The Bell of Freedom (King and human romance)✔

Chapter Forty-Three

The entire wheel starts to lean over, flying me into the seat. I keep a tight grip of the carriage bars but it won't save any of us if the whole thing tips. There is a long pause and I take a deep breath as I think it's stopped.

"The ride is unsafe," a creature says as his arms stretch into the carriage to try and pull my arm. "We must remove you."

"No, help them first," I say, pointing to the other carriages.

"Go help them," he says to the other creature. "I've got this."

The creature slides his hands around my waist and pulls me out whether I like it or not. Other creatures drop down to help secure the other squealing humans out, I am carried back down to the ground and placed beside a small cabin.

"Stay here and don't move," he says, before taking off towards the wheel.

I place a hand above my eyes as I look up at it. It's no longer vertical, the wheel has been bent forwards several feet. It has stopped now but what caused that? Is it just a coincidence that after eight years it decided to fall apart at the exact moment Cain received startling news?

I turn my head as something fast runs at me from my left. Blake grabs my hand and starts pulling me behind the cabin.

"We have to move, now," he says.

"What the hell is going on?" I say.

He forces me to run with him through a secluded plot of land, running in this heat is not the best idea and I pause inside the woodland as I keel over panting.

"Aurora, we have to keep moving."

"Why are we running?" I pant. "I need a minute."

Blake jogs back over to me and looks across the land, turning his head in all directions until he's satisfied that nothing's there. "The sky isn't safe right now. Whoever just tipped that wheel over is still out there."

"A creature did that?"

"There's an intruder," he says. "The guards lost her once she infiltrated the wall, she's disguising herself as a human."

"Thea," I mumble.

"Thea is a world leader, Aurora. She has dozens of followers that she'll manipulate into doing anything she says, including betraying the King. It might be one of them. They didn't get a good look at the intruder, only that she's female."

"Cain's looking for her?"

Blake nods.

"Where's Jackson?" I say. "What if she goes after him?"

"He's safe, don't worry. Thea's followers act like spies. She usually uses them to infiltrate and gain information on our kind but in this case, it is more like an assassination. You are her target."

I lean against the tree as I bite on my trembling finger. One creature against thousands, the odds are massively against her, so why do I feel this afraid? There's an entire park full of humans and innocent children that the creature could use to lure me out and I'd willingly go into danger if any of their lives were at risk.

I remove my finger as I hear something coming from inside the trees. Blake and I exchange a look.

"Help!" someone cries.

Blake shakes his head at me. "Aurora, no."

I start running before he has the chance to stop me, I'm too fast for him but he catches me at the last second as I stop and stare at the injured girl laying down in the middle of a small field. She's on her back, blood spraying from her mouth as she tries to scream. Blake pushes me back by my shoulders.