Hunted

HuntedJosiah slammed her to the ground, and it was only then she registered she hurt. Her arm? Something."Let’s go!" Josiah said, but the words sounded muffled, far away. Lily let him and the others pull her up, away, eyes locked onto her father… her father’s body…This couldn’t…couldn’t be…"Lily!"She jerked, stared blindly at Penelope. Sucked in a sharp breath. "What’s happening?""Your father was assassinated. They nearly got you. We’re getting you to—"An explosion. Smoke. Fire."Run!" Josiah bellowed, and only then did Lily notice he was covered in blood, pouring down from what must be a cut on his head. Penelope and Clarissa looked little better.And Alice was nowhere to be seen.Swallowing, Lily drew herself up. Her father was dead. She was Queen. She needed to act like it. There would be time for grieving later. "The palace isn’t safe—we need to get out. Into the cellars, now!"Josiah led the way, flanked by two guards who looked as haggard as he did, fighting their way through…Through men dressed in black and sporting tunics bearing a snarling, three-headed wolf.In the cellar, Lily pulled up the ring of keys that hung from her chatelaine and unlocked a door hidden by enormous barrels of beer. Sounds of fighting, bellows of rage, came from behind them. Too close behind.Lily got the door unlocked and Josiah shoved it open, snapping orders to three of the guards that remained with them. They stayed behind, sharing grim looks, and closed the door as Lily and the others vanished through it.Two guards remained, with Josiah making three. Clarissa and Penelope. "Where’s Alice?" Leigh was still in bed; hopefully they wouldn’t hurt her."She was going for Ferdinand last I saw her," Clarissa said grimly. "Doubt she succeeded, but the threat to him slowed down their attempts to kill you, and that was all she really wanted."Lily’s heart hurt anew, but she ignored the pain. Grieve later. Alice had sworn to protect her at all costs, and that was what she’d done. Lily hated it, but what could she do right now?Live, so Alice’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain.Another explosion rocked through the basement, making Josiah swear and Penelope give an aborted scream. Pounding feet. Rough voices calling sharp orders. Metal clashing. The stench of smoke and blood.The cretin from that morning rounded the end of a rack of wine barrels, grinning like a rabid wolf as he saw her. "There you are, little princess.""Over my dead body!" Josiah roared."That can be arranged," the man replied with a slithering laugh that made Lily shudder. "Do you think I’m scared of the likes of you? I’ve dealt with worse than you, bloodsucker.""Bloodsucker?" Lily echoed. "What—""Get her out of here! Now!" Josiah snarled at the remaining guards. "Protect your queen with your lives. Go now!""No! Josiah, you can’t—" Lily screamed as the last two guards dragged her away, helpless to do anything but watch as Josiah and Clarissa stayed behind.She was sobbing as they left the palace, following a secret path hidden in the walls of the royal gardens and out into the woods that surrounded the palace grounds.Woods she’d been warned to never go into alone and to never enter at night. Woods filled with ghosts, old magic, and the sound of laughter, despite there being nobody around…If only she could hire some ghosts to exterminate the wolves that had overtaken her palace. Murdered her father. Her friends. Gods knew how many other people were dead or in danger of dying.Her people needed her, and she was running away into the woods.They stopped in a glade, sending birds and foxes fleeing from their water hole. Lily doubled over, gasping for breath, struggling not to cry as all the tumult hit her at once. Her father, dead. Josiah, dead. Alice, Clarissa, dead. Penelope and Leigh…Why? Why so much death? Because people had to pay more in taxes? Money they had so much of, they’d never have noticed if they gave a bit more to the crown? Her father had wanted it to help people, damn it. Why were they so angry about helping people? It was their job.Anger and grief wove through her like thorny vines tangling with choking ivy."We have to keep moving, Your Majesty," one of the guards said.Lily nodded, gathering up her skirts and knotting them so they’d be less of a hazard as they trekked through the woods. Hopefully they would reach safety soon. While the guards were well-armed, and their uniforms more practical than her gown, none of them was equipped to spend a night sleeping out in the open."Where are we going?" she asked, because she had to assume that if Ferdinand was behind this, then all the safety measures he’d helped put in place were compromised. The Black Wolves had known about the cellar escape, after all."Sergeant Josiah arranged a place," the guard in the lead said. "He said he didn’t—" She broke off at the sound of shouting. "Damn it, let’s move."They didn’t get far before wolves—actual, real wolves as black as night, broke through the scrub and came after them. "Run!" the guard in the lead said as she swung around to fight the wolves with her companion. "Your Majesty, you have to run. Find the ruins. Wait there. Run."So afraid it was hard to breathe, tired of running away while people died, Lily nevertheless obeyed, abandoning her heeled shoes once and for all, scooping up her skirts. propriety be damned, and running with everything she had.Until her feet burned. Until her lungs ached. Until she couldn’t see for the tears, until the only sound was her own desperate gasps for air. Until her legs finally gave out.She lay on the forest floor heaving for breath, tears streaming down her reddened face.Her loved ones dead. Her people afraid—or siding with Ferdinand and his Wolves. Now she was lost in the woods, woods that were said to be even more dangerous than woods normally were, with no idea what to do except ’find the ruins.’ What ruins? How was she supposed to find them?Lily had never wanted to let out so many unladylike expletives in her life. A queen did not sit around crying and cussing, however. A queen got up and got things done.First, though, she needed to do something about her poor feet.Following the faint sound of water, Lily limped her way to what proved to be a sad little trickle of a creek. Sitting down by it, she washed her feet of dirt and blood, then tore off strips of her gown and petticoat to improvise bandages and additional wraps to lend further protection. Hopefully.The work was… dubious at best, nothing at all how it would look if Josiah or Alice had done the work, but they weren’t here, were they? No, they were dead! All dead, because of her!Angrily wiping away tears, Lily stood and tested her work, made a few adjustments until she was fairly certain everything would stay in place, and then finally turned her attention to the remains of her gown. Making a few more tears, she tied everything up more securely, so they fell around her thighs. Not great for warmth, but the dress wouldn’t have been good for that anyway. At least this way she could walk freely.Her stomach growled for the late lunch she’d never gotten to eat, but for the present, she had bigger concerns than food. Shelter, that was the most important one. Well, not getting found and captured, but then shelter. After that… well, she didn’t know how to make a fire, she definitely didn’t know how to hunt, so she would have to focus on water and finding the ruins.In a giant forest that spanned the continent and held more secrets than a gossipy dowager duchess.Sighing, Lily started walking.She walked until her feet bled through her bandages and she was forced to stop. Thankfully, she found a little pond and was able to let her feet soak in the cool water while she tore off more of her petticoat for fresh bandages.There was no way she could go on this way, but what else could she do? Even if she knew where she was, she couldn’t go back to the palace, she couldn’t go to the city, and she didn’t know where else she could go.Ferdinand knew her father better than anyone, and had betrayed him without a second thought. He’d brought wolves into her home and let them devour where they pleased.She had to do something, but what?Pulling her feet out of the water, she wiped them dry with a dress scrap and got them bandaged again.Shelter, that’s what she had to focus on right now. Whatever she did about this problem, it wouldn’t happen tonight. She needed to find somewhere warm and dry to shelter for the night. Tomorrow, as her father would have said, would have to take care of itself.Sniffling, refusing to succumb to outright tears again, Lily resumed walking. Well, limping. If she managed to survive this, the first thing she was doing when she took back her palace was placing emergency kits with all the escape routes and right on top would be a sturdy pair of boots.Dark crept in, and with it cold, real fear that she wouldn’t survive the night settled into her bones.Eventually, as it grew too dark to see, she came to an enormous tree, nearly as wide across as her dressing room, with roots reached higher than her head, hollows beneath that would make the perfect…Was that howling?No, no, no. They couldn’t possibly still be following her trail. That wasn’t fair.Another howl came, and this time she could also just hear the voices of people carried on the wind. Not close, yet, she didn’t think, but that would change soon.Ignoring the pain in her feet, spiking up her legs with every step, Lily ran, wending and weaving through the dark, spurred by the encroaching howl of the wolves.She couldn’t run forever. Either she’d pass out or they’d catch up or—Something hit her. Or she hit something. Either way she couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Her chest felt like it was in pieces. There was blood in her mouth. Whimpering, Lily managed to turn over on her back, then realized she’d choke on her own blood if she stayed like that and forced herself onto her side.Was it better or worse it was the forest that got her, not the assassins?Voices. Soft. Urgent.Lily dragged her eyes open. How long had they been closed? Why was she so cold?Voices.Looking up, she stared at the two men crouched in front of her. They… seemed to… shimmer or glow or something. That couldn’t be right. Had she hit her head? "Who…""Shh," said the smaller of the two men, though it wasn’t by much. He was beautiful, with dark hair and vibrant blue eyes, the kind of mouth that probably coaxed men and woman into all sorts of delightful trouble.The other man was wild auburn tresses and eyes as green as the forest around them. Like a fox turned human, right down to the air of mischief that surrounded him. "What do you want to do?""Get the wolf," the dark-haired man said.Lily whimpered. "No wolf, no…""I’ll watch her while the others keep those mongrels confused. Go!"Standing, the foxy one said, "Back in a moment." Then he was gone, as though he’d never been there at all.Lily tried to speak, ask questions, but all she did was cough more blood before passing out again.