Chapter 223
HANNAH
Driven out of sleep by a deafening crash, I jolted up, panting. I looked around slowly, trying to know where the sound came from.
Or wasn't it real? Had the sound been only in my head? But I hadn't been reaming or having any nightmares.
I remained very still, listening to sounds coming from outside my room.
There was nothing. I started to relax and then-
Pounding footsteps. Not of one or two but a whole lot of people. They became louder as seconds passed, outside my door, in the courtyard, and from the intensity, it seemed several people were marching in the Estate.
Goosebumps immediately masked my skin, the same way it always did whenever danger was close. Before I could even move, the night air was suddenly split by screams of agony and pain. From outside, a dull thud echoed and then a crash-like glass shattering.
I sat there, my muscles locked in place and then the adrenaline sent my heart pumping again. I scrambled out of bed, ran to the door jerked it open and staggered back just as there was a cry of "FIRE!"
Thick wisps of smoke curled in the air, making it hard to draw in a breath. Beneath the shouts and the screams and the yells was the unmistakable crackle of flames.
Some part of the Estate was on fire.
"No," I croaked, flattening myself against the wall as someone ran past me.
This couldn't be happening. This had to be another dream, another variation of the one I had been having, right?
Now I desperately needed to wake up. I dug my nails into my palm hard enough to draw blood. Pain followed but the picture in front of me, around me, did not waver for moment.
And then I realized. The dream was finally coming true. This was really happening.
Pounding footsteps approached from the other side of the corridor. I squinted to see through the gradually thickening smoke. A guard was coming. He got closer. I saw he was one of Alpha Wallace's personal guards.
His eyes were wide and fixed straight ahead as he dashed past, almost colliding with me. I stepped out of the way at the last instant.
"Wait!" I cried.
He didn't stop. I ran after him, and grabbed the front of his shirt. He paused, turning to face me with ha ardened expression. He reached for the dagger hanging from his belt.
"It's me! It's me!" I cried.
The light of recognition came into his eyes. He relaxed.
"Hannah..." he breathed, panting.
"What's going on? What's happening?" I asked.
I had to shout to be heard over the noises around us now.
"It's an attack," the guard gasped, shooting a frightened look over his shoulder and turning back to me when he saw there was no one there. "They came... We had no warning. They had the place surrounded and before we could do anything, they had access to the house."
I didn't know to ask who they were. It wasn't important at this moment. What was important was finding a way to overpower them.
*How many are they?" I asked.
"Too many."
I somehow managed to unclench my fingers around his shirt. He kept running, shouting something about other guards in the vicinity to join him.
As I stood there, my mind filled with the thought of only one person.
Willa.
For a sudden, insane moment, I couldn't remember which way Willa's room was. Then I took a deep breath and inhaled a lungful of smoke in the process.
Then I turned to the left.
I ran in that direction as fast as my legs could carry me while I fought to keep the panic at bay. Willa was not a fighter. In all the commotion, she could have been hurt. Or worse.
"No," I gasped, pausing for a second at the bottom of the stairs.
I dashed up them and ran smack into someone. I staggered backwards before looking at the person. It was no guard this time.
It was a man dressed in tattered-looking clothes with a bloody dagger clutched in one hand and a mask on.
He had to be one of those raiders at the market, I thought. But instantly, he dashed toward me, his dagger raised, the intent in the dark eyes I could see behind the slits of the mask very clear.
I dodged and felt the knife pass inches away from my cheek. I edged around him and pressed myself against the wall as he came at me again.
"Stop running, bitch!" he snarled.
He charged forward confident in the fact that it was terror that kept me immobile.
Eyes fixed on him, I let him come. At the last instant, I ducked and kneed him in the groin. The dagger fell from his hand. He went down on his knees, hands clutching his balls.
I dragged him forward a little and slammed his head against the stair rail as hard as I could. He went out like a light. I wanted to take his weapon but the big bastard had fallen on it. And every second I spent trying to get it out from under him was a second spent putting Willa's life in danger.
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