Page 101 of Ruling the Green

“And who the fuck are you, bitch?” he snarled, leaning down to close his hand around my throat.

Beneath me, Cora whimpered.

I tightened my grip on a rock.

“The Dark Princess,” I snapped, ramming the side of the rock into his face.

He fell back on his butt, staring up at me with wide eyes, his hand clutching his (hopefully broken) jaw.

The horrified realization on his face was almost as satisfying as his pain.

“I didn’t… I didn’t know…”

“You didn’t know that she was a child?” I snapped, waving back at the slumped figure of Cora.

“Bought her fair and square,” the man slurred as his face swelled up.

Bought her?

What the hell was going on under Cass’s reign?

No wonder Jet was working so hard to try to end it.

Though it looked like his ‘without complete chaos’ plan was quickly crumbling.

A body fell into the bastard with the broken jaw, sending both of them falling.

I wanted to swing again.

I wanted to hurt him more.

Make him suffer for everything he’d done to the girl. But there wasn’t time. Things were getting too wild.

I turned, grabbed Cora, dragged her to her feet, and started running again.

We stepped over moaning bodies, narrowly avoided knife and sword tips, then finally, there it was.

Looming large.

Surrounded by the king’s guard.

The palace.

“Let us in!” a familiar voice called.

I whipped around, finding Vishen standing near the blocked door. With a horrifyingly limp, bloodied Nira in his arms.

“No one gets in,” a guard barked back.

I rushed forward, pulling Cora with me.

“Move aside!”

The jig was up on my not being mute.

Besides, I got the feeling that everything had just changed.

“And who the hell are—”