Stop being defeatist. You can do this!
Holding the rope, she hauled herself up for what felt like the ten-thousandth time. Widening her stance for purchase, she began the arduous climb again.
One step, two, three. Her shoulders strained, her biceps aching now from so many futile attempts. One foot slid sideways, but she tensed, her fingers cramping around the rope, and breathed through the spurt of panic. Then kept going.
Step four, step five…
She stopped to take a breather halfway up the wall. She was six feet off the ground, less than six to make the top. The hazy moonlight cast shadows in the treetops on the other side, the thick flakes of snow eerily silent. Her shoulders wept from the effort and sweat dripped from under her beanie, to freeze on her cheeks.
Just keep going. You’ve got this.
She froze, detecting the low hum of engine noise through the heartbeats throbbing in her eardrums. Her rasping breaths cut off.
A beam of yellow light appeared on the wall arcing towards her. A headlight?
She attempted to scramble upwards to avoid it and her feet slipped from under her. She struck the wall. Dangling from the rope, she bit her tongue to hold onto the curse, the panic so huge it was consuming her. The rumbling of the engine stilled. And the light beam caught her feet, then moved up her legs.
They’d found her, whoever they were.
She blinked back tears, peering over her shoulder. The headlamp light blinded her. She could make out the dark silhouette of a motorbike and the tall shape of the man riding it. Her panicked mind tried to conjure an explanation for why she might be dangling from the back wall. Perhaps she could say she had been outside working on her upper-body strength, in the middle of the night, in the snow, with the flu?
But then a gruff voice permeated her panic and shot her heartbeat straight into the red zone.
‘Going somewhere, Your Highness?’
She blinked. She knew that voice. That accent.
Theo Caras!
But what was her nemesis doing here, in the palace grounds, away from the party? Perhaps he was a figment of her anxiety?
But her panic dissolved into a wave of fury… And humiliation as the silhouette of the man detached itself from the bike, hooked a helmet on the handlebars, then strolled towards her, illuminated by the headlamp.
She pressed her forehead into the wall, still clinging to the rope, and cursed again as her nipples pebbled into hard peaks. What even was that? Stress arousal? Because she didn’t even like this man.
‘G-go away!’ she whispered through gritted teeth. ‘I’m busy…’
Caras let out a gruff chuckle that had her temper snapping. ‘Yeah, I can see that—busy doing what exactly?’
‘What does it look like, you moron? I’m trying to get over this wall, so I never have to see you again.’ It wasn’t entirely true, of course, as it wasn’t him she’d been trying to escape. Specifically. But it felt true in that moment, as all the reasons she had to hate him came flooding back to her.
She was stuck up a wall, freezing to death and he wasn’t helping. Just as he hadn’t helped her cause when he’d chosen to turn her into a molten mass of throbbing hormones then declared he would never marry her loud enough so her father could overhear him three months ago.
He tsked loudly, as if she were a naughty child who needed disciplining. ‘Now really, Your Highness, is that any way to address one of your guests?’
She ground her teeth together so hard it was a miracle she didn’t crack a tooth.
She actually wanted to murder him.
Ignore him and keep going.
She strained, managing to wedge her feet back on the wall. She did not have time to let him infuriate her. She had to get over this blasted wall.
‘Either rat on me or get lost,’ she snarled over her shoulder, staggering as she struggled to get enough purchase. But as shetook another step, she lost her footing again on the frozen surface. She smacked against the wall, knocking the air from her lungs.
‘Ouch!’ he murmured as she swore viciously.
She tried again, her eyes watering, her ribs hurting now, as well as her cheeks and her shoulders and her arms. And her pride.
