Chapter Sixteen

 

 

 

Shane

 

I’m going to die. Alicia and Taeler are nowhere in sight, and Laura now stands in front of me with a loaded gun. I can’t let her get herself into any more trouble for me, so I speak up. This needs to end. She needs to kill me.

“Laura, look, I know you’re trying to help…but maybe it’s best if you just killed me. Like you said, there are things worse than death, and honestly, it’s okay if you have to do this. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you on my account,” I begin, but Laura shakes her head. Tears are running down her face and her hands shake as she raises her gun.

“I’m not going to kill you, Shane,” she says, her voice barely a whisper, then turns the gun to her own head.

“No! What the hell do you think you’re doing, Laura?” I shout, lunging for her and the gun, but she jumps out of my way. Determination is in her eyes, and I can see that this has been her plan all along. To take her own life so that I can save mine. But I won’t let her go through with it.

“Saving your life!” she shouts. “You need to run while you have the chance!”

“Lower your weapon, Laura. Now!” Peter shouts, pulling a gun from a holster at his side and aiming it at me. I raise my hands in the air, backing away from him slowly.

“Peter, do not shoot Shane,” Ryan says, drawing his own gun and aiming it at the Emperor. Laura’s jaw drops, but blessedly, so does her weapon and I sigh with relief. I am not worth her life.

“I second that motion,” another voice says, coming from behind Ryan and the Emperor. Alicia emerges from nearby bushes, a gun aimed directly at Peter, whose golden eyes are wide with astonishment. Frankly, I’m pretty shocked too, and I don’t really have any idea what’s going on.

“Alicia, stop trying to sound clever and just help,” Ryan sighs as Alicia advances on the Emperor. She still looks horrible, and I’m pretty impressed that she’s actually able to move, let alone hold a gun and manage to threaten someone, after only two days of recovery. Then, there’s the question of why Ryan, the head of the Royal Guard, for crying out loud, is helping us in the first place.

“I don’t want to shoot you, Father, but if you don’t lower your weapon, I’ll have no choice,” Alicia commands.

“You lost the right to call me Father when you led the attack on our home!” Peter shouts, and there is pain in his eyes, something I’ve never seen before in the Emperor. He hates his daughter for destroying his family, and maybe that’s what has made him cold, wanting nothing but vengeance on his elder daughter. That’s what this is all about for both of them. Revenge. And one of them is going to get it.

Honestly, I don’t care either way. I just want to live.

“You should have listened to me! You should have stopped planning to advance on Malibah. All another war will do is kill innocent people!” Alicia shouts, moving closer to Peter. Laura walks over to where I stand and steps in front of me, protecting me, watching this scene unfold before her with wide, terrified eyes.

“I’m doing it for our family!” Peter yells. Even though Laura is now between his gun and me, he still has it aimed in our direction. His attention is so focused on Alicia, I don’t even think he saw Laura move.

“No, you did it for yourself. For power,” Alicia says, her gun aimed at Peter, ready to fire. “Now drop the weapon. You have it pointed at Laura. You know…the daughter you actually care about.”

It’s as if Peter doesn’t hear her. His gun remains pointed at Laura, finger on the trigger. Before he has the chance to shoot, I tackle Laura to the ground, wincing as a loud gunshot echoes through the palace grounds.

“Dad!” Laura shouts, and I tear my eyes from the ground to look at the Emperor, who clutches onto his bleeding arm, weapon abandoned in the grass. Before Peter has the chance to respond, Alicia smacks him in the head with her gun, and he falls to the ground, unconscious.

“Shane, Laura, get up. We have to go now!” Alicia shouts, pulling me to my feet. Quickly and quietly, I help Laura up, unable to pry my eyes from the wounded Emperor. Since Peter is now helpless, I quickly grab his gun and stuff it into my pocket. If he wakes up and decides to chase us, I want to be wielding a weapon in the next showdown.

“I can’t go. I have to help Dad!” she cries, running for him, but Ryan grabs her arms and drags her toward the forest with him. She kicks and screams, desperate to get away, but even her strength is no match for Ryan’s.

“I’m sorry, Laura, but you need to come with us. It isn’t safe for you here. Not now,” Ryan says softly. Tears are flowing down her soft cheeks as she continues to fight him, but it won’t do her any good. He’s stronger, and he’s right. If she returns home, she will be blamed for this mess, and there’s no telling what fate will befall her.

“Please let me help Dad!” she cries, still reaching for her father. Ryan does not relinquish his hold on her as the distance between the four of us and the palace grows.

“No, Ryan, no! Let me help him! Let me go!” Laura shouts, but Ryan clamps a hand over her mouth before any nearby guards can hear her continued screams. We pick up the pace, diverting from the trail and into the shelter of the trees.

“He’s going to be okay, Laura,” Alicia says softly. “I only shot him in the arm to get him to drop his weapon. He was going to kill you.”

“No he wasn’t. He wasn’t,” Laura cries, still in disbelief. Now, she has given up her fight, resigned herself to this fate. Ryan releases his grip on her, and I run to her side, catching her in my arms as she sinks to the ground.

“I’m sorry, Laura, but we have to keep going,” I say, pulling her back to a standing position.

A sob escapes her throat as she nods in agreement. Through the tears, I see realization in her eyes. She knows there is no future for her at the palace now—no matter how much she wants to deny it.

“I have to leave him. I have to go with you,” she says, her words unsteady as she begins to calm down.

I touch her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. Let’s just get to safety.”

She nods, wiping her eyes and pushing her hair out of her face.

“Taeler is waiting in a Jeep outside the forest, not far past the palace. We should be there soon,” Alicia says, taking the lead.

“Awesome,” I say. “I don’t know how long I can walk after the beatings I’ve received the past few days.”

Alicia only responds by glaring at me, letting me know that her torture was worse. I roll my eyes, and, despite the fact that she just saved my life, I still find myself resenting her. Old habits die hard.

“I betrayed him too,” Laura says, completely oblivious to the small feud that Alicia and I are having.

“What? What do you mean?” I say, turning my attention to my traumatized friend. Silently, I wonder if she knows that what I said while we were attempting to stall Peter was true, albeit greatly dramatized. I didn’t fall for Laura in a single moment, but in all of the moments that led up to her forgiveness. I haven’t known her for long, but I’ve grown to love her in the past few days. My tendency to fall too fast has always been my greatest flaw.

“I betrayed Father, just like Alicia did,” Laura says, her eyes wide with disbelief. “I worked so hard all of my life not to disappoint him, but I failed him.”

I don’t know what to say. It’s my fault that she had to choose, my fault that she left her father behind, unconscious, on the palace ground.

“Father doesn’t deserve your loyalty,” Alicia begins, but I shoot her a piercing glare. Now is not the time for one of her lectures on the evils that Emperor Peter has caused.

“Yes he does. He was a good dad to me for most of my life, even if he was a little cruel there toward the end.”

“He’s not dead, Laura. You can always go back—” Alicia begins, rolling her eyes.

“But I’m dead to him. He’ll never forgive me for this, Alicia, just like he’s never forgiven you,” Laura says, tears welling in her eyes again.

I put a protective arm around her, and thankfully, Alicia shuts up. The last thing Laura needs is any more of her ‘help’.

“It’s gonna be okay, Laura. Just ignore Alicia, and let yourself hurt,” I say.

“Shane’s right,” Ryan agrees. “It’s okay to feel sorrow for your loss. You sacrificed a great deal for the people that you love today, and you are allowed to mourn that. Your sister is just being insensitive.”

Laura nods, leaning into me as we walk, shedding silent tears in memory of the family that she’s left behind.

 

* * * *

 

After we walk for nearly an hour in silence, we finally arrive at the Jeep, which is parked under the shadow of the trees by a small, rarely used dirt road. Taeler is sitting in the driver’s seat, feet propped on the dash, reading a magazine when we arrive.

“Taeler, get up. I’ll drive,” Ryan says, opening the door.

Ryan knows Taeler? Can things get any weirder?

“Okay, Dad. I call shotgun,” Taeler says, wrapping her arms around Ryan’s waist in a quick hug. Yes, apparently they can.

“Wait, what?” Laura shouts, looking at me in confusion. I shrug, as clueless as she is.

“Laura, you know my daughter, Taeler. You met her a few nights ago,” Ryan says casually, climbing into the driver’s seat of the Jeep and buckling himself in.

Taeler crawls over into the passenger’s seat and resumes her previous position, flipping a magazine page nonchalantly as she yawns. She’s lucky that her job is so easy and she didn’t spend half of her morning staring death in the face then trekking for miles through the forest immediately afterwards.

“Yeah, I know her, I just didn’t know that she was your daughter,” Laura says, eyebrows raised as she climbs into the back of the Jeep, shaking her head in disbelief. I follow along behind her, and Alicia climbs in after me, shutting the door behind her. Before we can waste any more time, Ryan starts the Jeep’s engine and hurries onto the road.

“Yeah, there’s a lot of things you don’t know,” he says, calm, despite the confusion that now clouds the car. “We’ll talk more after everyone has had a few minutes to rest and catch their breath.”

Laura looks out of the window, her body still trembling from all the crying she did earlier.

This car will take her away from everything she’s ever known and into the snares of a new prison. There’s no question about our destination. In less than an hour, we’ll be at the rebel base.

Laura is stuck with us now, and her life at the palace is nothing more than a quickly fading memory.