by Mandy Rosko
Did he have it? Was he holding it? Was it even the skeleton key at all?
Amanda hoped it was. She needed to know if she was really trapped here or not.
But the look on Hargreave’s face when she said she wanted to leave…he’d looked crushed.
There had to be a way around this. There had to be something she could figure out so she could have both. Maybe she could go home and—
A hard grip in her hair yanked her back. Amanda released a sharp yelp before another hand cupped her mouth. “No words out of you, miss. Udolf wants to know what’s so special about you.”
What? Oh God, what the hell was going on? Did Udolf keep spies in Hargreave’s castle?
The man leaned over the side of the water and looked down. He shook his head. “Down there all along, was it? Not too far off. We can still pluck the gold out of there if we want, and you’re going to answer some questions.”
The man who held her, whoever he was, was big. He felt bigger than Hargreave, and maybe even bigger than Eldric, and the thought of being questioned by him, and whatever it meant that could possibly come with that, didn’t sound the least bit good, so she panicked even more than she already had been when he started backing up towards the doorway.
Amanda kicked and struggled, but it wasn’t until she got a lucky shot in at his balls that he doubled over, wheezing. Not about to question her good luck, Amanda bit his hand, forcing him to let her go. He did. Thank God, he let her go, but he quickly recovered, and his round, scarred face was bright red and angry.
If he caught her, he might not care about questioning her anymore.
“Come here!”
Amanda tried to duck around him, to get to the door, but she couldn’t do it. Her dress really was slowing her down, made for too much material for him to grab onto. She didn’t dare get near him. That left the water when he chased her. She jumped in. The problem was he did, too.
“Hargreave! Hargreave! Help!”
She flailed, kicking her legs and trying to win away, pushing herself along with her arms and hands, but she didn’t seem to get far. Her legs easily got tangled in her skirts, and the big man caught her, dunking her head before letting her come back up for air.
“No!”
“Shut up!”
She suddenly went back under, struggling as her attacker held tightly to her hair. She didn’t have the chance to take in a proper breath and some of it went down the wrong tube. She was choking! She was drowning!
Without warning, her attacker released her. Amanda tried kicking and pushing her way to the surface, but her skirts prevented that again. She couldn’t see. It was too dark and her lungs burned as panic stopped her from thinking about anything else but how painful it was to not be able to breathe, to open her mouth and suck back all the water in the throne room when her instinct was to cough out the water in her lungs already.
Something grabbed her around the waist. She grabbed it back as she burst through the water.
Only then did she cough and gag. Wind snapped and the feeling of falling was there as Hargreave landed with her on the balcony, putting her on her knees.
He slapped her on the back, forcing the water out of her lungs. “Gods, sweet, are you…did he…I’ll kill him again!”
Hargreave made as if to jump back into the water, but Amanda grabbed for his legs. “No.”
Hargreave didn’t move. Amanda shivered and sputtered for breath. Air never tasted cleaner, or better, now that she had it. She couldn’t have been in the water more than two minutes, but it had felt like an eternity.
“Stay here. Don’t go back in.”
Hargreave came down to his knees, putting his hands around her, holding her, warming her up. “I’m sorry. I did not know we were being followed.”
Amanda looked into the water. She saw the body floating in the blackness. The water around him looked especially black. It was probably blood, and Amanda had to look away from it when her stomach churned.
“I…I want to go home!”
Hargreave held her. If he said anything, she definitely didn’t hear it because the only noise Amanda was aware of was the sound of her own panicked breathing.
Amanda didn’t know there was another potential threat in the room with her until Hargreave stood up slowly. Amanda stared up at him, wondering why he was leaving, taking his comforting body heat with him, when she looked at the doorway and spotted another man. Another tall, broad dragon warrior blocking the exit.
Amanda shivered.
Romance novels weren’t fun when they were happening in real life. All the danger and excitement she’d written about suddenly didn’t seem to exciting or amazing.
If she ever got out of this, she was going to start writing contemporary billionaire romances. That seemed like a better world to get sucked into instead of one where everyone was constantly trying to kill everyone else.
“How many traitors are in my castle?”
The warrior pulled a hefty-looking blade from his hip. “Enough.”
Hargreave growled, a noise so low and threatening it was enough to make Amanda squeak as she clutched at his leg.
Brave heroine she most definitely was not.
Until Hargreave bent down and dropped something in front of her.
The skeleton key. Amanda stared at it, hardly able to believe it was finally in front of her.
The warrior chuckled. “Don’t think that one will be doing anything with a weapon.”
It wasn’t a weapon. It was her way out of here.
“You and I can try to kill each other, but if you have any honor, you will let the woman leave.”
“I have decent enough honor, but the woman will be staying. Udolf wants to know where she came from, and what she’s doing here.”
Hargreave growled again.
All Amanda could think of was how much she wanted to rip that old man’s head off.
Of course he would be the creepy voice behind all this. He was probably the one who had started this war between Hargreave’s and Eldric’s family. It’s how Amanda would have written it. The evil, aging advisor who was constantly whispering into the ears of higher men. That made sense.
Hargreave sighed, looked down at Amanda, something soft and aching in his expression, before he roared and charged at the man in front of him.
Amanda froze, watching as the two men crashed together. She hadn’t seen the attack coming, had thought there would be some more back and forth talking between them, but they just jumped into the fight.
Amanda was forced to act, to move and scramble out of the way when both men nearly fell onto her as they fought to kill each other.
The room was suddenly brighter as Hargreave’s eyes and mouth glowed with the fires that lived inside him. A long red line split down his face, starting at the left side of his forehead, and moving at an angle before finishing at his right cheek. Blood tricked from it. He’d been cut.
“Go!”
Hargreave didn’t take his eyes away from his opponent, and it took Amanda a half second to realize he was talking to her.
Heart pounding, Amanda did as she was told before that other man could realize what was happening. She spun around and flew through the doorway, turning her head just enough to see him reaching out for her before Hargreave grabbed him, black scales forming along his body, claws punching through where his fingernails should have been. He went for the warrior’s throat.
Amanda turned away before she could see the blood, but she heard the screams.
Don’t look back. Don’t look back. It wasn’t any of her business anymore. She just needed to find a door. Any door, and hope to God that it worked, that there wasn’t some special door she had to find on top of finding this stupid key.
She found a door, one not too far away. It looked old, the hinges rusted to a bright orange color, and the wood seemed decrepit and dead, like it was about to fall apart.
But the key fit into the lock, and it turned when she turned it. Amanda heard the s
ound of the locking mechanism giving, and immediately after that, something she definitely shouldn’t have heard all the way down here.
People. She heard people, and smelled the exhaust from cars.
Amanda sucked back a deep breath, putting her palm on the door, feeling heat there. Not the same kind of heat that flowed through the castle. This felt like heat from sunlight.
And home. That’s what it felt like. She was so close.
Amanda yanked her hand back, blinking out of the trance she’d fallen into, coming back to the dark and damp hallway when she realized one thing.
The sounds of fighting were over, but there were also more footsteps. People were coming. Their voices echoed in the distance.
They could be Hargreave’s men, or they could be more of those traitors he talked about. What if he was injured? She couldn’t leave him here. She couldn’t leave him.
“My lord?” a voice called.
Amanda made up her mind. She lifted her skirts, leaving the key behind in the lock, running the fifty feet back to the hole in the wall that led to the throne room.
Two bodies were splayed out on the floor.
Hargreave was face down.
Amanda’s heart squeezed as she all but flew down there, falling to her knees. “No, no, no. Hey, come on, you’re not dead. You’re all right.”
The echoing voices were closer.
Amanda turned Hargreave onto his back. He jerked and sucked back a sharp breath, face still bleeding as he coughed. He clutched at his stomach. His hand was bloody, so were his teeth when he smiled at her.
“You came back.”
“Oh God, you need a doctor.”
He shook his head, grunting. “I will heal. He will not.”
Hargreave pointed to the second dead traitor. Amanda didn’t want to risk that he was just faking it. She needed to get them out of here. She pulled Hargreave to his feet, ignoring the pained noises he made as she forced him up.
“Come on. We need to get out of here.”
“I am well.”
Amanda pulled him up the small stone steps and back into the hallway. “I’m not risking it. You’re coming home with me.”
“My lord!”
Amanda and Hargreave turned. Down at the very end of the hall were three more men, and Amanda didn’t know if they were the bad guys or not.
“Come on. We have to go.”
She rushed to the doorway she’d left the skeleton key in. Hargreave grunted but didn’t fight her. They hobbled along, and Amanda didn’t turn around this time. She couldn’t. It was bad enough she could hear the footsteps of those men getting closer as they ran to her and Hargreave. She didn’t want to see how close they were. She couldn’t.
“My lord! You’re injured!”
So close. So close. But she was close to the door. Then she was right there. The key hadn’t vanished either, thank God. She put Hargreave against the wall. He still clutched at his stomach, but held one hand out to his men. “Come no closer!”
They didn’t obey, and for a split second, it felt like the door was still locked. Amanda’s heart flew into her throat as she pushed against the door.
The wood was swollen. Of course it was. Why wouldn’t it be all the way down here? She slammed her shoulder into it twice, feeling the wood also give as it was so fragile. It slammed open.
Fresh air hit her face. Daylight. Carbon smells and so many other things she didn’t care to name just then as Amanda reached for Hargreave’s arm, grabbed it, and yanked him through the door just as his men made it to them.
“Stop!”
Amanda twisted the key out of its hole and slammed the door shut on the three warriors.
She stared at the door, heart pounding, out of breath and sweating, expecting it to open, for the warriors to drag her and Hargreave back inside, especially when it swung open.
No, not swinging open. Falling forward. Hargreave yanked her out of the way as the door fell off its hinges, landing with a hard slam on the concrete floor of the alley they’d found themselves in. Behind it, there was no opening, no portal leading into another world. Just dirty brick from the side of the building they’d walked out of.
Chapter 12
Down town Ottawa was busy. People were going to and from the Rideau shopping center and there were buses everywhere picking people up and dropping them off.
A few people looked sideways at her when Amanda hobbled down the street, holding Hargreave’s arm over her shoulder. She was dirty, he was clutching at his stomach and a little on the bloody side, but Amanda was fairly convinced no one saw the blood. With any luck, they all thought she was helping a drunk friend get home, or they were in costume for the Haunted Walk.
Not that she’d ever been. Amanda was probably the only person in Ottawa who had yet to go to the Haunted Walk, but considering how dead on her feet she felt, she figured she looked the part of a creepy employee, or someone who had come from a costume party.
Anything other than stepping through a magical door in the side of a tattoo parlor, only for that door to vanish into the brick work. A door that led to a world Amanda had thought she’d made up.
“Where are we going?” Hargreave’s teeth stayed clenched. He was awake and aware, however. That was better than what he should’ve been, considering the wound.
“Almost home. I’m taking you home.”
“Who are these people?”
“I don’t know. Here we are.”
For the first time, Amanda was thrilled that she’d jumped at the chance to live in one of the new condos that had been built. She didn’t care about the cost or anything. The problem was she didn’t have her key, any ID, nothing she could buzz herself in with.
She had to call one of her neighbors. Luckily, Amanda had gotten to know them quickly when she’d made the move.
“Okay, come on. I have a first aid kit. You sure you don’t want a doctor?”
“No healers,” Hargreave grunted.
Amanda couldn’t argue with him. Mainly because she had no idea how she was supposed to explain him. If Hargreave went into a modern hospital, there was no telling what would happen. He might freak out, turn into a dragon, and burn the place down in a panic when he saw all the people in white, as well as the nurses, the noises, the smells.
“If you don’t want to go, I won’t make you. At least until you pass out from blood loss or something.”
Hargreave chuckled when they made it to the elevator. “I’m already healing. I just need…to rest.”
The way his eyes got all droopy scared her. Amanda nudged him, forcing him to stay awake. “Hey, don’t you dare close your eyes on me yet.”
They stepped into the elevator. Hargreave looked around, a confused frown on his face when Amanda pressed the button for her floor.
“What is this?”
He stumbled a little when the elevator lifted. “It’s taking us to my floor. Don’t worry. I got you.”
Hargreave looked at her with wide, red eyes, as though he couldn’t believe she was offering to protect him.
The elevator stopped and opened once. An older couple halted suddenly at the sight of them. Not for the first time, Amanda could just imagine how bad they both looked.
“We’ll take the next one.”
Amanda clicked the button to make the doors close about ten times. “Thanks,” she said, relieved when they were back on their way.
There were no more stops after that. Thank God. The neighbor Amanda had called even called up the building’s super. He was efficient. Already waiting there, ready to let her in with some strange lock picking equipment. “Gonna cost you twenty for a new key,” he said, glancing at Hargreave before quickly looking away. “You both all right?”
“Fine, we’re fine. He’s just got a stomach ache, and I’ve got a key, it’s just inside.”
He lifted a brow at her, as though wondering how she could have locked herself out to begin with if her key was inside.
In the end, he dropped it,
and it turned out he wasn’t a great lock pick. He had to take the deadbolt right off the door to let her inside. It took him ten of the longest minutes of Amanda’s life. It also made her wonder about how sturdy and safe these doors really were if all anyone had to do was take the lock right out to open it, but she would think about that later.
It only took two minutes to put it back together again, giving Amanda and Hargreave the privacy they needed.
“Thanks so much for your help! Bye!” Amanda felt like a jerk, but she needed to get rid of him.
“Yeah, yeah. Just don’t lose your key again. Call down if you can’t find it.”
“I will, see you later!”
She closed the door in his face. Right, she felt bad, but she’d put some money in a Christmas card for him to make up for being a bitch. Right now she had to worry about Hargreave.
Hargreave didn’t seem overly concerned with his surroundings. He was busy easing himself down onto Amanda’s couch.
Amanda rushed to his side, suddenly afraid to touch him in case she made it all worse. “Oh God. Okay, first aid kit.”
“I am fine!”
Amanda ignored his call and ran into her bathroom. She briefly recognized how strange it was to be back, how everything looked and felt the same as she’d left it, but that thought was fleeting, and it didn’t stop her from ripping open the bottom cupboards in her bathroom and rummaging around until she found the first aid kit. She’d thrown it under the sink and it was beneath several boxes of feminine products and makeup remover.
She grabbed the bag, yanked the plastic wrapping off it, and ran back into her living room.
Hargreave was still there, but he looked much calmer, despite being bare-chested, probably cold, and with a bleeding gash down his face and in his stomach.
The fire in his hands was what really got Amanda’s attention.
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning it?”
The way Hargreave spoke through his teeth let Amanda know how painful that act was.
“Here, stop, let me try this.” She pulled out a bottle of peroxide and a clean rag before she decided to forgo the rag. Amanda leaned over Hargreave, aching for the wound that split apart his perfect skin, and gently poured some of the peroxide into the wound.