Мишель Роуэн - Reign or Shine

I nodded stiffly. Michael came to my side and our eyes met for a moment before he looked away.

As I took a last glance at my father, I felt Michael's fingers close around my wrist and he began walking me away from the room.

"Oh, I almost forgot," I called back to Elizabeth. "Your boyfriend showed up on your gazer after you left."

"He did?" She looked surprised. "What did he say?"

"Lots of things," I replied, just before Michael and I disappeared around a corner.

He picked up his pace, my hand now in his iron vise of a grip.

"I never should have brought you back," he said. "I'm so stupid."

"So it's true? It's all true? Elizabeth is-" "Shh, not here. It's too dangerous."

We reached the spiral staircase and began to descend it so quickly I nearly slipped a few times. When we finally got to the bottom, Michael pulled me right toward the front doors, which immediately opened for me. I picked up my shoes from where I'd left them for safekeeping.

"Michael, talk to me." My voice shook. "Are you in on this? Are you helping Elizabeth kill my father?"

I still couldn't believe what I was saying. Finding out my father was dying was one thing. But poisoned? It was too horrible to contemplate.

He stopped walking and spun around to face me, the expression on his face distraught. "Of course not." "Then how do you know?"

"I've been suspicious of her motives for some time and you just confirmed it for me. When I came back last night after seeing you home, she asked me questions about you. She wanted to know everything. She wanted to know if you'd drunk the potion and I told her you weren't ready yet. She wasn't happy about that. I didn't know why, but the way she was acting was very telling. When I guessed, she nearly…" He blinked. "She nearly killed me right then and there. But she didn't."

I could barely breathe. "Michael-did she hurt you?"

He shook his head. "No, but I wouldn't put it past her." He grabbed my hand and pulled me around to the right side of the castle, away from view. "You need to leave. Right now. You need to go back home. Drink the potion. It's the only way you'll be safe."

My head was spinning. "I can't do that."

"She might not look like it, but Elizabeth is very worried about you, and not in a caring-aunt kind of way. She is afraid that you won't drink the potion and when the king dies you'll become queen and ruin her plans."

"But I don't understand. What are her plans? She'll be trapped in the castle when she's queen."

"It's Kieran. Elizabeth has always wanted power, but he's the one who's in charge. He's convinced her that now is the time to completely join the Shadowlands with the Underworld. Because she loves him, he'll be able to manipulate her. He'll control the barrier that separates Hell and the Underworld from the faery and human realms."

I put a hand over my mouth in shock. "And my father has no idea?"

"She puts on a good act. She's probably been putting on the same act her entire life. She fooled me. She fooled you. She comes across as so nice but she isn't, Princess."

I thought about how I'd also been fooled by Chris, who seemed so popular and great to be around, until he attacked me in the back of a limo.

Appearance means nothing. It only hides what's underneath-be it good or bad.

I blinked slowly. "She's the one who sent the guy with the knife after me, isn't she?"

He nodded. "She isn't playing games. When the king found out about you, he was very happy to learn he had a daughter. She pretended to be, but I could see that she wasn't. I couldn't imagine why at the time…"

"She prevented you from coming to see me today, didn't she? That's why you weren't around earlier?"

He nodded again. "She wouldn't let me leave. The king is weakened, so she was able to steal some of the kingdom's energy to let her thug come after you. Twice now." His jaw tightened. "When he failed, she allowed me to see you. To try to convince you to drink the potion once and for all. And if I failed

…" He swallowed hard. "She wanted me to kill you."

My eyes widened at that. "What!"

"I wouldn't do it. I'd never hurt you, Princess. But I knew I had to make her think I was willing. It's the only way I could protect you. Then when you wanted to come here again…" He rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand, his face haunted. "I couldn't refuse you. But I thought maybe if you were here and drank the potion in front of her, then she'd know for sure. You'd have your peace of mind at seeing your father again, and Elizabeth would have her proof that you weren't trying to stop her. If I told you, I would have been putting you into even more danger. You never should have figured it out." He touched my face then. "You need to leave. It won't be long before she realizes you're not downstairs waiting for her."

"Why didn't she just try to kill me when we were alone upstairs?"

"The moment you returned to the Shadowlands, the king would have sensed your presence. He'd know if she killed you here, so that's stopping her. She's still uncertain how weak the king is. He's incredibly powerful when he's at full strength-much more powerful than she is. If he had the slightest inkling that she would hurt you, he would be furious."

I tried to think clearly but it was a struggle. "Elizabeth. . she said that for every potion they make in the Underworld, they make an antidote. Do you think there might be an antidote for the poison?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. But there's no time for that. Princess, you have to go now."

"I can't leave my father. I can't leave you." "You have to." Have to.

I grabbed my potion bottle and squeezed. "I don't have to do anything if I don't want to."

"Princess, now is seriously not the time to be stubborn." His expression softened as he looked into my eyes. We were talking so closely that we were nearly hugging. His arms were around my waist.

The castle doors opened up again and Michael moved a bit so he could look around the corner. When he turned back to me his expression was even more tense than before. "It's Elizabeth's thug."

"The one who tried to kill me?"

He nodded. "She's sent him to find you. She must know you've already left the castle." He pulled off his sweatshirt and wrapped it around my shoulders to keep me warm. "Go. Run to the clearing and go through the gateway. I'll hold him off for as long as I can."

"He's going to hurt you."

He touched his amulet. "Not if I hurt him first."

"Michael. . you can't-" "Am I interrupting?" a deep voice asked.

I slowly looked to the side to see the brute standing there, a smile curling up the corners of his mouth.

"Princess," he said, "it's time for you to come back inside. Elizabeth wishes to talk with you."

"Just talk, huh?" I could barely breathe.

He grabbed for my arm but Michael pulled him away from me and pushed him up against the wall. The brute backhanded Michael across his face and he went spinning, but the moment the creep came at me again Michael grabbed him hard around his neck.

"Nikki!" He used my real name then. "Go now. There's no time. Run!"

The thug was fighting to get Michael off him, and since he outweighed Michael by at least sixty pounds it wouldn't take long.

"Just go!" Michael yelled at me and his words finally broke through my shock.

Elizabeth wanted me dead. She'd poisoned her brother, more than likely her father as well, and I was the last thing standing in the way of what she wanted.

Fear trumped anger this time and, with a sob, I turned away from the castle and ran as fast as I could.

I ran until my bare feet began to bleed from stepping on the rocks; until I felt the cool grass under my feet and the temperature immediately warmed up as if by magic. I held my shoes by their straps in one hand and my little purse in the other and I ran faster than I'd ever run before. I tried not to think of Michael fighting to give me a chance to escape, but it was impossible. I had to get home where I could hide. I'd figure out what I had to do next once I was there.