A thunderous roar spilled from the ballroom as church bells chimed from a tower above. Daisy’s gaze shot toward the sky, but dark clouds made it impossible to see.
Persistent, heavy gongs rung, vibrating the air as tributes scattered. Someone bumped Daisy’s arm, knocking her back. Maggie’s hand slipped from hers. Then she was gone. So was Trisha—likely hiding in a tree somewhere like a praying mantis, prepared to rip the head off her first admirer.
Chaos exploded as tributes screamed and dispersed, shooting off the veranda into the shadows and mist.
Daisy froze. The incessant gonging of the pealing bells made it impossible to think.
Too afraid to blink, she touched her collarbone, but the locket wasn’t there. Her hand fluttered to her hair. Still there. Still safe. But she wasn’t.
Ten seconds.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
How much time did she have left? How long until?—
The world fell suddenly into silence.
Deep. Resonant. It echoed across the grounds like a death knell as the world stopped spinning and her heart stopped beating.
Then they charged?—
Chapter Fifteen
Run!
Like a mountain of ice cracking in half, the silence split with a creak, then an all-encompassing roar. A collective exhale, as if the ballroom itself had emptied its lungs.
Leather soles struck the stone in staggering percussion that rose to a roar as a herd of well-heeled animals flooded the veranda in an unstoppable stampede.
“Run!” someone screamed as chaos broke loose in an explosion of silk and pearls.
Daisy spun, bolted for the stairs. Her ankle twisted as the slick sole of her shoe slid over polished stone.
Men erupted from the ballroom in an endless, unholy thunder. Expelled from the earth like a geyser from hell.
Shoved and bumped, she instantly lost any sense of direction.
“Go!”
“Move!”
“Help—”
Wedging past bodies that bottlenecked the exit, Daisy jumped without thinking. Her heel struck the pebbled path, sinking and sliding, as her gown split with a brittle crack. Beads scattered like tiny glass teeth. Breadcrumbs for the wolves chasing them down.
Their deafening rolling roar clawed at her back. Daisy looked, eyes wide, heart pounding, and exploded into a run.
The screams melted into an ungodly stew of begging and battle cries.
She didn’t think. She ran. Hard and fast. Pumping her arms until her lungs burned.
