20. Robin
Robin
I knew it was coming, but it still makes me jump violently—the sharp crack of assault rifles echoing through stone corridors. My body freezes mid-step, every nerve ending suddenly alive with terror.
Vegas. The warehouse. Zip ties cutting into my wrists, the metallic taste of fear?—
“Robin?” Adrian’s voice cuts through the flashback, worried and urgent.
I suck in a breath so sharp it burns my lungs, forcing myself back to the present. The kids. I have to take care of the kids. That’s all that matters right now.
We collected them all from their rooms, and now we’re following Dimi and Mira as they lead us through corridors, so maze-like I’ve lost all sense of direction.
Maisie’s face crumples as another burst of gunfire rattles through the castle walls. Tears stream down her cheeks, and she starts to sob—the kind of terrified crying that comes from a child who understands enough to be afraid but not enough to make sense of it.
Adrian immediately steps forward, taking her small hand in his larger one with surprising gentleness. “Hey, it’s okay,” he whispers to her. “We’re going to be fine.”
The sight of my teenage brother stepping up, being the protector Maisie needs when I’m barely holding myself together, fills me with fierce pride even as terror claws at my chest.
But there’s no time to process the emotion.
Dimi motions us forward with sharp, urgent gestures, and we follow him deeper into the castle’s hidden arteries.
Every footfall feels too loud, every breath too visible in the beam of our phone flashlights.
When the lights went out, I gasped, but Adrian and Mira had the presence of mind to take out their phones at once and turn on the flashlights.
Dimi stops us all abruptly at what appears to be nothing more than a blank stretch of stone wall. He begins running his hands over the surface, muttering under his breath in what sounds like the local dialect mixed with frustrated English.
“Come on, come on,” he whispers, fingers dancing over seemingly identical stones. “I swear it was—there!”
The grinding sound that follows is horrible—metal scraping against stone, ancient mechanisms groaning to life after years of disuse. The wall shifts with a sound like bones breaking, revealing a passage that breathes out stale, dusty air.
My heart sinks as we slip through the opening and I watch it close behind us. The mechanism stutters, grinding to a halt with the wall still slightly ajar—a gap wide enough that it will be very obvious.
“Shit,” Dimi breathes.
We all turn on our phone flashlights, weak beams cutting through absolute darkness. I try to inject some levity into the moment, glancing at Maisie’s tear-streaked face.
“Should’ve bought you that phone you begged for,” I tell her with a weak smile. “We could use an extra light.”
She doesn’t even look at me. She’s too terrified, her eyes huge in the pale light.
“They’re going to follow us,” she whispers, staring at the still-open wall. “They’ll find us.”
She’s right. That gap in the wall might as well be a neon arrow pointing to our location.
Dimi takes charge, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. “This passage leads down to the Great Hall. Mira, you go first with Robin. Adrian and I will bring up the rear.”
Mira and I lead them down the narrow passage, our footsteps muffled by decades of accumulated dust. The walls press close on either side, ancient stone that’s seen centuries pass.
Cobwebs catch in my hair. The passage slopes downward at a steep angle, and I have to brace my hand against the wall to keep from stumbling in the darkness.
Behind us, I can hear Dimi’s strained voice.
“No pressure, but we need to be as quick as we can.”
The stress in his tone is unmistakable. Somehow that’s almost comforting—at least I’m not the only one fighting panic.
We reach what appears to be a dead end, and my heart plummets. Solid stone stretches before us, no visible mechanism, no way forward. We’re trapped.
“Dimi,” I start, panic rising in my voice.
But he’s already sliding past us, pressing his ear to the wall. He holds up one finger, demanding silence, and we all freeze as footsteps pound in the room beyond—heavy boots thumping fast.
Another burst of gunfire erupts from somewhere nearby and I cringe away from the wall.
But to my horror, Dimi activates whatever mechanism opens this section of wall and then hustles Mira and me backward.
A moment later, I understand his thinking: the grinding sound has been masked by the chaos outside.
The wall swings inward, but we’re still hidden behind a massive tapestry that hangs from ceiling to floor—thick, ancient fabric that helps me recognize where we are immediately. The Great Hall. We’re behind a huge tapestry that hangs on the wall next to the windows.
Dimi presses us all flat against the stone wall, his hand firm on my shoulder as we listen to the chaos unfolding just feet away. Boots thunder; voices shout orders. The accent sounds English to me, but the orders are given in what sounds like a military shorthand that makes no sense to me.
Every second stretches like an eternity. Maisie trembles against my side, and I wrap my arm around her, trying to muffle her frightened breathing against my side.
Finally, the sounds fade—boots moving away from us, voices growing distant. Dimi waits several more heartbeats before motioning us forward.
We slip past the edge of the tapestry and dash across the Great Hall toward the space beneath the stone staircase. But I can’t help pausing, struck by the devastation around us.
Bullet holes spatter the ancient stone walls like ugly scars. The massive fireplace is chipped and marred, pieces of carved stone scattered across the floor. Furniture lies overturned, paintings hang askew, and the smell of gunpowder hangs thick in the air.
But the huge windows overlooking the black lake remain intact, their surface marked only with pockmarks.
“Bulletproof,” Dimi murmurs, following my gaze. “And that’s where we’re headed.” He nods toward the dark water beyond the glass.
We slip into another passage in the wall opposite, and thankfully, this one is much better maintained, closing silently behind us just as we hear men running back into the room. My knees nearly give out with relief as I realize how close we came to discovery.
This passage is shorter, better lit with small LED fixtures that must be on emergency power. We emerge quickly into the castle gardens, where moonlight transforms everything into a silver-touched dreamscape that would be beautiful under different circumstances.
Now it just feels exposed and vulnerable.
We make our way hurriedly down to the black lake, and Dimi points us to the boathouse.
Inside, the smell of wood oil and damp fills my nostrils.
Boats bob gently at their moorings, and I can see life jackets hanging on pegs along the walls.
The lake beyond looks like a void—not the peaceful water where we had our picnic dinner, but something vast and unknowable.
The clouds covering the sky mean there’s no reflection, nothing to indicate a horizon.
It’s like looking into a black hole.
“What’s the plan?” I ask Dimi, though I think I already know.
“I put you all in a boat and send you to the center of the lake,” he says quietly. “You’ll wait until morning, when you’ll be safe.”
Maisie’s face crumples again. “I can’t,” she whispers. “It’s too dark. What if we get lost? What if?—”
Dimi crouches down to her eye level, and I see something genuine and protective in his expression—not the veneer of charm, but real warmth.
“Think of it as an adventure,” he tells her softly. “Following in my footsteps, just like when I went out on this very lake with Eva when we were children. Remember? We had to spend all night in a boat, but we were fine. And you’ll have life jackets, too.”
This is the first time I’ve seen Dimi display the kind of natural authority and protectiveness that seems bred into the Novak bloodline. Beneath his playboy exterior, there’s real steel.
Mira speaks up from where she’s been quietly checking the boats. “I will go back and help my grandfather.”
Dimi’s expression shifts instantly, becoming sharp and commanding. “Your duty is to protect the Rivers family,” he says firmly. “If you abandon that responsibility, I’ll make sure both Leon and Eva know exactly how you shirked your obligations when they needed you most.”
Mira’s eyes flash with annoyance, but she recognizes the tone of absolute authority. She’s heard it from her grandfather, probably from Eva too.
“Fine,” she says stiffly. “I’ll go with them.”
But even as she agrees, it occurs to me what Dimi is saying. He’s not planning to get in that boat with us.
“Where are you going?” I ask, though my heart already knows the answer.
His grin has determination in it now. “Apparently I can’t just run and hide while Eva’s in danger,” he says. “Who knew I had actual principles buried under all these good looks?”
I glance back toward the castle, where distant gunfire still echoes through the night, then at my family—my brothers and sisters who’ve already been through so much, who deserve safety and peace and normal lives.
Then I look at Dimi, this man who’s revealed himself to be braver and more honorable than anyone gave him credit for.
“I’m coming with you,” I tell him.
“Absolutely not.” His voice is firm. “Get on the boat, Robin. This isn’t your fight.”
I meet his eyes steadily. “Eva is my fight. She’s the woman I love, and I won’t let her face this alone.”
“Robin, no,” Adrian starts, but I’m already turning to him.
“I know I’m always asking you to take on responsibilities that shouldn’t be yours,” I tell him, my voice thick with emotion. “But I have to go, Adrian. I have to, so I need you to take care of them. Can you do that for me?”
Adrian’s face goes through several expressions—fear, protest, resignation, and finally acceptance. “I can do that.”
I move to each of my siblings, pulling them close one by one. Dane tries to crack a joke about me being dramatic, but his voice breaks halfway through. Alicia clings to me fiercely, whispering that she loves me. Adrian straightens his shoulders and promises he’ll keep everyone safe.
Maisie is the hardest. She sobs as she wraps her arms around my neck, begging me not to go.
“The black raven will watch over you,” I tell her, remembering Eva’s story from the school. “She protects everyone in these forests, remember? Especially brave little girls who help take care of their family.”
“Will she protect you, too?” Maisie asks through her tears.
“I know she will.”
Adrian helps them all into the boat, adjusting life jackets with steady hands despite the fear in his eyes. Mira takes position at the oars with professional competence—she knows these waters better than any of us.
“I’ll protect them,” Adrian tells me, his voice deeper than I remember it being. “You just focus on coming back alive.”
Dimi offers his hand to Adrian with unexpected formality. “Stay safe. And I swear I’ll bring your sister back intact.” They shake hands firmly.
I watch as they push off from the dock, the dark water swallowing the sound of their passage. The boat becomes a shadow on the lake, then disappears entirely into the void as the sound of the oars dies away.
Dimi and I turn back toward Castle Blacklake, where the woman I love is fighting for her life—and ours.
My heart pounds against my ribs as we begin our approach, but for the first time since this nightmare began, I feel something other than terror.
I feel purpose . Eva saved me once. Now it’s time to return the favor.