Royal On The Run (unedited)

Chapter Seven

Sebastian

I saw the fire in Naomi's eyes. I'd only ever seen that look once before from her, it scared me then, it excited me now. Before it was because the King and Queen tried to set her up with the Prince of Canada to restore foreign relations. She'd gone on an absolute terror of a rampage, not showing up for public engagements, embarrassing her parents whenever out in public for non-public events, and somehow caging Deacon in a long abandoned prison cell in the dungeon. It took nearly a day for the guards to come together to free him.

It was safe to say that she had not been set up with anyone else since. The King and Queen managed to repair relations with Canada in other ways that didn't concern or involve Naomi. I'd had a good laugh about that one, it had been my idea to stash Deacon in the cell. Even Natalie had gone along with it, pretending to be on the search for the keys while they'd been stashed in her bra the entire time. Those had been reckless yet fun days. I wanted them back.

Naomi held my gaze for a long minute. "I want their head." She repeated. "They took my parents from me." The fire was still there but tears were beginning to reform. "I want them to pay for what they did. I want to watch as they burn."

She turned her gaze to her brother who shared a similar look. "We'll make sure of it."

I gave a confirming nod. "It'll happen, Nai, but first, we have to actually find a safe place for the two of you. Then we can form a plan. Safety first, planning death on enemies later, yeah?"

Naomi looked like she wanted to fight. Deacon put a hand on her shoulder and she relaxed. He said something into her ear and she gave a slow nod. "Yes." She whispered. Deacon patted her shoulder and walked to my side.

"Where are you taking us? A safe house? Is there even one near?"

"There's always one near, more than you realize, Deacon. But we have to find one that Curtis didn't know about. We still don't know who he teamed up with, we don't know what other secrets he told them. We have to find the one that only I was told about."

The siblings both cocked their heads at me. Confusion in their eyes. I sighed.

"Both Natalie and I were given a safe house location for each of you in case of extreme circumstances. With us being being assigned to you two, we were each told of one that the other guards were not. We were the only ones, I assure you. I know where Naomi's is and Natalie knows where Deacon's is."

"How do we know if Natalie didn't betray us also? Her and Curtis were something weren't they?"

"No." Naomi said with a slight curve to her lips, the barest hint of a smile. "He has eyes for one of the cooks, Stephanie. Him and Natalie were friends and he was trying to get noticed by her somehow so he asked Nat to help," she shrugged, "Nat agreed."

When that had been settled, I grabbed Naomi's hand and began walking again. Deacon trailed behind but kept a close distance.

Naomi's hand was shaking, from anger or sadness, I couldn't tell. It was most likely both. I used my thumb to stroke the top of her hand.

"What are you feeling?"

"I don't even know what I'm supposed to be feeling. I wish I knew what was going on inside my head."

Her grip on my hand told me she was feeling a circus of emotions, more than she'd know what to do with. Naomi wouldn't be able to feel a single one, they all coursed through her like a raging river, they fought for dominance, much like she fought against what was expected of her.

We had walked for a couple of hours when we came upon a large tree. After making sure we hadn't been followed, I conducted a search by going in circles, backtracking, taking wrong turns, we'd ended up here without being followed.