“We don’t have time,” the other replied angrily. “The diversion won’t last long. I knew this wouldn’t work on such late notice.”
“We’ll regroup and try again. If we kill the brat before he has a kid, the royal line ends.”
Violet had heard her father talk enough about the rebels to know their primary goal had always been to extinguish the royal bloodline and take over. They’d tried for generations but never succeeded. To hear them speak so callously about killing a teenager they’d never met sent sickening chills down Violet’s spine.
“We need to leave before they clear this floor,” the man across the room told the other.
“A ring,” the man on the bed said, sounding pleased. “We could sell it for a pretty price.” A small box clattered to the ground and a large, gold ring rolled under the bed toward Violet.
Dread unlike any other crashed through her, and she tried to curl herself into a tight ball at the head of the bed.
The man rose from the bed, grumbling, while the other urged him to leave the ring. “Leave it, Clay. We have to go,now.”
Please, leave, Violet silently begged.
“That ring could buy us a few new weapons,” Clay argued. He lowered to the ground beside the bed and lifted the bed skirt. His shaved head and cruel eyes peered under the bed in search of the ring, and when his gaze landed on Violet, his mouth spread into a malicious grin. “Well, well, well.”
She shook violently, her ears and head pounding as her limbs began to tingle. They were going to kill her. Or worse.
“There’s a girl, Abe,” Clay called over his shoulder.
Abe walked toward them and bent down to look at Violet. Where Clay’s eyes were bloodthirsty, Abe’s were calculating. He was a handsome man in his twenties with shoulder-length dark brown hair, light olive skin, and the palest grey eyes Violet had ever seen. For a moment, she thought he’d spare her.
That hope died a quick death when he said, “Seems the gods are on our side. That’s the prince’s mate, Vivian Maekin.”
How does he know about Viv?No one knew Vivian and Roman were mates outside of family and the council.No one.
Clay laughed, and the sound was the ugliest thing Violet had ever heard. Abe stood, and she heard metal slide against leather. “We need to kill her and leave before anyone finds us. Drag her out.”
Clay reached a meaty arm under the bed to make a grab for Violet’s arm. Screaming, she pushed herself against the wall. His attempts to reach her were futile, and Violet thanked the gods for Roman’s oversized bed.
“Come out, girl, and we’ll make it quick,” Clay sneered. He reached for her again, but his shoulders were too broad to fit under the frame. “I can’t reach her.”
Abe ripped up the bed skirt on the other side of the bed and jammed his arm under the frame. Abe was leaner than Clay with longer limbs, and his fingertips brushed against Violet’s skin.
She screamed again but had nowhere left to go. “I’m not Vivian,” she sobbed. “I swear.”
Shoving his shoulder completely under the frame, Abe reached for her again as she screamed and begged him to leave her alone, to not kill her, to let her go. He ignored her pleas, and with another grunt, he shoved his entire upper body under the bed. When they both realized he had her, her screams and sobs became pure terror.
A beastly roar thundered through the room just as Abe’s hand closed around Violet’s wrist. Clay yelled something, but Violet couldn’t make it out over her own screams.
Abe released her, eyes wide with fear, and tried to push himself under the bed, but somethingripped himback with blinding speed. The bed skirt fell, obscuring her vision, but screams and violence echoed through the air. Violet slapped her hands over her ears to muffle the horrifying sounds of death. Her body curled back into a ball, her muscles tightening to the point of pain, and breathing felt impossible.
She didn’t know how long the decimation lasted, but after a while, the room filled with an eerie silence. Soft thuds neared her and a bloodied white paw reached under the bed, followed by a few huffs and whines.
War.
Violet crawled toward the tigon and laid her quaking hand on his large paw. He tried to stick his head under the frame but couldn’t go any farther than his nose. “Is it safe?” she whimpered, hating how her voice broke.
War purred and his tongue darted out to lick her hand.
“I’m coming out,” she told the big cat, and he moved so she could inch her body out into the open.
A nightmare surrounded her, and she had to swallow another scream.
Violet slammed her eyes shut, not wanting any details of the bloody massacre to sear into her brain. She dropped to the floor beside War and blindly reached for him, needing something to anchor her. “You saved me.” Her body trembled harder as the adrenaline wore off, and she squeezed her arms around the beast’s neck as she cried.
* * *
