UNWANTED

CHAPTER 14 - P55.8 - LIZAVETA

After I pulled away, seeing his shocked face slowly turn into a smile, I realized what a great mistake I just made. My heart sank.

"Oi!" I heard someone say. "It's the empress!"

"Tino." I said, sliding the scarf down. No point in hiding now.

"Yes, love?" He smiled at me, oblivious.

I leaned in closer, as the shuffling of feet slowly come closer. "Run."

His hand in mine, I dashed. Beyond the lights, beyond the still pools of water, beyond the shocked gazes, we ran for the gates. The South Gardens were a little less crowded as it was a Tuesday night, but the people made up for it by running after us like a hoard of wildebeest. Their hot pursuit making a type of adrenaline I'd only felt in a war zone come back in full force.

This would surely be the news to break tonight. Who'd remember the gentle eastern prince if you got the uncontrollable empress running around with a different guy barely an hour later?

I reached for the earpiece. "Hey, a bit in trouble. I need extraction."

"I'm back in Nepal." Raza said, annoyed.

"I need a runner at the gates of the South Garden in fifty seconds. Make it happen, Raza."

We were almost there, but even from where I was, I saw there was no runner, and none would make it in time. We'd be stampeded. I cursed myself for not giving Tino a vest, or a full nano-suit. He was in danger, and it was because of me.

"Tino?" I asked, screeching to a halt at the gates, seeing the people walking around towards their homes or to dinner or to bars stop their monotone nightly routines to stare. This would be a first. Not once did my grandfather leave the house unaccompanied, not once was he seen in this state.

"Yes?"

"Choose. Get mobbed here but not get photos or maybe not get mobbed outside... but with photos?"

"Um." He turned back, some of the people still running towards us. Then he looked outside of the glass-like walls, seeing someone fly his drone above us to take pictures. Either way, we would get thrashed, but maybe if we ran faster... "I go where you go."

And so we moved through the gates. The flashes came, the drones multiplied and descended, the audio on them asking me "Have you broken up with Agent Malak?" or "Was Prince Akihito not good enough?" while there was one daring one who asked "Two boys in one night, your grace? Will there be an imperial harem?"

I got Tino's scarf and whipped that drone from the air.

"Liza, love... they're-"

A mass of people barreled onto us like a tsunami would a beach. Traffic slowed, people got out of their runners and cabs, and I readied myself for the second wave. The bursts were blinding, their handhelds were the only things I could see. I was in the middle of a supernova, the eruption of flashes imitating dying stars. I was on fire.

"LIZA LIZA LIZA!" That's all I heard, as they pushed and pulled, daring me to cut them.

"Who's blondie?!" A girl asked as she pulled me away from trying to cover Tino's face. He looked like he'd just swallowed a lemon, eyes squinting against the assault.

I felt hands all over my body, I felt Tino tense up, his right hand over his face, his left clutching mine. Both of us tried to walk in every direction, but the hands and elbows kept pushing us around.

"Guys!" I screamed. "Guys! Please!"

No one was listening. I was the empress, and they didn't listen.