Page 53 of A True King

“Hurry,” Mia says as she starts coughing. “The smoke.”

“Leave. I’ll find my way out,” I reply.

“No. It’s not safe. They are working to secure the palace. We have to be careful. I promised Jack I’d stay in the helicopter, he doesn’t know I’m here,” she explains.

I pause. “Jack? He’s here?”

“Yes! Don’t stop,” Mia urges.

I have so many questions, but I try to focus on the door panel. I finally manage to pry it off and I stick my hand inside, looking for a lever or latch of some kind. After a few seconds, I find it and I pull with all my might. A clicking sound alerts me that something has happened, but it’s Mia’s squeal of joy that tells me it worked.

“It’s moving!” she yells. If there was anyone down here, they most certainly have heard us by now is my next thought. Then all thought leaves me as Mia launches herself into my arms. I drop the screwdriver and wrap my arms tightly around her, kissing her head, her nose, her cheeks, her lips.

Her salty tears moisten my lips. “It’s alright. We’re alright,” I coo as I rock her back and forth.

“We have to go,” she whispers, “now!”

Nodding and kissing her once more, I take her hand in mine, grab the gun from the floor, and start to lead us down the narrow corridors. She pulls my hand, but I stop.

“Not that way. The fire. We have to go the other way.”

“Where exactly is the fire?” I ask.

“I…it was in the east wing. But now…I don’t know,” she says as she coughs again.

“Crouch down. You’ll get better air closer to the ground,” I say as I turn in the other direction and we start making our way through the maze of passages. The smoke starts to clear a bit the farther we get. I decide to take us to the door in the west wing that leads out to the rosebushes behind the garage.

As I push the door open to the outside, it’s eerily quiet. The voices we heard toward the fire are silenced by the droning of helicopters overhead. We look to the sky. At least two news helicopters and one military helicopter are flying in circles around the property.

“Stay close,” I command as I grip Mia’s hand tighter, and we walk along the back wall of the garage. As we approach the corner, a figure emerges from the nearby tree line. I raise my gun. It’s Vince. Can I trust him?

“Run!” he yells. He’s a good fifty yards away and I don’t understand what he means. “Pete…he’s trying to kill you…run!” He only makes it twenty yards before his body jerks, and he falls to the ground.

I press Mia behind me, tucking her between my body and the brick wall of the garage. Scanning the woods, I look for movement.

“We need to get to the front of the palace,” I say to her, not taking my eyes off the trees as I scour them for Pete. He’s not dead, which means we could be.

“How? If we go the way we came…the smoke is too much. And I don’t know who else is in the palace. The other side of the garage is exposed. We’ll be sitting ducks,” she says, her voice tight with worry.

“We have to try, Mia.” There’s only one way out and that means we move forward, along the far wall of the garage, directly opposite of the woods, the woods where Pete is hiding. I keep the gun up as we start moving, step by step, inch by inch. I freeze with every sound.

The wind changes direction and I can hear the yells of people. It’s the firefighters and the police. They’re so close, yet they might as well be miles away. The smoke blows around us, offering some cloak of protection from Pete’s view. My eyes stay fixed to each tree, each shrub, and each boulder.

I step forward, but then everything changes. It happens in the blink of an eye. The wind whips in another direction, a twig snaps in the forest. Before I know what’s happening, Mia’s in front of me, grabbing the gun, aiming it, and pressing the trigger. I hear not one but two gunshots. Confusion clouds me as I feel pain in my side. I see movement through the trees, just for the briefest of seconds. I clutch my side, and when I pull my hand away…Blood. Shit.

The gun falls to the ground and it’s then that I realize Mia’s body has gone limp in my arms. Together, we crumble to the ground as shock takes over and my knees give out.

Mia lies still next to me.

“Mia!” I scream as I shake her. My hands come away with so much blood. There’s so much blood everywhere.

Her eyelids flutter open. “Christian,” she whispers.

She opens her mouth to speak again, but suddenly we’re surrounded by people, so many people.

“Where have you been shot?” Jack’s voice penetrates through my fog. I look around, my eyes locking on his.

“What?”

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