5. Charlotte
CHARLOTTE
L eaving Gwen alone in the dirty basement felt wrong. Especially when Charlotte was leaving with Gwen’s…betrothed? She wasn’t sure if that was the right term for them, but they had both agreed to the plan, so it seemed to fit better than anything else. Charlotte just wished she could have had a proper conversation with Gwen about it—one that didn’t involve Easton and Natalie listening in.
“Are you sure…Are you sure we should just leave?” Charlotte asked instead, looking reluctantly at Gwen.
Her friend forced out a laugh. “Don’t make me say it again! This is the plan. I’ll be fine waiting in an empty room on my own.”
But from Gwen’s face, she was as aware as Charlotte that neither of them were worried about the extra hour or two of waiting. It was the part that came after. She wrapped her arms around Gwen’s enormous bear neck and gave her a tight hug.
“You can do this,” she whispered. “And you won’t be alone once you reach the palace, right? You’ll have Alma and the others?”
Gwen twitched beneath her arms, confirming Charlotte’s earlier suspicion. She’d noticed her friend hadn’t mentioned her alliance with the captive servants to the count, and it hadn’t taken much thought to come up with a reason why.
They had arrived in the mountain kingdom mere hours ago, and so far the only assurance they had that the count was telling the truth was Natalie’s corroboration. Could they be one hundred percent sure it wasn’t some elaborate scheme orchestrated by Queen Celandine? Charlotte couldn’t think of a reason why the queen would do something so complex, but that didn’t mean she entirely trusted the count either.
She couldn’t say anything aloud—not in front of Natalie, and not in front of Easton. If it occurred to Easton this might all be a deception, he would never agree to leave Gwen.
“Don’t worry,” Charlotte whispered, too quiet for a human to hear, but knowing Gwen’s enhanced bear hearing would pick up her words. “I won’t say anything about them to anyone. There’s no harm in having an extra card to play if something goes wrong.”
Gwen nodded almost imperceptibly. “Thank you,” she said aloud, and her words rang with sincerity.
Charlotte gave her a final squeeze and stepped back, thinking Easton might want to take her place. He remained where he was, however, merely meeting Gwen’s eyes with an intense gaze.
“Stay safe.” His voice was low and rough.
She nodded, appearing unable to answer with words.
Charlotte waited another moment, but when neither of them moved, she tugged lightly on Easton’s arm. “Come on.” It would only get harder the longer they lingered.
At first, Easton didn’t budge, his eyes still fixed on Gwen. But finally he relaxed, bowing to the princess before he followed after Natalie and Charlotte with quick strides.
In the doorway, Charlotte looked back one final time at Gwen. The bear was looking at the small group of them.
“Don’t worry,” Gwen said with a faint smile. “I’ll find your Henry for you.”
Charlotte managed a return smile before Natalie pulled her out of the door.
After so long in the stuffy basement, Charlotte should have been glad for the open air and space. But she’d spent too many hours in growing fear of the strange city patrolled by giant bears. Now that she was standing in the street, she felt dangerously exposed.
At least dawn wasn’t far away. The deep black of night had given way to dark gray, and regular streetlights broke the darkness even further. Or maybe she should be regretting the presence of streetlights? Weren’t they supposed to be in hiding?
Charlotte shook her head. Subterfuge was outside her experience.
“Come on!” Natalie hissed, waving Easton and Charlotte forward. Charlotte wasn’t the only one lingering near the door of the basement—although Charlotte suspected Easton had a different reason for being reluctant to move away from the relative safety behind them.
Charlotte reminded herself who she was doing everything for: Henry. If she couldn’t even brave a dark street for him, how did she hope to snatch him from the mountain queen?
Scampering after Natalie, she caught up with the younger girl at the closest street corner. Natalie was peering around it, her other hand held up to signal for Charlotte to wait behind her.
Charlotte’s nerves thrummed as she waited, wondering what Natalie could see. It was hard to resist the instinct to push forward and see for herself.
Easton’s steadying presence arrived at her back, helping to calm her. She felt safer with someone on either side, even though she knew it was just an illusion.
Whatever Natalie saw on the other street must have satisfied her because she gestured them forward. The three crept onto the larger street in single file.
Charlotte tried to step quietly, but Natalie quickly outpaced her. Apparently the other girl was going for speed over silence. Charlotte increased her speed to match, cringing at every footfall.
When they reached the next corner, Natalie’s check was much shorter. She had barely peered around the edge before she was gesturing them forward again.
“Wait,” Charlotte whispered. “Shouldn’t we be more…” She fell silent when Natalie ignored her. Reluctantly, she put on another spurt of speed to catch the other girl instead.
“Natalie!” Easton hissed from behind Charlotte.
She wasn’t the only one confused and uncomfortable. Weren’t they supposed to be creeping through the streets unseen?
But Natalie didn’t pause again until they were on the edge of a cobbled square. This time Charlotte was able to peer over her shoulder, and she caught herself looking for the fountain that usually marked the middle of town squares. Instead of a fountain, however, this square held only the statue of an imposing woman wearing a crown. Charlotte grimaced. She supposed it made sense not to have a fountain in a place where the temperature must often be below freezing. But she would have preferred not to creep right under Queen Celandine’s eyes—even if they were just stone versions.
Natalie glanced quickly up and down the square before shrugging and striding openly across its center.
“Natalie!” Easton hissed again, with more force if not more volume.
The younger girl didn’t flinch or look back, though, so after a resigned shrug, Charlotte and Easton both hurried after her. As they crossed the open space, Charlotte flicked glances at the surrounding buildings. It wasn’t only stone eyes that watched them but also the closed shutters of too many windows to count. It didn’t matter how many times she told herself she was being fanciful—they felt like a real presence tracking the progress of the small group.
“Shouldn’t we stick to the edge?” she whispered to Natalie as she finally caught up with the other girl. They had made it more than halfway across the square, but Charlotte’s skin was crawling so badly she could barely walk straight.
“I hear something,” Easton whispered sharply, and Natalie finally responded.
Grabbing Charlotte’s sleeve, she cried, “Run!” without bothering to lower her voice. Pulling Charlotte with her, she veered sideways. Instead of making for the continuation of the main road that had appeared to be their goal, she threw them both sideways toward what looked like nothing but a deep shadow.
Charlotte barely kept herself from screaming as they careened toward the black space. At the last second, she perceived a narrow alley, its entrance blocked by an abandoned cart missing a wheel.
Natalie let go of Charlotte’s sleeve, glancing once over her shoulder to check Easton was with them. As Charlotte turned to look as well, Natalie was already leaping up the cart, cresting it in two bounds.
Behind her, Charlotte could hear the local girl hissing for her to hurry and follow, but she couldn’t turn back around. Easton was heading their way, and he had obviously taken a few beats to grasp what was happening. He was no longer alone in the square.
Behind him, two large, white figures lumbered across the open space, closing the gap with terrifying speed. Easton saw the look on her face and faltered, turning to glance behind him.
“No!” Charlotte screamed, all her fear forgotten in the panic of the moment.
Their whole plan depended on no one knowing Easton’s face. He couldn’t let himself be seen.
Her cry brought his face forward again, halting his motion before he had fully turned. She flung herself in his direction. Catching him off guard, she seized the front of his shirt and yanked him toward the alley with all her strength. She used the momentum, sending him behind her while she staggered into the square.
Their positions had now been reversed. Easton was at the base of the cart, being urged by Natalie to “Climb! Climb!” while Charlotte was bringing up the rear of the group.
She spun and dashed to follow him. When he faltered, one foot on the cart, one still on the cobblestones, she screamed at him to go.
He complied, pulling himself up with a grunt. He looked like he was going to stop at the top to help pull Charlotte up, but Natalie must have had the same realization as Charlotte. Her wiry hands appeared out of the darkness, pulling him down the other side of the cart.
Charlotte threw herself the final couple of steps, her hands reaching for the side of the cart. But as they made contact with the round wood, she felt hot breath behind her followed by a tearing pain down her left arm.
She screamed, the cry splitting the night as red splattered across the cart. Immobilized by pain, she froze, but the wiry hands reappeared, pulling her forward. Wrenched into movement, she lurched up, somehow finding the strength to climb the side of the cart.
A change in the air pressure and a panting breath made her duck instinctively forward. The second stroke of the huge clawed paw missed her, hitting the cart instead.
The entire structure crumbled, smashed to pieces by the bear’s force. Charlotte tumbled down among the splintered pieces of wood. She twisted at the last moment, landing on her right side to shield her injured left arm.
The shock and pain of the landing held her still as the bear roared and struck at the cart again, reducing it even further into kindling. For a second, her eyes caught on his black ones, and then Natalie was behind her, hauling her to her feet.
“Come on!” she cried. “Run!”
The bear lunged forward, but the alley was even narrower than Charlotte had originally realized. She and Natalie could barely fit down it single file, her shoulders almost brushing the brick wall of the buildings on either side. It must have been a tight squeeze for Easton, who had already disappeared, presumably sent ahead by Natalie.
The bear roared again in frustration, and Natalie urged her to move faster, even shoving her in the back when she slowed. They burst out the other side of the alley onto a new street. Easton waited for them there, his eyes glued to the alley entrance, clearly having been debating if he should go back.
Natalie hissed at him wordlessly and took the lead. Abandoning the last of any pretense at quiet or subtlety, she sprinted down the street and careened around the second corner she encountered.
Easton took one look at Charlotte’s injured arm and scooped her off her feet, running after Natalie.
“I can run myself,” Charlotte wheezed through the pain. Her injured arm was jammed against his chest, and it was only increasing the agony.
“I know,” Easton said through hard breaths. “It’s your arm that’s injured, not your leg. But there’s no time to bind the wound, and we can’t leave a trail of blood.”
Charlotte fell silent, realizing why he had positioned her in such a painful way. She bit her tongue on the cries that tried to work their way out of her as he ran. She would be in worse pain if they didn’t escape the bears.
When they rounded the corner, Natalie was waving them forward from halfway down the street where she stood in what appeared to be a public water trough for the city’s horses. When Easton reached her, he dumped Charlotte on her feet in the trough and climbed up after her.
Natalie nodded approvingly and sloshed through the water. When she reached the other end of the long trough, she clambered out again, landing on a long length of rough fabric. Charlotte attempted to follow, only to have her knees give out at a fresh wave of pain, sending her splashing down into the water.
Easton braced her from behind, putting his hands under her arms and lifting her over the edge of the trough in one swift movement. As soon as she had her balance, she shuffled forward on the material, making room for him to follow.
Natalie had already run the length of the material, disappearing down yet another narrow alley. Charlotte gritted her teeth and forced her legs to work, clasping the gash on her left arm with her right in an attempt to keep too much blood from oozing out.
As soon as she’d rounded the corner, she saw the material led to an open door. Natalie stood just inside, waving Charlotte forward with urgency. She half ran the final steps, staggering inside with Easton crowding in behind her.
He seemed to have understood what was happening much more clearly than her, because the second he was inside, he turned and began pulling on the material. Someone behind them seemed to be helping him, because it whisked inside impossibly fast. As soon as the last length made it past the threshold, Natalie closed the door behind them.
“Phew!” she breathed, sinking to the floor and breathing hard. “That was too close.” She looked up accusingly. “How are you two so slow?!”
“We need help here!” Easton called down the dark corridor in front of them. “Someone’s injured!”
He grabbed a towel off a nearby chair and folded it several times, pressing it to Charlotte’s wound. She looked down, planning to take over with her good arm. But instead her head spun, and she nearly collapsed again.
This time Natalie propped her up from behind with an exasperated huff. “The cut didn’t look that bad,” she muttered, but Charlotte could hear the guilt in her tone.
“What. Was. That?” Easton asked threateningly, his eyes spearing into Natalie.
Charlotte didn’t have the energy for his outrage, but she nodded supportively. “I thought we were supposed to be creeping through the city unnoticed.” She wished she sounded more indignant and less exhausted.
“Unnoticed?” Natalie snorted. “I guess you two don’t know much about bears. Do you have any idea how well they hear? Well, their hearing is nothing on how well they smell! It wasn’t a matter of not being noticed so much as when we were noticed. I had to time it so we were most of the way across the square. Thankfully this city has a collection of ridiculously narrow alleys that date from before patrols were done by bears.”
Charlotte finally caught up to what must have been apparent to Easton from the beginning.
“The water and the material…that was to throw off our scent trail? So it wouldn’t lead them to this house?”
Natalie nodded. “When I first spotted you in the air, I sent word to both the count and my family. My family knew there was a chance I might have to return at night, so they had someone listening out. Thankfully, that fool guard made more than enough noise roaring away at us. So they got the material laid out before we reached the trough.” She shook her head. “It wouldn’t have been such a close thing if you two had moved a bit faster, though.”
“Charlotte is injured,” Easton said through his teeth. “And maybe we would have been more prepared if you’d considered warning us .”
Natalie looked between the two of them doubtfully before shrugging. “Or maybe one or both of you would have refused to set foot out of the basement if you’d known you were about to be chased through the city by a patrol of bears. I don’t know you that well, so how could I say?”
“You—” Easton stepped toward her, but the arrival of several people distracted him from whatever scolding he was intending.
“Someone’s injured?” A woman bustled forward, her focus on Charlotte. “Oh, you are too! You poor dear!”
The man moved to Natalie instead, glowering at Easton. Easton met his gaze coolly, not backing down.
“I got the material laid out for you,” the man said. “So how did someone end up injured? They’re not about to break down our door, are they?”
“I told you, Da,” a bored voice said from further along the corridor. “We got it pulled in well before any of the patrols worked out where they were. They’re always confounded by those alleys.” He had the superior tone of late adolescence, a youth hovering on the edge of manhood.
When he stepped forward into the light, Charlotte could place him instantly. There was no doubting he was Natalie’s older brother given the similarity in their coloring and features.
The young man gave his sister a lazy nod, and she narrowed her eyes in response. Apparently his assistance in retrieving the material hadn’t won him any points in her eyes. Charlotte could relate to the prickly sibling dynamic.
“Nice to see you helping—for once,” Natalie said.
The youth’s eyes narrowed. “What was the other option? Let you bring the bears straight to our door? I don’t have a death wish, you know.”
Natalie’s voice turned mockingly sweet. “I know it’s just that you love your family soooo much. Admit it! You’ve been worrying about me all night.”
“Ew! Get off me!” The youth tried to fend her off as she surged forward and pulled him into a hug.
Charlotte’s heart dropped. The prickly antagonism between Natalie and her brother was merely one layer of their relationship. But Charlotte’s sister’s taunts hadn’t been a fa?ade for a deeper well of affection.
She swayed, lightheaded. It was a struggle to fight against the pain and not make any embarrassing sounds of distress.
The woman—who must be Natalie’s mother—tutted and pressed more tightly on the towel, which only made Charlotte sway again.
“How did you end up injured?” she asked, the question sounding much softer and more sympathetic on her lips than it had on her husband’s.
But the reminder caused Natalie’s father to throw another suspicious look at both Charlotte and Easton. Another male voice sounded from the end of the corridor.
“Dane, Patti, why don’t you bring them in? There’ll be time enough to hear how she was injured once they’re settled.”
Easton stiffened at the sound of the voice. For one lingering second, he continued to match stares with Natalie’s father, and then he slowly turned to face the newcomer. “She was injured,” he said, “protecting me.”
A woman from further inside the house gave a muffled scream just as Natalie’s mother removed the towel from Charlotte’s arm. Charlotte looked down at the red that spurted from her gashed arm, felt a surge of pain, and blackness rushed over her, claiming all her senses.