Ashley wanted to, tried to laugh but she couldn’t. Jack was right, she was freaking out. She was pretty sure that she was having a mini-fucking-heart attack.
“Listen, none of this is going to impact you. We just need you to do us a favor and try to avoid some people the day of the Dragon Games,” Jack said, sounding very authoritative for a man who was supposed to be a servant and not a king anymore. Someone who was supposed to be under her brother’s thumb, not dictating orders to her. “We have reason to believe that one of the royal families will want to change your mating bondand take away the Diamond King’s bond to you to ensure they advance in the private circles. All we need you to do is just avoid them. Stay away from anyone you don’t know?—”
“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea, considering I don’t really know anyone. Including you three.” Ashley scoffed but then bit at her lip.
“There are better people for you to be mated to, people who would do better with the power that you can offer,” Jack said, acting like she somehow happened to be in possession of a magic, world-changing pussy—which she was pretty sure that she didn’t, because few men had ever bothered to show interest in her, and she wasn’t exactly a supermodel. She was pretty sure that, if she did have sex soon, there would be cobwebs and dust coming out of her lady parts. “There’s a prophecy. About you.”
“A prophecy? About me?” Ashley couldn’t exactly believe that. She wanted to snort but controlled the urge. “Sure, there’s a prophecy about me. A nobody from Tennessee. Right…”
“Oh, but there is…” Jack said, stepping a little closer.
Ashley did her best to back away from Jack, trying to maintain her sanity. She had to play this chill, had to let them think she was falling for all this, if only because she knew that the whole believing that there was a prophecy thing was probably the only thing keeping these people from fucking killing her. She was highly aware that she had made a few mistakes in her life. The fact that she had decided to go to the woods with them was the biggest mistake of them all.
Ashley looked from Jack to Elliot to Emma, sizing each of them up and trying to figure out if they were backstabbers or not. Not one of them moved a muscle, which suited Ashley just fine because she decided to do the one thing she was pretty sure she should do in that situation.
Which was to fucking haul ass.
“Ashley—” Jack’s voice came from behind her, but there was no way that he could stop her, not when she had taken off at full force through the woods, deciding that she was going the fuck home. Even if home was a rather unfamiliar castle.
Chapter
Eighteen
Ashley covered a lot of ground as she raced through the forest. She didn’t look back, too afraid she’d see one of them gaining on her. Or that she’d trip over something and faceplant, just like those ditzy characters in horror movies always did.
While Ashley was fond of Jack and the others, she couldn’t deny the fact that him being estranged from his own family was a little weird for her. Especially when family was so important to her. That’s why she’d tried so hard to take care of her father and still wanted to be close to him. Even if he wore a collar now and had some kind of magical loyalty to her brother. It wasn’t his fault, it was the collar, and the Night of the Howls, and her brother’s bullshit plans to rule the world that had changed her father’s loyalty. It wasn’t that he didn’t love her anymore, at all.
And those three back in the woods wanted to use her, she knew that now. Sure, she should have stuck around to find out what the prophecy was, but could she believe anything they said to her? It could all be more lies, more half-truths, and right now? She was done with all of it.
Okay, she knew she was going back and forth between wanting to trust her brother, and also about her mate, and yeah,about escape, but who could blame her? Life was really fucking complicated and it didn’t look like it was about to calm down any time soon.
No, it was clear to her that whatever the three were up to was most likely trouble. The best thing for her to do was to try to stay as far away from said trouble as possible, which meant running and running fast, hoping to God that they wouldn’t catch her.
Ashley held her breath as she ducked through the trees, even though it would be easier for her to take advantage of the situation and hide in one of the many nooks and crannies provided by the forest. The only problem with that was she seemed to have miscalculated where she had to run to. The forest was denser, and the vegetation grew more unfamiliar with every step she took. As if her day wasn’t bad enough, she had wandered off the path to the castle and had no idea where she was now. But she was far too prideful to stop now, and if she was being honest with herself, the consequences of stopping were far too risky. She had to keep going. She couldn’t look back.
Ashley gave an audible sigh of relief when she finally saw a clear path. She didn’t know if it was a path made by humans or animals, but it didn’t matter. It was a path and that was a good enough sign for her.
Ashley slowed down to a brisk walking pace as she made her way along the pathway, trying to calm her breath the whole way as she did so. Branches and brambles caught at her hair, but she pushed onward, even when the terrain turned more treacherous. The faint sound of someone calling her name almost made her stop, but she decided that she’d made it this far. The best option was to keep going. Whether she made it to the castle, or finally escaped it entirely, didn’t really matter. She just wanted to be free of everything.
The path twisted down a steep mountainside. Loose rocks and hidden roots made it slow going, but soon she heard voices and the sounds of other people nearby.
“The village,” Ashley said, delighted at the prospect of finally seeing the village. She’d heard other people talking about it, but nobody seemed eager to take her down to see it. Would she be able to convince any of them to hide her, maybe get her out of this crazy situation? Or would they know who she was and send her back to her brother?
Was it worth the risk? Looking back up the mountainside, seeing the darkness that hung over the top like a storm cloud, she decided that it was time to blow this popsicle stand. Ashley didn’t believe in miracles, but she hoped this might be her one miracle in life as she began to pick up the pace and charge down the rest of the mountain towards the village. She listened for movement behind her and expected someone to show up and rip her back to the castle at any moment. What she’d really love was to go back to Tennessee, where things made sense. Of course, according to everyone here, whatever had happened the night of that storm made that impossible. Tennessee not existing anymore didn’t make any sense to her, but what the fuck did she know?
“Maybe someone in the village can explain this in a way that makes sense,” Ashley said to herself, but she didn’t hold out much hope.
Ashley knew not to get her hopes up too high as she headed towards the sound of voices and village life. Who knew if she could trust anyone there? And there were so many dragon nobility going up to the castle, one of them might spot her and tell her brother where she was.
Still, Ashley got her hopes up as she finally approached the village. She saw a woman hanging washing on a line and decided to approach her first. The woman was round and sang softly toherself as she worked. When she glanced down at the basket filled with cloth, Ashley saw she had a kind, motherly face. Definitely the kind of person that might help her.
“Hi, um, could you help me by any chance?” Ashley said, and immediately felt bad as the woman jumped back, her hand to her heart when she saw Ashley.
And that’s when she remembered something Val had said. She was in Romania, not America. And this woman didn’t speak English.
Ashley found herself blinking at the woman, her mouth threatening to turn down in a pout as her eyes filled with tears. Of course, she didn’t speak English!
The woman put her hand on Ashley’s shoulder, speaking rapidly in a language that Ashley could not understand. Her brown eyes looked into Ashley’s blue, as if that would convey the message. “I’m so sorry, I don’t understand.”
