He Strikes at the Hotel

Chapter Forty Seven

Zachery was silent as he weighed up our options on how to get past the two maniacs who were in the room near us. He never finished his earlier sentence, however I could tell he had worked out for himself who was behind this from their voices alone. I had wanted to break it to him gently before it came to this, but I didn't get the chance. Now I could see the cogs whirring around in his brain, emotions flashing across his face for a split second, then disappearing before my eyes. I couldn't even begin to imagine how he must be feeling, knowing his brother and one of his royal guards were behind this, when they were two of the closest people to him. The betrayal must be overwhelming. He was hiding it well, as he always did.

After a few seconds of his deep thought and my heavy heartbeat, he looked at me and gave me nod, indicating he was ready.

"So what's the plan, my knight in shining armour?" I asked, quickly realising the inaccuracies in the common phrase.

Zachery's smile returned. "You mean 'your Duke in a dashing suit', right?" His eyes flashing with his bad boy charm yet again. In normal circumstances I would roll my eyes at his arrogant witticisms, but this time it was just a relief that the normal Zachery was still in tact; which is more than I can say for my hand right now. It was beginning to throb. The cloth Jeremy chucked at me was still tightly wrapped around the incision, but I had lost a lot of blood, and it was far from clean.

"That is exactly what I meant." I reassured his fragile ego.

"Aha! I knew it!" He said back in a loud whisper, with an exaggerated yet silent click of his fingers, like he had just cracked an unfathomable code.

Before we lost ourselves in this moment between ourselves, I turned back to look at the hall ahead of us, and where we need to pass without being seen, focussing my mind on the goal. Zachery noticed my shifting attention and took a breath.

"You know, there isn't an easy way to get past them without them noticing us. It is more based on luck as to where they are both facing." Zachery's words seemed lost of hope, but his voice was hinting at something else. "We can take our chances with lady luck, or we can create our own luck. What do you say?" His eyebrows lifted in question, tilting his head and looking at me with his big blue eyes burning a whole in me. He was like a puppy you couldn't refuse anything to. Dammit. What am I getting myself in to now.

"I think after this, we best rely on ourselves to make our own fate. It's probably safer." I remarked, bitterness in my voice over how this has panned out.

"Let's hope so." Zachery whispered to himself. I don't know whether he was trying to reassure me or himself, which made me feel uneasy. "Follow me, and don't look back." He said authoritatively, to which I nodded in understanding.

He held my hand in his as he approached the corner of the hallway, peeking round to see Jared and Jeremy talking inside the clinical room, and they appeared to be setting up the room for something. Holding up surgical tools which glistened in the bright light of the room and examining them before placing them systematically on the metal tray next to the stretcher. This must have been what my next surprise was going to be. My stomach turned at the thought.

Zachery squeezed my hand softly, before he began to pull us both at full speed ahead towards the doorway, where the unknowing men were still lost in their own cruel creations. We got within a couple feet of the entrance, when Jared and Jeremy turned towards round to us abruptly, noticeably shocked.

"Ah... Brother..." I heard Jeremy say, but we didn't stop to listen to him. Zachery kept a hold of my hand and continued on, but not before throwing the lantern he held into the room with all of his might.

The lantern shattered, the oil and flames both spreading around the floor, following the shards of glass which were floating around aimlessly. This was the distraction Zachery had envisioned. Flames grew in between them and us, giving us time to get away without them being able to follow. It was a bold move, but in hindsight, I don't think anything else would have given us this much of a chance.

I heard Jeremy and Jared both shouting and swearing, but I agreed to not look back. I continued to focus on Zachery ahead of me, still pulling me along the dark hallway, which was now beginning to flicker with light forming behind us.

"Zachery the fire is spreading!" I screamed as we continued to run as fast as we could manage.

"I know, but we have to keep moving, we have to get out of here then we can fix this!" He shouted back, trying to counteract the roaring mayhem coming from behind us. For a second, I was concerned over Jeremy and Jared. I hated them, they had hurt so many people... But I didn't want them to die.

I could still hear them shouting at each other, cursing, clattering thing about... So I knew they were still alive. But I didn't know for how long. That was until the shouting stopped, and was replaced with running footsteps, which were catching up with us fast.