Daughters of the King |✓|

Chapter Three

I wasn't aware of waking up. I was only aware of suddenly being dragged across a field, a man grunting above me as he pulled my dead weight. My eyes cracked open to a clear, cloudless sky. The mist had cleared, which meant time must have passed. The hallucinations of Gunnar were gone, taking with them the comforts they had brought. All that remained was a searing pain that clouded my sight with black spots.

From the fuzzy remnants of my peripheral vision, I could just barely make out the jagged treeline of the forest, which meant we were getting close to the house.

My ribs ached from where my attacker's arm gripped me, so tightly it felt like my lungs were being crushed from the force. I had to fight to breathe, but only managed to wheeze, and moving was another problem. My legs felt numb, and no matter how hard I tried, my body wouldn't respond. I simply couldn't focus on anything but the pain. The whole right side of my body felt like it was on fire—like I was being incinerated from a place deep within.

I wasn't aware of time passing before my body hit a floor. The impact sent air rushing back into my lungs and I choked on it.

I discovered that I was lying on my side, the floorboards of the house beneath me. The front door had been left open and I could feel a breeze hitting my back, while big army boots thudded around me. He moved towards the den, and I caught a glimpse of his gun, which he held close to his side, at the ready. My attacker appeared to be checking the room, before he circled back towards me, which is when someone screamed from the top of the stairs.

I couldn't say who it was for sure, probably Narumi, but in a flash, I heard the gun go off again in quick succession. Bang, bang, bang. I heard the bullets slice through the air and hit the walls, the staircase, everything. Wood splintered upon impact. Walls shook.

I slammed my eyes shut and waited for it to be over. When he finally stopped, there was a long-suspended moment of complete silence.

That's when we heard my daughter burst into tears. Her cry shattered everything. She sounded close, like she was upstairs, just out of sight. I felt grateful that she hadn't seen me yet, lying by the door in a puddle of my own blood. I didn't want her to see me like this.

My assailant stopped dead in his tracks, his big boots coming to a halt just a few feet away from my head. It was the rarest sound of all in today's day and age: the sound of a baby crying. Upstairs, a pair of feet quickly padded down the hall, rushing to protect Ada. Whoever he'd been shooting at had, they were alive. They must have ducked out of the line of fire just in time.

Ada cried harder. She hated being held—hated being comforted. No doubt, she'd put up a fight. She always did, fierce thing that she was.

My assailant didn't dare move. I could almost hear the terror in their fast breathing; the realization of what they'd done.

"You shot her," came a voice from nearby, soft and gentle.

In my limited line of sight, I saw Jai emerge from the kitchen, moving forward fearlessly. Which confirmed that Narumi was the one upstairs with Ada. I felt a pang of relief at the sight of her.

"You've shot a Daughter of the King," Jai told the soldier, making sure he knew the full extent of what he'd done.

It's all it took to disarm him. He offered no response, and from what I could tell, he simply stood there, staring into the abysmal consequences of his own hideous actions. When he finally spoke, his voice was rough and broken. Like a man who's been defeated for a long time.

What he said was, "They told me she wasn't one. That's what they said, when they sent me."

At his words, my pulse spiked in alarm. I heard it thudding in my ears like a drum—like the sound of a hundred birds taking off into the air. I needed to know more, needed to know who had sent an assassin to kill me, but the black spots in my vision were growing larger and larger. Until they swallowed everything.