34. Chapter 34
Michaela
I didn’t have the heart to break their fantasy bubble and tell them that I knew I was going home in a matter of hours. Instead, I offered to teach them to play Hide and Seek on the hill just outside the boundaries of the celebration. They’d never played before but loved the concept. After a few rounds of way too easy hiding, Leila and Reika finally caught onto the game and they became increasingly harder to find. Somewhere beyond me, I knew the competition raged on. Esmerey wanted to prove herself after being basically ignored. Sadie had a grip on Fitz that was almost mystical. And Chantal wasn’t one to give up easily. Despite a rocky start, she’d stayed in the competition and it seemed she would remain even longer than I did.
The rain started coming down harder. I frowned and shielded my eyes, trying to spot the girls.
“Children!” Nurse Natalya called from a makeshift tent at the base of the hill they’d erected to keep the children dry. “Come back now! Don’t catch a chill.”
The stinging rain became tiny balls of hail, pelting me from what felt like every direction. “Leila! Reika!” I didn’t want them to get hurt. “Come out now. It’s not safe. I need to get you back with the others.”
I surveyed the hill where we were playing. The old wishing well was apparently functional, according to what I’d learned from Leila. Farther up the hill, caves made up a large part of the upper side of the city. No houses were built there because of the unstable ground. My nerves started to nag at me that we needed to leave sooner rather than later.
“Girls, it’s time. Come out!” Still there was no answer. I dug back into my princess party repertoire and put my hands on my hips. “Everyone out now, by order of the princess!”
Like two prairie dogs, their heads poked out from beyond a pile of lumber. “You said it!” Leila squealed. “You said you were a princess.”
I held my hands out to them. “Well, it’s this tiara. It’s making me believe, isn’t it?”
They scurried through the growing hail and took my hands as we rushed down the side of the hill. Most people were taking shelter under the awnings of the shops that lined the main street. Up the road, I watched Fitz hurry a few more people across the road to safety. His festival hadn’t gone quite how he wanted at the end, but as far as royal rebellions went, at least he’d avoided a major uprising. Maybe that was his goal all along. Maybe all they needed was a moment to exist as one people instead of being divided and distant.
Five feet before the overhang that sheltered most of the children, Leila’s hand ripped from mine.
“Wait!” Her face held the horror of a six-year-old facing her worst nightmare. “I left my stuffy on the hill. I have to go back for it.”
In the same moment that she began running up the incline toward the wishing well on the rocky hillside, the sky opened with fury and the deluge broke free. Rain cascaded from the sky like a waterfall burst the heavens above.
“There'll be a flood!” Nurse Natalya yelled as she watched Leila disappear into the storm. “She’ll get swept away.”
It wasn’t a choice I mad consciously. I had to go after her.
“Michaela, no!” Sadie’s voice trailed after me as I sprinted up the hill, but I didn’t stop. I hurried the best I could in the mud and mess, eyes locked on Leila’s red coat as she moved faster up the hill. Rain saturated my clothes within seconds. The ache of cold became sharp on my skin. Every raindrop felt like needles jabbing into my muscles. Even the inside of my boots started to fill with water as creeks formed down the side of the hill.
“Leila! Wait!” But she didn’t turn around. I couldn’t even tell if she could hear me over the sound of the storm. It felt like the sky had broken apart. Surely the rain would have to let up soon. It couldn’t stay like this forever.
I opened my mouth to call again, but the deep rumble of thunder drowned me out. I stopped, worried instantly about lightning and being out in the open, but my mind snagged on another thought.
The thunder hadn’t come from the sky.
Once more the groaning became deafening, emanating from beneath my feet. Like a great monster spurring to life, the earth began to shake violently, toppling me to my knees. Hand in the mud, scream echoing in my throat, I could do nothing more than to hold on as the earthquake rocked the capital city of Nolcovia.
Fitz
Earthquake.
It was the only thought that would meld amongst the chaos that reigned. Plaster cracked and crumbled as buildings tipped and veered. Screams shredded the air as people fled for safety, but no safety could be found. Everywhere I looked, wide eyes stared back at me as seconds stretched to what felt like a lifetime. The terror rose until it suffocated me. I fell to my knees as the quaking finally subsided.
“Fire!”
“Get it off him! He’s crushed!”
“Please, help me!”
The voices sounded like they were underwater. The remnants of a life that wasn’t mine any longer. I struggled to breathe. Panic clenched my chest until I clawed at my throat trying to free my breath.
“You’re fine!” Blair yelled at me. Her plaster-coated face surged in front of me, too large to understand or comprehend. “Your Highness, you’re unscathed. Just breathe!” She drew in a breath for me to illustrate it, as if I’d forgotten.
I hadn’t forgotten but with the smoke and the dust so thick, my lungs rejected it and led to fits of coughing and heaving over the earth.
“Your Highness,” hands gripped my shoulders as if to propel me back to my feet, “we must get you out.”
Praxis. My security team. Safety. They had to protect the Crown Prince. Someone had to survive to lead the people.
Cries of anguish drilled into my ears as I rose to my feet. Through hazy sight, I surveyed what used to be the main street of the capital. Horror laced my veins as I took in the sight. Rubble had crushed many. Buildings lay in heaps. Bodies strewn over the sidewalk. Black smoke rose up from the east as a fire raged unchecked by the skies that had instantly dried up.
I understood the need to protect me, but who was protecting my people? Who would I lead if the city perished while I hid?
I shook my head and pulled myself free. “I’m not going.” I rubbed my hand over the tickle that rose up in my nose, shocked when it came away bloody. “We stay here.” I pointed at a building that had collapsed. “Praxis, start pulling rocks off. Make sure no one is trapped below.” Commands helped my thinking fall into place. “The rest of you, spread out, find the wounded and get them to the hospital.” My heart squeezed at the word. “Oh, the children.”
I stumbled toward the south end of the market, the world tipping and swerving as I tried to hasten my speed. Where were the children? I stopped at the center of the square, standing next to the toppled maypole that had marked our celebration only a couple of hours ago. Hours that now felt like another century.
An engine roared to life, sending my heart rate soaring as I braced for another rumble of the earth. Instead, I spotted Esmerey helping children onto the bus, calming them as they went. I nodded to myself, grateful she was there. I pressed forward, seeking out the cries of anguish that called from the rubble. My hands locked around a large rock and I rolled it from the surface. Screams pierced my ears as I lifted another rock. Someone had been trapped.
“Help!” I shouted for anyone who could help. “Please help me move these.”
Within seconds, Blair arrived at my side. Her eyes widened as she spotted the twisted limbs tangled beneath the stones. Bone protruded from one leg, and the screams of torment erased all sense of sanity from my brain. I had one focus—to free the souls who’d been buried.
“Your Highness,” Blair tugged on my sleeve, but I locked my grip around another rock and hefted it from the pile. She became more insistent, gripping my wrist to stop me. “Let someone else! We must get out of here!”
“No.” I shook her off. “They need me.”
“They need a king, and you can’t rule if you’re dead, Leonidas!” She pushed my hand away from the largest rock and pulled on my arm. “If there are aftershocks, your life is in danger! We must leave now!”
I ripped my arm from her grasp, barely ignoring the pain that reeled through my back. “I won’t leave them. You’d be a fool to walk away at this point.”
She shook her head, obviously disgusted with me. “And you’d be a fool to stay.”
I didn’t wait to see if she would stay. My hands had already found the next rock that had to be lifted away. Streaks of blood, theirs or mine, stained each piece I moved.
“Praise you, Prince Leonidas!” The man called as I removed the last piece of rubble from his chest. He pushed his son forward from where they were trapped, helping him into my arms. Sirens wailed as emergency crews finally arrived. I waved down the medics as they entered the field, instructing them toward the man with his broken leg and his young son. I wanted to stay with them, but too much destruction outweighed the hands available to help. Too many had shared Blair’s mindset and had fled.
Tears flowed freely over my cheeks as I took in the horrors from the aftermath. Not just the physical toll of the damage, but the emotional wreck and condition of my people. Esmerey had returned to the square, carrying children who needed wheelchairs on her back. She called out for Gwen, but my old friend shook her head and faded into the shadows, unwilling to help. My heart clenched with the desperate need to multiply myself and do more. I gripped the arm of a woman who’d been struck in the head. Blood dripped over her nose, but I helped her to her feet. She nodded slowly and waved me off as she stumbled forward. I understood. She was in need, but others needed more.
Too many were missing. Dagny. Chantal. My mouth opened in shock. “Coco.”
I spun around, furiously searching the area for any sign of her. Had she run like the others? Did she see the wreckage and save her own skin? Or was she hurt? Was she under the remains of one of the buildings?
I gripped the nearest rocks and started flinging them off, frantically searching for her like a man possessed. Rain began again, pelting the earth with large, unforgiving drops. Fire hissed as the rain collided with the flames. I removed another rock and found a hand, limp, lifeless. Moving faster, tearing my skin as I worked without regard for my own safety, only a blinding need to know whose corpse waited below the fallen wall, I removed the final bricks and stared.
Guilt flooded my heart because all I could think was: Not Michaela. But even though she wasn’t the one who’d died, someone had. And they wouldn’t be the only body I found in the debris.
Michaela
As soon as the shaking stopped, I took to my feet again. A chorus of wails rose up behind me. I couldn’t turn back. I couldn’t split my focus. I needed to get to Leila before something happened to her. With a series of walls covering the hillside, one more shake and one could fall and crush her tiny body. I refused to let that happen.
“Leila!” I shouted for her again, but she didn’t answer. At least the rain had stopped. I curved around the wishing well and peered up the hill. Near the mouth of a cave, I thought I spotted a flash of red like the coat Leila was wearing. With renewed determination, I started running again, calling her name over and over. Finally, I received my reward for my persistence.
“Lady Michaela! Help!” I hurried to her side, where she’d become wedged beneath some discarded lumber. “Please, I’m stuck! I don’t want to die!”
“You’re not going to.” I gripped the largest piece of lumber and pushed it upward. She still couldn’t move, so I started working on the next one. “We need to get to the others though. I bet Nurse Natalya wants to get you back home, right?”
“Yes, milady.” Her choked words came out as a sob. “Sorry I went for my stuffy. I will be good from now on, I promise.”
“Don’t worry about that.” My muscles burned as I strained against the final beam. “But I can’t get this one up. Can you wriggle out?”
“I will try.” She started to cry as she wiggled and shimmied her way free. Tears rolled down my cheeks as my body quivered under the weight of the beam. “Almost there.”
“You can do it,” I assured her through my gasps.
“I’m almost—I think I—“
The pain became unbearable as the weight of the beam pressed back on me. My muscles couldn’t hold it anymore. I couldn’t—
“I’m free!”
The lumber crashed to the earth as I lost my grip on it. Arms limp, I folded forward, aching with every breath that heaved in and out of my chest. For the first time, I allowed myself to look down the hill.
Fires raged in at least three areas. Sirens wailed and emergency lights flashed. The cries of agony became overwhelming as I allowed myself to take it all in.
“We need to go,” I whispered as my eyes blurred with tears. “I need to help them.”
Leila’s small hands gripped my shoulder to steady me. “I’ll help you down the hill, milady. You can lean on me.”
I nodded, loving the innocence of her bravery. We would need if it where we were headed.
Fitz
I couldn’t find her. I found five more injured and three dead. My focus had turned to a single desire to locate Michaela.
“Coco!” I screamed her name, desperation removing any prior need to keep the nature of our relationship secret. “Coco!”
With all the plaster coating the bodies, not to mention the streams of blood that carved out bright paths of violence over their faces, I didn’t recognize many. As a woman worked to remove the debris from yet another building that had collapsed, I fell in beside her, lending a hand.
“Milord!” Sadie stared at me, eyes wide. “You’re still here.”
I nodded. “I’m not leaving either. Don’t try to force me.”
“I wouldn’t dare.” She tossed a rock that freed a boot.
I pulled two more rocks free, and my heart quickened at the sight of the royal insignia. I knew the uniform.
“Kabir!” I moved faster, pulling the debris off my loyal bodyguard. If he was trapped here, then where was Michaela? Was she beneath him? I pulled the final boulder and reached my hand down to him. With surprising strength, he gripped it and rose from the pile of rocks.
“Thank you, Your Highness.” He gritted his teeth. “I might have died in there.”
I wanted to assure him that it was my pleasure to free him, but my thoughts were already elsewhere.
“Kabir, where is Michaela? Was she—“ My gaze drifted over the pile, concerned that she was trapped and dying while we had our reunion.
“I lost her. I was tracking her when she ran into the storm.” He grimaced and clutched his arm, likely broken. “I’ve failed you.”
“Not at all.” I stood and waved down medics with a stretcher. “You need a doctor, old friend.” I stepped out of the way as they moved in to help him. Palm over my mouth, I barely smothered a cry of anguish that wrenched from my chest. Where was she?
“I saw her, Your Highness.” Sadie set her hand on my wrist and turned me toward the hill that towered above the capital city. “A child in a red coat ran away as the storm broke open and she bravely went after her.”
A faint smile teased at my cheeks. If she was on the hill, she might be unscathed. I thanked Sadie absentmindedly and started toward the incline. Someone was up there. A flash of red caught my eye. A child in a crimson jacket, just like Sadie had said. Standing next to her a woman crouched, catching her breath.
Let her be safe was my reoccurring thought as my walk turned to a jog.
Michaela
“We have to hurry,” I urged Leila again.
“I’m trying, milady, but my legs hurt from getting stuck.”
I crouched next to her and kicked myself for not checking her for injuries. I was so worried about everyone else, I forgot about the one I was saving. Pulling up her pant leg, I drew in a sharp breath at the stain of red that dripped over her skin. She’d cut herself on something.
“Is it bad?”
I shook my head to keep her calm. We would be at the hospital in no time. She didn’t need to know how deep it was. “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry. How about I carry you?”
“I won’t be a bother?”
Bless her innocent heart. She was bleeding and worried I would have a hard time carrying her.
“Not at all.” I scooped her up into my arms but had to bite back the cry of pain that shot through my system. My muscles hadn’t recovered yet. I hid the ache away and gritted my teeth to smile at her. “See? Easy.”
Her mittened hand brushed over my forehead. “Milady, you’re sweating.”
“Ladies don’t sweat,” I assured her as I took a shaky step forward. “We shimmer.”
“Coco!” His voice caught my heart before my ears even registered it. At the base of the hill, Fitz waved his arms back and forth like he was flagging down a 747. “Coco!”
A beleaguered smile managed to lift my cheeks. If I could make it to him, everything would be fine. One step in front of the other. I just had to—
A groaning rumble sounded again, and my heart dropped to my feet as the earth began to shake once more.
Fitz
Her eyes widened with utter terror. Her hand tightened on the girl in her arms. It was as if she knew before I did. Before the screams started and the sky opened up again. Michaela knew what was about to befall her even before I was able to register the earth's aftershock in my system.
“Run!” I screamed as I started up the hill toward them. I was entirely unsure of what had me afraid, only that I had to reach her. I had to keep her safe. She stumbled forward, child in her arms, tumbling more than running as the earth raged, makeshift crown barely perched on her head, falling from one foot to the next as gravity and inertia took hold.
Twenty feet. She only had to make it twenty feet.
Like the mouth of an ancient demon, the ground opened up in front of her. I screamed my warning, but the child obscured her vision and she saw the cavern a moment too late. Over the edge she tumbled, followed by rocks and dirt that collapsed inward. The old caves opened up to swallow them whole.
I sprinted the remaining distance and collapsed near the fresh dirt, staring at the sunken piece of earth, unwilling to believe it. My knees collided with the ground as air ceased to fill my lungs. Dirt burrowed under my fingernails as I clawed at the earth, frantic to free her from the cavern that had taken her captive. Clods of mud created piles on either side of me as I worked. But no matter how fast I dug, it was to no avail.
She was gone.
The woman I loved more than life itself had vanished.
I stared at the sinkhole, unwilling to concede. Raindrops pelted the mud, as if the sky itself offered to mourn my loss. Silver flashed in the dirt, a spec of beauty in the bitter ugliness of the moment. I grasped the wire and pulled it from the mud.
A simple tiara of wire. My mind brought up the horrible memory of her fall, tiara on her head, the child in her arms, and a scream that would haunt me until I died.
Anguish seized my chest as I fell forward into the disturbed earth, unwilling to be consoled in my grief, wire crown tight in my grip. My final call for her sounded like a battle cry over the fallen.
“Coco!”
But I heard no response.
I was left with nothing but the silence of her freshly dug grave.