wake up!"

The light danced around in Lucky's vision, and it was clear someone was on her bed trying to wake her up.

"Anna?" she groaned.

"No, it's me," Bella pushed on her arm. "It's Bella. Wake up before they kill her!"

Lucky shot up in bed. She kicked her feet to back away from Bella until she was almost in the floor, and then she started to remember where she was—who she was—and who was already dead.

"No," she cried.

Bella threw a hand over her mouth. It took a minute for Lucky's eyes to go soft again. There were other guards on the way already for sure. They didn't have much time.