The hit men, who were very tall and overly broad stood to each side of me and held me in place while Emma leaned against my body and whispered in my ear, “Remember our first time on this bridge, my prince? Where I told you that I loved you? And you practically spat in my face? I felt it was only appropriate that this would be the last face you see before you meet your end. Your mother thought so too. She’s already arranging your funeral.” She grinned, wildly at that before continuing. “She even has plans to let me take over the King name as, after all, I am your wife.” She held up her ring finger and I saw some precious family heirloom resting upon it and snarled. She laughed and patted my cheek and stepped back. “Dear little Silas got swept up in the storm and didn’t make it. I’ll be sure to be such a doting little widow. Your darling mummy paid off some officiary and forged our marriage certificate. We should have left for our honeymoon yesterday, but with the storm we were going to have to delay it and then when we hadn’t heard from you we got oh so worried about you. I was distraught with grief that something happened to you. Your mother had her security team looking for you everywhere. No one could find you. No one will ever find you.” The look in her eyes was malicious and I knew what was coming next. “Your mother and I will take good care of this town in your name, dear Silas.” She snapped her fingers again and the men began to lift me, panic crept into my limbs.
She held up her hand and stepped closer to me, “Oh, before I forget, my prince, I will be so very sorry to hear when the last living Locke becomes overwhelmed with grief at losing her long childhood friend, tragically, that she takes her own life.” She winked at me and nodded to the men before I could even react. I felt them toss me backwards over the railing and the Crimson River met me with nothing but rage.
The river was treacherous after storms like last night. I hit the freezing water and wanted to scream at how cold it was. Once I broke the surface, I raised both of my still tied hands to my mouth and ripped off the duct tape and screamed for help. I was sucked back under the current and felt something smack into my left side, it knocked the breath out of me and I ended up swallowing a bunch of water. I reached the surface and coughed and sputtered before the current dragged me back under and threw me into the side of the riverbank.
My head was pounding and I was struggling to stay awake and alive. The water felt like a thousand needles stabbing into every inch of my skin and I was carried further towards the lake. I prayed that it hadn’t frozen over partially in the night. I felt the sharp crisp air and sucked in a deep breath of air. My lungs were burning and I finally felt my binding on my wrists come loose from the water. I tried to reach out for something to grab onto but with the dangerous current being as deadly as it was, it was proving to be impossible to get a grip on anything. I hissed in pain as a I felt my knuckles drag across some tree limb bark and split open.
I needed to make it out of this alive. They were threatening the love of my life and I swore I would do everything to protect her. No one was going to lay a hand on her, ever again. Exhaustion was trying to claim me but I wasn’t going out without a fight. The current was picking up speed as the river became narrower and I was slammed up against a large boulder embedded into the riverbank. I felt a sharp searing pain in my ribs on my right side and knew one of them was broken for sure. I screamed out for help again but knew no one would be able to hear me over the roar of the river.
It was getting harder to breathe and I needed to be able to get my feet untied if I was going to make it out of this. I pulled my feet up and tried to untie the crude rope and free myself when another piece of fallen tree debris pummeled into my back, knocking me forward and back under the water once again. I sprang back up as quickly as possible and mustered the strength I had left and pulled hard on the rope until I felt it pull free.
I saw a shallow area up ahead, where the river split off near Honey’s manor. I could get out there and hopefully crawl up to her property line and be found. I could do this. Determined to live, I began to swim in the frigid rapid water. Hope kept me warm, alive. Honey gave me the strength to fight, for her, I would fight until my last breath.
As I swam toward the split, I felt my foot get stuck on something and I couldn’t shake it loose. It felt like a thick root. Fuck, nature seriously hates me. I started to panic when I heard a loud noise. A huge surge of water was heading right towards me. I braced myself for the impact and took a deep breath. The wave hit me hard, as I expected it to and I was sent backwards and hit the bottom of the river and something heavy landed on top of me, briefly, knocking the air out of me and I felt something in my shoulder give and screamed in pain.
I moved upwards to get my head above water and see where I was, hoping I was still close to the split so I could make it. I looked around, tears filling my eyes, and realized I didn’t recognize any of this. Dread filled me. I missed the split and was going to be launched into the ice-cold lake. If the top of the lake was frozen, I wasn’t going to make it.
I watched as the sun started to rise and the current became stronger and I could feel it. I could feel I was about to empty out into the lake. I turned and looked forward and faced my biggest fear. I focused my attention on the lake, to see if there was any ice. My heart sank. It was almost completely iced over except for the area the river flowed into. I needed to come up with a plan and fast. I was frantically searching along the right side of the lake for any sort of break in the ice, my life depended on it at this point.
At the last possible second, I saw it, a brief opening in the ice where I could reach and pull myself up onto shore. I just had to get there first and with a probably dislocated shoulder, bruised ankle, and some broken ribs, this was going to be hard. I steeled myself and felt the subtle drop coming. I fell deep into the dark lake and gathered my bearings to look for that breach in the ice. I needed more light. It was too dark down here. I began to swim in the direction I thought it was. Finally, the sun broke through the woods and I saw it. I was a little off and started swimming as fast as I could for the opening. I had to make it.
I had to get to Honey. I had to make sure no one hurt her. I reached the opening and gasped loudly, lungs burning and exhaustion beginning to win this fight. I used my still fully functioning arm to help pull myself out of the lake and up onto the jagged shoreline. As I practically dragged myself out I felt something tear through my shirt and lower left side of my abdomen. I let out a low groan and kept trying to drag my way through the sand and to the trail. Everything felt foggy and heavy. Black spots began to fill my vision and I tried to fight them off. “Just.. Just a little.. Bit.. Farther..”
Everything faded to black.
To be continued…
Author’s Notes
A. Mae. Cooper
I am not good at heart felt speeches but I will give this my best shot. None of this would have been possible had it not been for my amazing PBB Sam, aka S.M. Miller. I almost gave up multiple times, always afraid that my work was never good enough. I had such an amazing and supportive group of people in my life at the very end of this and I cannot thank them enough.
I have loved books my entire life, having spent a majority of my childhood with my head in a book, how could I not? It has always been a lifelong dream of mine to put my thoughts and words onto paper to share with the world and I have nothing but unbridled joy in my heart that I am finally able to share what goes on in my brain with the rest of the world.
Shout out to my amazing husband, who has loved and supported me through this whole entire journey. He gave me the freedom to be who I wanted to be and without him, this book would not be possible.
I hope no one comes for me with that cliffhanger. It was Sam’s idea, I swear! However, should you not want to wait for the release of Knight & Queen, you can always follow me on all my social media platforms. I like to post teasers a lot!
Tiktok: @a.mae.cooper
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/800988394070567/
Instagram: @a.mae.cooper
S. M. Miller
I can still remember the night I reached out to Ashley to offer to read what she had written so far. She was only about nine chapters into Honey’s story and I was hooked. I had to know more.
We began writing together and mapping out the rest of her story. We met on Sunday and shifted into spastic children getting excited for birthday parties! It was an absolute honor to be able to write this with Ashley and see it come to life!
As for the cliffhanger, that was all me. You may expect to see more cliffhangers from me in the future as well!
On a more serious note.. none of this would have been possible without our partner’s support. To my wonderfully supportive love: Kyle, thank you for giving me the confidence in my words and the ability to see that they do help and can make a difference.
You can keep up with my personal work by following my Instagram: es.mai.miller
Whiskey & Honey: Crimes of Crimson Valley: Book One Page 32