Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (26 page)

She knew she’d be spending ten to
twenty in a dark dungeon swarming with bugs once she shoved that
glass down her throat. Someone bumped into her, making Sarah
stumble. She needed to breathe before panic consumed her. “Coming
right away, madam. I’ll fetch a bottle,” she said,
smiling.

She forged through the crowd to the
other side of the room when she saw two huge doors, the outside
entrance. Glancing over her shoulder, she scanned the room. The man
from before wasn’t following. There were no knights, only clueless
guests sipping on wine and laughing. Nobody on that side of the
room had any clue what was going on, and she was glad for their
drunken stupor. She placed her trembling hands on the iron handle
and slowly pushed, squeezing through the entryway. Outside, stars
twinkled in a blanket of darkness, and a chilly breeze ran over her
body. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself as her
breath came out in bursts of steam against the frosty night
air.

Strong arms gripped her shoulders,
throwing her up against the outside door. “You’re not getting away
that easy,” a male voice said.

Busted again, she turned slowly, fear
gripping her. The guy staring at her wasn’t the same one, but the
frown on his face looked just as mean. Her heart pounded in her
chest. She could have tried to run, but there were guards posted
every twenty feet. She took a deep breath and continued with her
role as a humble servant. “My shift’s over.”

“
This entrance isn’t for
slaves and riffraff,” he hissed. “Next time use the one in the
back.”

She let out a tiny sigh of relief,
keeping her head low. “It won’t happen again, sir.”

“
Over here!” She turned her
head toward the man hidden under a cloak, sitting on a brown horse.
He grinned at the guards, winking. “I’m here to escort this pretty
maiden home.”

The soldier shoved Sarah toward the
man. He wore a grotesque grin on his face. “At least somebody will
have fun with this trash tonight.” They all guffawed and laughed as
Sarah stumbled forward.

She hesitated for a moment though. She
knew if she stayed back, the guards might raise alarm. If she
followed the horseman, he might turn into a whacko who’d rape her
and dump her body into the next available ditch.

“
Come on.” The guy offered
his hand and whispered, “I’m Jules, Mia’s friend.”

Jules
! The sound of his name calmed
Sarah’s racing heart.
Mia’s
boyfriend.
Grabbing his hand, she let him
pull her up.

“
I know you must be tired
after your long day of work,” Jules said.

“
Yes, and I have to be back
tomorrow, bright and early.” She put her foot into the dangling
stirrup and heaved herself up into the saddle.

A soldier whistled, and the rest of
them cackled.

Oh
gosh!
It was then that Sarah realized her
leather dress had ridden up, exposing her entire thigh. She tried
to pull it down, but it was difficult to do while mounted atop a
horse.

Jules pulled hard on his horse’s
reins, galloping past the army of guards and into the moonlit
forest.

Sarah clung to his waist, praying she
wouldn’t fall. Relief washed over her when she realized nobody
seemed to suspect a thing. She shivered as the cool wind blew
through her hair. Crickets chirped, and an owl hooted in the
distance. Eerie shadows from branches jumped around in the silvery
light. “Are you taking me to Frank?”

“
Yes. Did everything go
according to plan? Is Mia okay?” Jules asked.

“
She was fine when I left,
but won’t they question her once they realize she’s not
me?”

“
My Mia can handle herself.
That is one of the things I love about her. But if anything should
happen to my love, I shall know who to blame—you and your male
companion.”

“
She’s very brave,” Sarah
said earnestly. “I’ll always be indebted to the two of you. Thank
you.”

He said nothing and only urged the
horse on through the woods.

Minutes felt like hours, but they
finally reached a wagon, which was situated under a towering tree
and loaded with bales of hay. As soon as Jules swung Sarah down
from the horse, she raced into Frank’s arms. “Oh,
Frank!”

He embraced her, and she felt the
warmth of his body against hers. “Did I ever tell you how smoking
hot you look in leather?”

She smiled, pulling her hair net off,
allowing her long curls to bounce freely against her shoulders. “So
you’re into Tastian servant girls, huh?”

“
You look absolutely
stunning in anything,” he said. He leaned closer and nuzzled her
neck. “You smell nice too.”

“
They curled my hair,
painted on as much make-up as an Egyptian princess, drenched me in
perfume, and threw me in a Cinderella dress.”

“
Let me guess… It struck
midnight and you lost the gown and glass slippers?”

She laughed. “Something like
that.”

“
I can’t believe I just
rescued you from a real-live castle.”

“
You should’ve seen the
inside, man.”

“
That nice, huh?” He gazed
at her intently, his hand cupping her face. “Did he hurt you? Did
that royal jackass put his hands on you in any way?”

“
He only stole a
smooch.”

“
On the cheek?”

“
Lips.” She winked. “And I
can’t say I didn’t like it,” she admitted as that magical kiss
flashed through her mind, washing her with guilt. She wasn’t sorry
about it though. In fact, she wished Victor had made it a longer
one, like all night. She cleared her throat, eager to change the
subject before Frank started asking questions. She held up her hand
with a grin. “Anyway, I got the ring.”

“
Our ticket out of here!”
His face lit up as he bowed. “My Queen, you rock.”

She grinned. “Yeah, baby—just like
this giant rock on my finger.”

He examined the ring, its large ruby
and tiny diamonds glinting in the moonlight. “It’s too big, way too
tacky. That bragging jerk.”

“
Right. It’s so ugly. I
mean, clearly, the man has no taste whatsoever.” She rolled her
eyes. “Are you kidding me? No woman in her right mind would say no
to something like this.”

Frank was jealous and he had every
right to be. The darn thing was gorgeous, almost as gorgeous as the
man who had placed it on Sarah’s finger. “You’re having a ball with
this, aren’t you?” he asked.

She touched his brown hooded cloak. “I
see you are too. Love the new digs.”

He smiled, his hazel eyes twinkling.
“An investigative reporter knows how to go deep
undercover.”

Jules approached and handed her a
cloak. “This shall keep you warm, miss. Now, if you will, please
take measures to hide and hide well.”

“
I made us a little fort
inside all these towering haystacks.” Frank reached for some folded
blankets on the ground beside the wagon. He hopped on the wagon and
spread a few out over the scratchy hay. “A bed fit for a
queen.”

She crawled inside and lay down next
to him, pulling the top cover over her. She didn’t know which one
itched most, the hay, the blanket, or the cloak Jules had given
her.

Jules rearranged the haystacks,
covering the entrance to their makeshift fort.

“
Nice little cubby hole you
got here, Frank,” she said. “What’s the matter? You couldn’t spring
for a decent hotel? I was kind of expecting a limo on my wedding
night, not a hayride.”

Frank snuggled up to her. “I tried to
call for a rental car, but they haven’t invented spark plugs yet—or
engines or tires, for that matter. They do have horsepower
though.”

Sarah rolled her eyes.

“
What?” Frank said. “You’re
not gonna laugh at my jokes?”

“
Gosh, Frank, if you ever
lose your job as a reporter, maybe the king could use a court
jester,” she said.

“
Well, that’s the last
straw!” he said, blowing a piece of hay in her direction, to which
Sarah just rolled her eyes again.

The horse snorted, and a moment later,
the wagon lurched forward. To call the ride bumpy would have been
an understatement. It rocked and thumped and bounced over every
bump and crack in the road.

“
I never thought I’d be
riding off into the sunset with another man’s wife—let alone a
queen—on the dude’s wedding night.”

“
I hope that’s not a
deal-breaker.”

Frank laughed. “That depends. Do I get
to enjoy the honeymoon?”

She laughed too, and then continued.
“No honeymoon, but I can tell you this. Life throws curve balls you
can’t even begin to imagine.”

He chuckled. “Tell me about
it.”

“
So how did you get these
people to do all of this anyway? And what did you promise Mia? Gold
minerals? Start from the beginning. What happened to you back in
the forest?”

“
I was running for my life
from a herd of beasts I said never existed. And I’m sure you’re
still laughing about that one.”

She grinned. “Just a tiny
bit.”

“
The next thing I know, you
disappear. I hear voices and start running toward them, but there’s
this guy in some ridiculous outfit calling you Princess Gloria. He
and his armored goons had you cornered, so I had to hang back so
they wouldn’t take me prisoner too. Then, when they cleared out, I
followed them and found you at the castle. Is this weird or
what?”

She snorted. “Thank goodness for
horses or you would have never been able to keep up. If you’d have
only had a car, you might have crashed it.”

“
Hey, those horses were
pretty darn fast. While I was looking for a telephone to call 911,
I ran into a group of rebels, some local boys who thought for sure
I was a spy for King Victor. They tied me up and threatened me, but
I used my charm.”

She pressed her hands into her lap,
suppressing the laughter bubbling up inside her. It was just like
Frank to put the spotlight on himself, even though she’d been the
one to survive incarceration and marriage to a barbarian. He got
paid to be a sensationalist, after all. “Really?” She bobbed her
head, brows raised. “And how did that work out for you?”

“
I finally bonded with them
over a few glasses of ale and told them about my situation. Then
they informed me that I am trapped in some other dimension. Of
course, at first, I assumed it was just the ale
talking.”

“
How do they know
that?”

“
Well, the legends
apparently go back for generations. They only know there’s a
magical portal that opens with that royal bling of yours. It’s some
kind of ancient door guarded by Bigfoot in the Forbidden Forest,
the very same one we came through. For goodness sake, I can’t
believe I’m even saying all this.”

“
How did you take the
news?”

“
I freaked out, of
course.”

She cringed. “How bad?”

Frank winced, pausing for a second.
“Let’s just say that one of them had to throw a bucket of water
over my head.”

Sarah laughed, wishing she’d been
there to witness it.

“
Mia gave me some info on
opening the portal, info that had been passed down from her
grandmother,” he said. “And the group offered to help me as long as
we promised to go to Global Mountain and get some minerals or
something to save Mia’s dad’s life. Only a royal with a wedding
ring can see the ancient minerals.”

“
So you volunteered me?”
She shook her head. “I know I never would have gotten out of there
without Mia’s help, but even still, how could you make a promise
like that?”

“
I had to do something
crazy to save you from being shacked up with Mr. Tyrant. And get
this…the group even knows your sister.”

“
Really? How? Are they sure
it’s her? Where is she? We have to go get her and—”

“
They specifically remember
your sister because they thought she was a witch when she screamed
like a maniac that she’d come through the portal. They even held a
trial, but she was found innocent when some rich guy named Charles
paid off the judges.”

“
Poor Liz! Oh, thank
goodness for that Charles. I couldn’t have lived with myself if
she’d been burned at the stake!”

“
We’re heading away from
the portal toward another country called Dornia. I got a tip your
sister may be there with this Charles dude.”

She stared at him in disbelief.
“Frank, don’t kid with me.” If he was playing any of his ridiculous
games, she vowed then and there that she would never speak to him
again.

“
No, I’m dead
serious.”

“
You mean she’s okay?
Alive? And we’re gonna find her?” Tears filled her eyes, and an
overwhelming sense of joy flooded through her.

“
Alive and in Dornia—at
least that’s what they tell me, but don’t get your hopes up just
yet. We don’t know if the source is reliable.” He caressed her face
and swiped away a falling tear with his thumb.