I think whenever I update, I'll do it on weekends. Just so I'm not pressured to update as soon as I get reviews you know? I get so excited when someone reviews that I want to write and finish and post a chapter immediately, but I never manage to and then I get discouraged and stop writing for a while. So yeah, I think weekends, when I can, are good. :)

Enjoy!

"You've been summoned."

Patricia's eyes immediately rolled in irritation at the guard's announcement. She and her friends her bound again and led down the dank dungeon hallway to a heavy door. The staircase behind it led to another door that was several yards from the kitchen entrance. Just as the guard stepped through the door after the girls, he collapsed on the stone floor after being hit in the head with a shovel.

The girls smiled in relief.

"I knew you'd save us, KT." Patricia sighed.

"I'd only risk my life for my best friend." KT laughed nervously as she cut the ropes from their wrists with a carving knife. "Come on, we have to hurry."

She and the others crept out of the kitchen, into the hallway that led to the throne room. KT felt around behind a window curtain and pushed on a specific place, which triggered the wall beside the window to slide inward and then to the side, revealing a dark passage way.

"I didn't know the palace had secret passages," Poppy whispered, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Perks of cleaning the whole palace from top to bottom." Patricia smirked, following KT down the passage after the wall had closed behind them.

Their heels clicked against the wet stone beneath them. Water dripped into a puddle from an unknown source. In certain parts of the tunnel, where the bricks were cracked, they could feel cool air blowing through. The only light came from KT's torch, behind them was darkness and before them was darkness.

"We're not going to fall into anything, are we?" Amber asked, her voice bouncing off the walls.

"No, we've been down here before. It's safe." Patricia answered.

"Usually when people say something is safe, it turns out to not be so safe." Poppy murmured.

"But we know where we're going," Patricia assured her.

KT switched the torch she held from her right hand to her left. "Only a little ways to go before we're at the end of the tunnel."

"Thank you so much, KT." Mara said.

"My pleasure, My Lady." KT bowed her head before pulling a lever at the end of the tunnel and the wall swung slide open just like the one in the palace.

They were in the garden.

Dante sat in the garden gazebo and casually looked around, noting that several guards had given themselves a break to gamble and laugh in one entrance to the garden. He noticed one of the palace walls opening and shot up, making his way to the girls that came through the wall.

All but KT looked scared to see him, assuming he would raise the alarm that they were escaping, but he cast one last glance at the occupied guards and then jerked his head toward the second garden entrance. "Come, your horses are saddled. I will help you leave."

When none of them followed them, he impatiently waved his hand. "Hurry, we do not have much time."

Poppy was the last to follow him, the most wary. She trusted Mara's judgement and Mara had been the second one to follow him and KT.

When the group reached the stables, Amber shrieked in horror when she was the first to see the three bodies that lay bleeding out in the hay. The guards that stood waiting for the girls grabbed Dante as well.

The cell door slammed shut behind the girls again and the guard locked it. Patricia angrily stomped off to a corner and leaned back on it, arms folded tightly across her chest. Poppy remained close to Mara, avoiding Dante's gaze. KT and Amber stood closer to the cell door to see better from the light of a single torch that was on the wall.

Rufus appeared to them, dark cloak dragged on the floor behind him, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"You're a foolish boy." He said, shaking his head in shame.

Dante wrapped his hands around the bars of his cell door across from the girls'. "You will be severely punished for this. I am still your king!"

"Only because my sister married your father. Though I don't know why she did. Your father was a coward. Just like you. Isn't that right, Poppy?"

Poppy's head shot up, stunned, realizing that he must have heard their conversation.

"You see, Princess, everything my nephew has ever said to you was true. That's why I had to take matters into my own hands. The lad was falling in love." Rufus sighed heavily. "Don't send a boy to do a man's job."

"Let them go. They do not have what you want, do they?"

Rufus arched an eyebrow at Dante. "I'm not sure just yet."

And he left the dungeon without another word.

"He is right." Dante murmured, slipping a hand through his dark hair.

"About what?" Poppy asked quietly.

"I was stupid. I should have known that was a trap. I am sorry, Poppy."

"It was all a plan. You asked KT to help you?"

"Yes."

"She could have gotten killed." Poppy spat, and Dante's eyes rose to meet hers in guilt.

"Princess, it's okay," KT spoke up boldly. "It was my choice to try to rescue you."

"Poppy is right," Dante said calmly, backing into the wall behind him and sliding down the stone until he was sitting on the floor. "I could have gotten us all killed, especially you, because he does not need you, KT."

"Why does he need us at all?" Mara inquired.

"He is looking for a key of some sort. That is all I know about what he is seeking."

Amber stopped stroking her arms for warmth. "Do you know what this key opens?"

"No. But I do know that whatever is being held behind the lock that key opens is power, a power my uncle can not ever hold if there's any hope to defeat him."

Jerome pulled on his horse's reigns, bringing it to a halt on the trail in the woods. Eddie and Alfie stopped a few feet ahead of him when they noticed that he wasn't with them any longer.

"What's wrong, mate?" Alfie asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Just a weird feeling."

Eddie could see the palace from the trail. He nodded toward it. "Come on, we're almost home."

"Welcome home, Sirs," The guard at the gate greeted with a tight smile, the enemy soldier behind him unseen by the three men.

"Thank you," Jerome nodded as they rode into the palace court yard after the gate was raised.

They steered their horses to the stables and dismounted. Eddie pushed the door open and Ra whinnied in fear, raising up on his hind legs, and the other two steeds did the same. "Woah, boy, what's the matter?"

"Eddie," Jerome gripped his arm and pulled him away from the door. Their eyes landed on the sight of blood that had startled the horses.

"What the hell…?" Alfie gulped.

"The girls," Jerome said, his heart picking up its pace at the thought that his wife and sister may be harmed.

Forgetting the horses, the three of them took off toward the palace entrance, hurriedly pushing the doors open. Jerome unsheathed his sword when his eyes landed on the man that sat in his father's throne.

"Took you long enough," Rufus huffed.

This was a shorter chapter than the last two. :/

"There's nothing I can do, my heart is chained to you, and I can't get free. Look what this thought's done to me. And it's killing me when you're away, I wanna leave and I wanna stay. I'm so confused, so hard to choose, between the pleasure and the pain." -Not Strong Enough, Apocalyptica

Apocalyptica is one of my latest obsessions.

That and 00Q - has anyone else seen the new James Bond movie Spectre? Reviews said that it was the best Bond movie, but I totally don't agree. Skyfall is my favorite for reasons - *Silva*. And btw the opening song was the worst song a 007 movie has ever had. But anyway the only thing that I really really liked about the movie was Q and the way he and Bond interacted. Q was already one of my favorite characters (both Q1 and Q3 - Q2 was meh) since the beginning and Spectre is the movie that made me start shipping 00Q so yeah. :D

Stay amazing, lovelies. xx

-Rachel