Chapter 18
Chapter
Eighteen
Ashley covered a lot of ground as she raced through the forest. She didn’t look back, too afraid she’d see one of them gaining on her. Or that she’d trip over something and faceplant, just like those ditzy characters in horror movies always did.
While Ashley was fond of Jack and the others, she couldn’t deny the fact that him being estranged from his own family was a little weird for her.
Especially when family was so important to her.
That’s why she’d tried so hard to take care of her father and still wanted to be close to him.
Even if he wore a collar now and had some kind of magical loyalty to her brother.
It wasn’t his fault, it was the collar, and the Night of the Howls, and her brother’s bullshit plans to rule the world that had changed her father’s loyalty.
It wasn’t that he didn’t love her anymore, at all.
And those three back in the woods wanted to use her, she knew that now. Sure, she should have stuck around to find out what the prophecy was, but could she believe anything they said to her? It could all be more lies, more half-truths, and right now? She was done with all of it.
Okay, she knew she was going back and forth between wanting to trust her brother, and also about her mate, and yeah, about escape, but who could blame her? Life was really fucking complicated and it didn’t look like it was about to calm down any time soon.
No, it was clear to her that whatever the three were up to was most likely trouble. The best thing for her to do was to try to stay as far away from said trouble as possible, which meant running and running fast, hoping to God that they wouldn’t catch her.
Ashley held her breath as she ducked through the trees, even though it would be easier for her to take advantage of the situation and hide in one of the many nooks and crannies provided by the forest. The only problem with that was she seemed to have miscalculated where she had to run to.
The forest was denser, and the vegetation grew more unfamiliar with every step she took.
As if her day wasn’t bad enough, she had wandered off the path to the castle and had no idea where she was now.
But she was far too prideful to stop now, and if she was being honest with herself, the consequences of stopping were far too risky.
She had to keep going. She couldn’t look back.
Ashley gave an audible sigh of relief when she finally saw a clear path. She didn’t know if it was a path made by humans or animals, but it didn’t matter. It was a path and that was a good enough sign for her.
Ashley slowed down to a brisk walking pace as she made her way along the pathway, trying to calm her breath the whole way as she did so.
Branches and brambles caught at her hair, but she pushed onward, even when the terrain turned more treacherous.
The faint sound of someone calling her name almost made her stop, but she decided that she’d made it this far.
The best option was to keep going. Whether she made it to the castle, or finally escaped it entirely, didn’t really matter.
She just wanted to be free of everything.
The path twisted down a steep mountainside. Loose rocks and hidden roots made it slow going, but soon she heard voices and the sounds of other people nearby.
“The village,” Ashley said, delighted at the prospect of finally seeing the village.
She’d heard other people talking about it, but nobody seemed eager to take her down to see it.
Would she be able to convince any of them to hide her, maybe get her out of this crazy situation?
Or would they know who she was and send her back to her brother?
Was it worth the risk? Looking back up the mountainside, seeing the darkness that hung over the top like a storm cloud, she decided that it was time to blow this popsicle stand.
Ashley didn’t believe in miracles, but she hoped this might be her one miracle in life as she began to pick up the pace and charge down the rest of the mountain towards the village.
She listened for movement behind her and expected someone to show up and rip her back to the castle at any moment.
What she’d really love was to go back to Tennessee, where things made sense.
Of course, according to everyone here, whatever had happened the night of that storm made that impossible.
Tennessee not existing anymore didn’t make any sense to her, but what the fuck did she know?
“Maybe someone in the village can explain this in a way that makes sense,” Ashley said to herself, but she didn’t hold out much hope.
Ashley knew not to get her hopes up too high as she headed towards the sound of voices and village life. Who knew if she could trust anyone there? And there were so many dragon nobility going up to the castle, one of them might spot her and tell her brother where she was.
Still, Ashley got her hopes up as she finally approached the village.
She saw a woman hanging washing on a line and decided to approach her first. The woman was round and sang softly to herself as she worked.
When she glanced down at the basket filled with cloth, Ashley saw she had a kind, motherly face.
Definitely the kind of person that might help her.
“Hi, um, could you help me by any chance?” Ashley said, and immediately felt bad as the woman jumped back, her hand to her heart when she saw Ashley.
And that’s when she remembered something Val had said. She was in Romania, not America. And this woman didn’t speak English.
Ashley found herself blinking at the woman, her mouth threatening to turn down in a pout as her eyes filled with tears. Of course, she didn’t speak English!
The woman put her hand on Ashley’s shoulder, speaking rapidly in a language that Ashley could not understand. Her brown eyes looked into Ashley’s blue, as if that would convey the message. “I’m so sorry, I don’t understand.”
The tears threatened to spill as it dawned on Ashley that she was currently truly and utterly fucked.
She should have paid more attention in Spanish class, not that this was Spanish. She knew enough to know it wasn’t, but maybe the woman would speak it? Or maybe she’d seen a movie in Spanish?
“Ayúdame, por favor?” Ashley whispered, hoping that maybe there was a similarity in the languages.
“Ayúdame?” The woman’s pretty brown eyes narrowed, and from the way her lips moved silently, Ashley knew she was trying to puzzle the words out. “Ah! Ajut?-m?! Ayúdame!”
“Yes, ayúdame! Help me?” Ashley asked, and a whole slew of other words came out that Ashley couldn’t understand.
Knowing this would be impossible, and not wanting to stay out in the open, Ashley put on a smile and shook her head.
“You know what, that’s okay,” Ashley said with the slightest nod, hoping that nodding was universal in every language and not the sort of gesture that might get her hung in in this country. With her luck lately, it more than likely was.
Ashley turned her attention back to the village as the woman bid her good day, Ashley hoped, swallowing hard as she did so and willed herself to figure out what to do next.
The village was picturesque in that fairy tale village kind of way and very lively.
Far livelier than Ashley’s hometown had been.
The streets were bustling with people, villagers entering in and out of shops, hardly paying each other any mind as they went about their errands for the day.
But Ashley soon realized it was not just villagers moving amongst the crowds.
No, it was the honored guests of Opal Castle that were moving as well, having decided to stop by the village on their way into the castle.
Maybe they were looking for gifts to bring to the new king?
Ashley could tell who didn’t live there simply by their clothes and the way they held themselves.
Their clothing was too delicate for the area.
It was all impeccably tailored and made of fine materials.
They also had a more modern cut to their clothing if they were more affluent.
They likely had the time and knowledge to figure out that the apocalypse was coming and had decided to stock up on designer brands.
Ashley was pretty sure that the average person wouldn’t have thought of grabbing a Louis Vuitton bag when they realized they were in the midst of the apocalypse.
But maybe she was just a little biased because she thought of herself as the average person, at least before she had become an accidental princess.
But that wasn’t the point. The fact was she needed to hide.
These people would probably know who she was so she ducked behind one of the shops in the hopes that she wouldn’t be spotted.
If she played her cards right, there was a chance that no one would see her.
If she played her cards wrong, Ashley cringed at the idea of making a mistake in this situation.
Especially when her very life was at stake.
If she wanted any chance of taking control of her life, she needed to find a way out of the town and this country.
She had to find a way back to Tennessee. Which was easier said than done.
It was doubtful that she’d find someone that would speak English in the village.
Emma had said they didn’t have Internet in the village so that made it even more unlikely.
She probably wouldn’t find help here. Ashley glanced around, trying to decide what to do.
That’s when she saw something in the distance that she could hardly believe.