by Peak, Renna
“If you’d like, you’re welcome to dance with Caspar again.” Though I don’t want to admit it, part of me is grateful that she has another dancing partner this evening. I wouldn’t want to deny her the experience, and I’m already feeling like I need a nap.
“I’m good.” She turns to give me another small smile, though it’s far from her usual grin.
“Did you not enjoy the dance?” I look out over the dance floor—the orchestra has started another traditional Montovian waltz, and I’m a bit disappointed that I can’t be out there, sharing the dance with Clara.
“Yes, it was…good.” Something is off in her voice, and she still feels stiff against my arm.
This is about Sara, I think. When will she ever trust me?
I turn to her, speaking into her ear. “If this is about Sara—”
“It isn’t.” She shakes her head. “It isn’t.”
The stiffness in her body betrays her words. But if this isn’t about Sara, there can only be one other explanation. It strikes me then, what must have turned her mood so suddenly. I tip my head toward her ear again. “Something isn’t right. I know it.”
She shakes her head, slowly turning it from side to side. “It’s fine.” The way her voice cracks tells me she’s being less than truthful.
“It’s him, isn’t it?”
She doesn’t say anything, only begins blinking rapidly.
I motion for my brother Andrew, who’s talking with someone at a nearby table. He’s at my side in an instant. “What is it?”
“She’s seen him. He’s here.”
Andrew’s brows draw together, and he tilts his head. “Did you get a look at his mask, Clara?”
She presses her lips together and nods. “A demon. A red, horrible demon.”
“You’re certain?” My brother asks.
Clara won’t make eye contact with either of us, but nods in agreement.
Andrew gives me a single nod and disappears into the crowd.
“They’ll take care of it.” I tighten my grip around her, though I have no idea if my words are true or not. If the Royal Guard were doing their jobs, they would have caught him already. I suppose the man is cleverer than I gave him credit for. When we first met, he seemed too willing to use physical violence to get his way, which didn’t make him seem too intelligent.
We sit in silence, watching the dancers twirl around the floor, both of us waiting for some sign of anything that would indicate Adam has been caught. I know there won’t be a scene when they do apprehend him, and I know at least one of my brothers will return to let us know what’s happened if they do.
I turn to her after several minutes. “Would you like to go?”
She nods, looping her arm through mine. And though she doesn’t say anything, she nearly drags me away from the dance floor to a nearby alcove.
We’ve barely turned away from the crowded room when I sense someone behind me, and feel something pressed against my back.
Someone’s—I presume it’s Adam’s—head comes between the two of us. “I’d suggest making very little noise unless you want to die right here.”
I stiffen, trying to ignore the pain that sears through me at the movement. It must be a knife he has pressed against my back, but I do as he says, making no sound.
Clara stands beside me, desperately searching for someone to come to our aid, but all my siblings are otherwise engaged. Andrew is out on the dance floor somewhere searching for the man behind me. And the guards who had been nearby…aren’t.
“Funny how easy some people are to bribe,” he says from behind me, obviously reading my thoughts about the Royal Guard. “Even people who were supposed to have dedicated their lives to serving your lame royal family.”
Tears stream down Clara’s face as she walks with us toward the door. She tries to take my hand, but Adam must make some motion to her that I can’t see, and she clasps her hands in front of her instead.
“You’re going to regret this, Adam. I—”
“Make one sound, Clara, and I’ll kill him right here in front of God and everyone.”
We take another step before she stops, turning to him. “Do it, then.” Her voice is raised, certainly not quiet, but not quite loud enough to draw attention to us.
Not yet, anyway. She places her hands on her hips. “Did you hear what I said?” She’s yelling now. “Do it!”
He’s clearly surprised, and in the single moment I have him off guard, I use every bit of strength I have left in me to jab him in the stomach with my elbow.
The knife in his hand clangs to the ground. He’s doubled over from the blow, and I’m doubled over, too, mostly from the pain.
Someone’s arms are around me a moment later, but it must be too late. I glance down, noticing my grey suit staining red before everything turns to black.
Clara
Everything happens so fast.
Nick is bleeding. Gripping his side. But before my brain can fully register that Adam is straightening again. I don’t have time to react. Adam grabs me and drags me backwards into the crowd, even as someone rushes to Nick’s aid just as he collapses.
I’m pretty sure I shout. Or scream. Either way, the sound is drowned out by the crowd and the music—and those nearby who notice the commotion are more focused on Nick than they are on the girl being dragged away. I try to wrench my arm out of Adam’s grasp, but his grip is like steel.
“Adam, please,” I beg as he pulls me around the dance floor. “Let me go.” In the bustle of swirling dancers, no one even glances at us twice.
Adam doesn’t respond to my pleas. He pulls me toward the far side of the ballroom, behind a large, exotic potted plant. There’s a door there, painted exactly the same color as the wall, designed to be nearly invisible. Probably a servants’ entrance.
Adam goes straight toward it, touching it in just the right way to make it spring open. On the far side of the door, in the low-ceilinged passage beyond, a uniformed guard nods at Adam as he pulls me inside. Probably bribed by Adam, though I’m having a hard time believing it.
“How can you betray your prince like this?” I demand of the guard as Adam drags me past. “How can you—”
“Be quiet.” Adam gives my arm an especially rough jerk, yanking me into his side. His other hand clamps down over my mouth. “They brainwashed you, Clara. They—YOW! FUCK!”
He pulls his hand away from my mouth, his fingers bleeding from where I’ve bit him. Unfortunately, his grip on my arm never loosens.
“No one brainwashed me,” I tell him. “You’ve just turned into a complete psychopath.”
Suddenly stars dance across my vision, and I realize he’s slapped me across the face. My ears ring and my cheek throbs as I stumble back a step. Several feathers fall off my mask and flutter down to the floor. Adam, meanwhile, looks briefly horrified by what he’s done.
“Clara,” he says, drawing me back into his arms again. “Clara, I’m so sorry. I’d never hurt you.” His eyes are wide and full of guilt, but even his regret can’t chase away the wild, crazy gleam in their depths, which is made all the more terrifying by that demonic mask. “I don’t know how else to make you listen. To make you see. The only way to safety is with me.”
My face is still stinging, my eyes watering, but at least I can think straight again. I’m angry—furious—and terrified that Nick is hurt, but I try not to let it show.
“I know you’re just trying to help me,” I say as gently as I can. “But you need to listen to me, Adam. You can’t take me away from here.”
“Yes, I can. And I will.”
“You can’t.” I try to look as pitiful and pleading as possible. “You have to listen to me Adam.” If I can’t appeal to his sense—there clearly isn’t any left—then I have to try something else. “They’ll know it’s you. Even if you get me out of Wintervale, we’ll never escape Montovia. You were able to bribe one man, but they’ll be prepared for us at the border.”
His chin stiffens. “We have
to try. It’s the only way.”
“But it’s not the only way,” I insist. “What if…” My brain scrabbles for something believable. “What if I go separately?”
His eyes narrow. “What do you mean?”
“I’m free to go wherever I want,” I tell him. “I’m not a wanted criminal. If I tell Nick that it’s over, that I never want to see him again, then he’ll let me go. They have no reason to hold me in this country. They’ll have to allow me across the border. And it’ll be easier for you to sneak across if you’re by yourself. They’ll be looking for a kidnapper. If you’re by yourself, they’re less likely to notice you.” I honestly have no idea how hard or easy it is to sneak across Montovia’s border, but I silently pray that he buys it.
His eyes hold only suspicion, though. “How do I know this isn’t a trick?”
There’s only one advantage I have at my disposal, and I pray it’s enough.
“Because,” I tell him, reaching out and taking his hand, “we were meant for each other, Adam. We both know it, even if I forgot it for a while there.” I try my best to smile. It makes my cheek start throbbing again. “I love you, Adam. I always have and I always will. And it means the world that you came for me. That you were willing to risk everything to save me from danger.”
It’s starting to work, I can tell. Hope shines in his eyes, though his terrifying mask lessons its effects somewhat. He wants to believe, even if some of his suspicions still linger.
So I keep going. “We can do this, Adam. But we have to be clever. We have to outsmart them. As far as they know, I’m still brainwashed. If I go back now, I can say that you escaped. Or, better yet—that you were never here at all. That Nick is imagining things. He’s been in and out of consciousness all week… It will be easy to convince everyone that he never actually saw you. Then later tonight, after the panic has died down, I can tell Nick I want to end things. I’ll leave, and we can meet over the border in Rosvalia.”
Adam is nodding along to my plan, but he still looks skeptical. “Are you sure he won’t try to keep you here? Or follow you?”
“I’ll convince him that I never want to see him again. Break his heart into a million pieces.” God, it hurts even to think it. “It won’t be hard. After all, it’s the truth.” I try to smile again, to show Adam something that looks like affection, but I’m not sure if it’s successful. Adam still looks unconvinced.
And I can think of only one thing that might push him over the edge.
I grab the front of his shirt, pulling him toward me. And then I step up onto my toes and kiss him.
The moment our lips meet, I wonder how I ever could have convinced myself that Adam and I were meant to be together. Even before he was a raging psychopath, our kisses never had even close to the heat I share Nick. Now? I’d rather kiss a corpse than kiss Adam. My stomach roils as I force myself to lean closer to him, force my mouth to move against his. The masks offer a slight barrier between our faces, but not enough to keep me from feeling sick. His arms come up around me, holding me against him, and I feel the resistance begin to leave his body. It’s working.
He’s just slipped his tongue into my mouth when I hear footsteps approaching. Automatically, I leap away from Adam.
A woman in a servant’s uniform stands just around the corner of the low-ceilinged hallway, staring at us in surprise. Clearly we were the last thing she expected to encounter as she went about her business.
And I can’t help it—my survival instincts take over again.
“Go get help,” I tell her. “Run! Tell them that Adam has me! Tell them—”
Adam’s hand smacks down across my mouth again, and he curses as he grabs me roughly by the waist.
But the woman has already turned and run. Adam can’t go after her and hold onto me at the same time. He has to make a choice—and he chooses to drag me down an intersecting hallway, away from the ballroom and the servant woman.
“I knew they’d corrupted you,” he growls into my ear. “You fucking bitch.” His fingers dig so hard into me that I whimper against his hand.
But the servant escaped. I pray that she’s getting help, pray that somehow, someone will know to come after me.
And that somehow, some way, Nick is all right, wherever he is.
Nicholas
When I open my eyes, Clara is gone. I’m lying on the floor, Andrew and William standing over me. The crowd has quieted, and I can feel the eyes of everyone on me.
I tear the mask from my face. “Clara.” Her name comes from my lips as almost a groan. “Adam.” I try to sit, but someone pushes me back down to the ground.
“Leopold went after them,” Andrew says. “They won’t get far.” He pulls off his mask. “You need to lie still.”
“Can’t…” I try to sit again, but Andrew places a hand on my shoulder, keeping me in place.
I turn my head to William. “Please, Brother. I must—”
William cocks his head at Andrew before pulling off his own mask. “Let him up, Andrew.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Andrew’s brow furrows. “He’s bleeding—”
“And if it were Victoria that the madman had taken, you’d already be through the door, regardless of how much blood you’d lost.” William moves Andrew’s hand from my shoulder, helping me to my feet before sliding his arm around me to steady me. “Come, Nicholas. And if you should die on the way—”
“This is nonsense,” Andrew says as he takes the same position on my other side.
My brothers nearly carry me through the crowd, which parts for us as we move between the couples.
It’s not even a full minute later that a servant comes through the entrance on the other side of the hall, screaming something I can’t understand.
But it signals to my brothers that we need to move faster. Our pace quickens, and though I still feel dizzy—like I could lose consciousness at any moment—I force myself to stay awake, blinking back the fuzziness in my head.
We make it to the servant’s entrance, and I’m a bit surprised to find no guards there. We move quickly through the hall and into another.
When we spot the open door to the back entrance, Andrew releases me, sprinting to it.
William and I are there a moment later, and I can hardly believe what I see before me.
Leopold and Adam are struggling on the ground. Adam wrestles himself from Leopold’s grasp, his mask half-torn off his face.
I’m not sure where my strength comes from, but I twist myself away from my brothers and rush toward the madman. It appears he’s already suffered some sort of injury to his face.
He tries to struggle to his feet, but as he does, I raise my knee, giving him a blow beneath his chin that knocks him backwards and to the ground.
Andrew turns to me with a brow lifted. “It seems the crisis has been averted.”
Clara rushes over to me, throwing her arms around me and burying her head against my chest.
My arm slides around her instinctively.
“Is he…?” William looks first at the man on the ground, then over at Andrew.
Andrew walks over to Adam, who lies lifeless on the gravel in front of us, giving him a slight kick with the toe of his shoe before turning back to us. He gives us a quick shake of his head. “Not dead. Just unconscious.”
“I don’t…I don’t even know how it happened,” Clara says against my shirt. “One second he was pulling me down the steps, the next—”
“I might’ve…” Leopold steps from the shadows with a large shovel in his hand. “My hand might’ve slipped.” He shrugs, grinning at us. “I just had a feeling he’d try to weasel his way out through the back.”
A few moments later there’s a large crowd gathered around us, including my parents and my cousins. Several members of the Royal Guard finally arrive, binding Adam’s hands behind him and causing him to stir.
He groans as he tries to rise to his feet. “What the…?” He only makes it onto his knees, his hands tied behind him. �
�You…you’re all insane. I swear to God, I’ll sue the fuck out of this country—”
“Shut up, Adam.” Clara releases me, walking over to him. “Just shut up. The only insane person here is you.” I can see by the expression in her eyes—her face is still covered by her mask—that she might kill the man herself if there weren’t so many of us here.
She turns to a guard. “Take him away. Lock him up and throw away the key.”
“I’ll be sure he’s guarded properly this time,” Andrew says as he nods toward one of the guards. “We’ll have him taken to the prison in the capital.” He glares over at Lord Frederick who’s come to join the group. “Where the Guard is loyal to the Crown.”
“Yes,” my father says. “We’ll have words about this, Frederick.”
Lord Frederick grumbles something inaudible, and slinks away, though my cousins don’t follow him.
Clara returns to my side, sliding an arm around me. “We need to get you to the hospital, Nick. We need—”
“I’m fine,” I say as I take her hand in mine. I might still be bleeding, but I’ve never been more certain of my health in my life. “In fact, I’m more than fine.” I lift her hand to my lips. “Marry me.”
“I…” She smiles at me, tilting her head. “I already said I would. And as soon as you’re better, we can start planning—”
“No,” I say. I lift her mask away from her face so that I can look more properly into her eyes. “Marry me now.” I glance over at my father, whose eyebrows have drawn together, but I can tell he knows what I’m getting at.
I turn back to Clara. “My father has the power to marry us this moment. And I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. We can have a proper wedding later, but now…” I lift her hand to my lips, placing a kiss on the back of it.
I drop to one knee, still holding her hand. “Clara Weaver. Will you marry me? Now?”
Before she can answer, Sara emerges from the crowd, walking to us. She looks at Clara, giving her a slow shake of her head before looking down at me. “Nicholas,” she says. “I object.”
