Chapter 11
Andi's POV
The door opened and slammed into the wall beside it. In the doorway stood members of the palace guard, a branch of the Military Police which guarded the palace and the royal family. I recognized them all as some of Gerard's henchmen. They all wore malicious grins, and that was when I knew I wasn't getting out of this place unscathed.
"What?" snapped Levi as he whipped his head to examine our interrupters.
"Princess?" Specialist Cunningham asked. I immediately slapped my hands over my face in the hopes of postponing my identification for just a little longer. "Princess Andrea?" he called out with a lilt. He was mocking me.
"Come on out sweetheart," Sergeant Jules cooed sarcastically. A chorus of evil chuckles resonated throughout the small room.
"The princess isn't here," Levi said firmly. "I already told you."
"Then who's the young lady over with the lopsided hair?" Cunningham mocked. I couldn't take the lies anymore, couldn't take them taunting him and belittling him, so I removed my hands from over my face and stood.
I saluted.
"Cadet Andi, Survey Corps," I said slowly, a smirk slowly crossing my face. "Sir."
A hand whipped across my face. Specialist Cunningham stood before me, infuriated. He held my cut ribbon-wrapped hair in his fist, the hair I had thrown into the well when I escaped the palace.
"Oh God," I whispered. Cunningham suddenly yanked my head back and held the severed hair up to my own. It matched perfectly it color and cut-line.
One of the Sergeants sneered from behind me and fingered the ribbon tying off the severed hair.
"Only the finest silk ribbons for the princess," he mocked. I bit back tears as Levi looked at me with that same stoic look I had worked so hard to break down. I had betrayed him. I had lied to him.
"Just leave," I told him quietly. "Leave before they get you, too."
"They're not going to get me, brat," he spat at me. He was unable to keep the hurt from his voice.
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Cunningham said as he pulled something from his jacket. A silver chrome revolver bearing the royal seal gleamed in his hand.
"Those are illegal," Levi said. "This whole thing is illegal. Don't think I won't report this."
"Do you think they care," I spat back, more at Cunningham than at him. I felt the cold muzzle of the gun rest against my temple for what must have been the hundredth time in my life. But, this time, I was terrified. Gerard would stop at nothing to keep his position, and saying the princess was killed by her kidnappers would be the perfect cover-up. Not only that, but the nation would be outraged, banding together as one to try and weed out the killers. Gerard would be unstoppable.
"Go ahead and kill me," I egged him on. "I'm not going back to the palace."
"I figured you would say that, and I was having a hard time coming up with a way to respond," Cunningham said. "Until now."
He turned the gun on Levi.
"Don't even think about it, Cunningham," I warned. I could feel the tell-tale embers of power fanning to life in the pit of my stomach.
"Ah!" he and his cronies laughed. "It seems she does have a weak spot after all! And the king made it sound like it was going to be difficult."
"Not him," I begged. "Kill me. Kill me instead. Gerard would love it."
"Oh, Gerard fully plans to have you killed," he said. "But he wants to see you suffer first." I shuddered.
"Then why does he need to die!?"
"Oh, he doesn't need to die. Not if you just come with us like a good little girl. Of course, we'll have to bring Shorty here with us." I felt my fists clench again as an electric current crackled at the tips of my fingers.
"Leave him out of this, shithead. I'm warning you."
"Oh, she's getting feisty! I wonder just how feisty she'd be in bed."
"Didn't you already try her out, David?" one of the Sergeants asked. I felt like I was about to cry.
"Not yet, but I'm sure the king would oblige me. I mean he does it with her all the-"
Before he could finish his sentence the gun was in my hand and pressed against his forehead.
"Leave," I growled. "Leave right now and I'll spare you. Otherwise you're nothing but a greasy spot on the opposite wall."
Cunningham's cronies pulled guns of their own from their jackets.
"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Princess." A revolver rammed into the back of my skull and I was out before I could move.
