Page 96 of Never Leave Me
She couldn’t make her feet move to follow. Instead, she stood in the darkness with the premonition of danger heavy upon her. “If anything happens to me, promise you’ll get my father out of the castle?”
“No, Ellen.” Her dad paused and attempted to peer over his shoulder at her, but Nicholas continued to urge him along. “I won’t leave this castle without you.”
“We shall all be caught erelong if you do not cease from speaking.” Nicholas moved with surprising speed despite his uneven gait as he passed through the arched door and stepped over one of the motionless guards.
“Perhaps I should take a quick look at your injury, Nicholas,” she whispered. “At the very least I can tie a temporary bandage to keep you from losing too much blood.”
“I have had worse injuries and am strong enough.” He pressed forward without a glance backward. “I beseech you to make haste.”
She’d never met men as strong and stubborn as Will and Nicholas. While their code of honor was impressive, she much preferred the subtle and yet powerful strength of Harrison’s character. He won her over not with a show of authority but with tenderness.
Was it too much to hope she could ever be with him? That she could make it out of Reider Castle with Dad and Nicholas and that perhaps if she returned to Chesterfield Park she could put holy water in the vault there and make it back to Harrison?
They were over halfway done with their rescue mission. She had to push forward with courage, couldn’t give up.
Her pulse pattering with renewed determination, she started forward, but at a strange beeping behind her, she paused and turned. She nearly buckled to her knees at the sight that met her—Dr. Lionel’s underground lab, the whitewashed brick walls, the sterile equipment, the bright computer monitor, and a digital clock on the wall that read 4:55 a.m.
The fluorescent lights overhead suddenly blinded her. She blinked, and as she opened her eyes, only darkness remained.
What had just happened? Had she stumbled upon a time overlap? Perhaps her quantum particles were experiencing the overlap in both eras now that her bodies were both physically in the same vicinity.
She blinked again, trying to bring the present back into focus.
“Lady Ellen.” Nicholas beckoned to her. “Come.”
She peered through the passageway toward him. Dad had already disappeared up the steps, and Nicholas waited on the bottom one, motioning toward her to hurry.
The ground beneath her feet began to tremble. Was she somehow crossing back over?
The sense of danger pressed on her again. Had it been a week since she’d been kidnapped? She’d lost track of time. But it was possible after a week that her comatose body was dying. She strained to see the lab, but only the iron gates and dungeons filled her line of vision.
The swaying beneath her feet set her off balance. Something was happening. But what?
She braced herself against the wall.
The cavern rumbled. A second later, dirt showered down on her.
Before she could analyze the situation further, several beams across the ceiling split. The ground shook again, this time harder, and she swayed like a bridge with the spring thaw swelling against it, ready to sweep it away and submerge it.
At another loud crack, an avalanche of dust and rock fell into the tunnel ahead of her. She glimpsed Nicholas waiting for her on the step. His eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to call out to her. But the snapping overhead echoed with a violence that ricocheted around her. The thunder was followed by the roar of falling debris. Before she could duck or dive out of the way, something slammed into her head and the world went dark.
Harrison perched on the back seat of the Bentley, his muscles stretched tight enough to snap. He stared at the deserted road leading to Reider Castle. Through the darkness of the early morning, moonlight revealed the tangle of spindly weeds growing alongside the driveway as well as poking through the cracks in the pavement.
The estate had fallen into disrepair since the previous owners had left. Now it was clear why that was so—to fool everyone into believing it was deserted.
“What time is it, Drake?” Harrison closed his eyes, still weak since awakening from his coma but unwilling to remain at Chesterfield Park while Sybil and a team of AFOs, authorised firearms officers, executed the rescue.
“Ten minutes past five, my lord.” Drake sat beside Bojing in the front seat. “Perhaps another paracetamol is in order?”
Harrison crossed his arms to keep them from trembling. “The only thing that will make me feel better is knowing we have Ellen.”
They’d parked slightly down the road from the castle but not close enough to see past the overgrown shrubbery to the river and beyond. Sybil hadn’t wanted him to come at all, had indicated she could very well have two missing persons to look for instead of one if he wasn’t careful.
But he was desperate to see Ellen. It felt like days, even weeks, had passed, although technically he’d spoken with her only hours ago when he’d returned from St. Sepulchre.
Harrison forced back the aches and tiredness that plagued him and checked his mobile again, hoping to see Sybil’s number brightening the screen. But it was still as dark as the castle. “Can you see any movement, any signs they’ve gone in?”
“None, my lord.”
