ROYAL ROCK(70)

I couldn’t risk him moving Bryce. I had to strike now, even if it was a trap.

Truthfully, the rebels were getting more and more arrogant with every passing day. They thought they could defeat my men in the field, and so they took greater and greater risks in order to embarrass the crown.

But that stopped here. They weren’t winning another battle, and they definitely weren’t keeping my woman.

Those fucking bastards were going to pay with their lives.

Not long later, Al returned with the bio suit. It was essentially protective armor plus some strength-augmenting features. It made me fast, strong, and resistant to bullets. Best of all, it was lightweight and easy to wear and use.

Behind Al, though, was Maximillian. “Your Highness,” he said.

“Save it, Max,” I answered. “Corvin is a half hour away, hiding out right under our fucking noses. I’m going. We need every man we can get.”

He nodded and smiled. “Very good, Your Highness.”

“You’re not trying to talk me out of it?”

“Not at all,” he said. “I came to ask if I could join you.”

I laughed and gestured at Al. “Get him a suit. We’re going to go lay waste to these fucking bastards.”

Al nodded, and for the first time since Bryce had been taken, I felt good.

I was making a choice. I was risking my own life for her, and possibly my reputation as the king. But that didn’t matter to me.

Bryce’s safety was the most important thing to me, and I was going to act on that feeling.





35





BRYCE





More explosions rocked the building.

I was stuck on my side. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t get out of my restraints. I heard another explosion and then the sound of what I assumed were gunshots. There was indistinct yelling, more gunshots, and another explosion.

I tried to roll onto my other side to see if that would help, but I couldn’t even manage it. The floor was smooth and cool against my face as gunfire continued.

Hope flooded my body. Trip was coming for me. Nobody else would attack the rebels like this. Trip was making his move already.

Still, this attack was intense. It felt like the whole building was going to fall down around me in pieces. I was both terrified and elated that I wasn’t going to get shredded by Corvin’s daggers.

Though that hope slowly drained from me as the door flew open behind me.

“You fucking bitch.”

Corvin grabbed me and pulled me up. He was bleeding from a wound on his head and his eyes were wild.

“You fucking did this,” he said. “You led him here.”

“How?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he raged, out of his mind. “You fucking whore. You tricked me.”

“Trip is coming, Corvin. Give yourself up. Maybe he can be merciful.”

“Merciful?” His laugh ripped from his body like a bandage torn from a wound. “I’ve never known mercy from the lords and the ladies. Do you know what they do to us?” He pulled out his daggers. “They bleed us dry every day. They sit in their expensive houses with their money and their servants and they play their little political games while the rest of the country bleeds and toils for them.”

“That’s not true,” I said. “I’ve seen the good things the king does for you.”

“Lies,” he said. “All lies. We have no voice in this country, no say in what happens to us. We’re a pathetic, backward people, and your fucking king is holding us back.” He stepped toward me.

“You don’t have to do this,” I said, shaking. “You really don’t. I can make Trip show you mercy. I know I can.”

“There’s no mercy, not for me, not for you.” He moved his horrible blades toward me. “At least I can destroy something he loves before he kills me. This way he can feel what I’ve felt.”

“What happened to you?”

“My family worked the Corvin lands for generations and never went anywhere. We were practically fucking slaves, and I got sick of it.”

I had to keep him talking. The gunshots were getting louder, and the explosions had stopped. They were inside the building; I could just feel it. Trip was getting so close. I just needed this madman to keep ranting for a few minutes longer.

“That’s horrible,” I said. “What happened to your parents?”

“Cancer took them,” he said. “They couldn’t be saved, not after their bodies had been ravaged by working so hard their whole lives. Corvin bled them dry like the king bleeds everyone else.”

“My mother died of cancer,” I said.

“You can’t understand me,” he shrieked. “How could you, you foreign whore? You know absolutely nothing.”