Chapter 5

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  • Dedicated to Hayley Skiggs
                                    

Ash waited until she turned the corner of the corridor before she started to run as fast as she could. She couldn’t wait for the lift, so she took the stairs two and three at a time, corridors flashed by with their lavish decorations on the walls; surprised people turned and stared when she dashed past them at a full run and through the reception area of the five star hotel where everyone was dressed in a suit or something similarly high class. None of it registered, for Ash it was just a blur of noise and colour before she finally burst through the front doors, sending an elegantly dressed man sprawling. He could have shouted something her way, Ash didn’t hear as she continued her mad careen through streets and around corners. This Ray, whoever he was, had saved her life but being around him was dangerous for her, that’s why she had to get as far as she could and hope that she would never meet him again.

Faeries don’t give out their names lightly, especially their full names. Since Ash had given this Ray character her first name, it meant that he could command her to do little things. Little things like answer questions and speak the entire truth. If she had given him her full name, well, she didn’t want to think about it. Right now all she wanted to think about was what she was going to do about a place to stay permanently and getting as far away from Ray as possible. There were also the nagging thought of the fact that the Knight found her so easily. She needed to think of a plan and quickly.

Ash turned another corner and stopped to catch her breath, leaning her back against the white washed concrete wall and rubbing her temples to try and get rid of the headache. Glamour could only go so far to block her senses, and Ironside’s fumes were starting to leak through. She had to get some real fresh air, maybe go to a park, or back to the woods. Ash couldn’t stop thinking about the human from earlier. Renzo, wasn’t it? It was so kind of him to lend her his shirt, well actually not minding when she borrowed it without asking. It smelled of him, a deep manly smell. Ash could smell his sweat, what his skin smelled like. No no no! She needed to concentrate on how she was going to stay alive, instead of lingering on how nice the man who rescued her smelled. Or how his eyes came alive when he laughed… No! She shook her head to clear it. The shirt obviously didn’t help; she became painfully aware of how it stuck to her sweat drenched body.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him. On one hand she should get rid of the shirt in order to remain focused, on the other, the scent of the human could confuse the senses of the Knight that was hunting her. She wasn’t sure which one was worse; she could not afford to fall for a human right now, no matter how delicious he smelled.

Ash closed her eyes, relieving all that had transpired so far: her flight from the palace, one peaceful night at a hotel and being chased and shot with no hope of survival. And then he came out of nowhere. Renzo…A saviour in the dark. He could have left me there, he had no reason to help, he shouldn’t even have heard my cries – they were so faint. I had no choice but to give him my name. I had to leave, if he had ordered me to stay, I would have had no choice. She squeezed her eyes tightly in frustration before remembering that she should probably not reminisce on a street corner.

She took a deep breath to steady herself and pushed off the building that she was leaning on. As she started to walk in a random direction, it became clear how battered her body really was. The muscles in her calves were letting her know that she’s been doing a lot of running lately and a loud rumble in her stomach reminded her of the need to eat something as soon as possible.

But whatever it was that her body told her, she couldn’t stop now. She couldn’t stop until she found a safe place to stay, if there even was such a place. Ash stared at her feet as she put one foot in front of the other, the terror which had been absent in Renzo’s hotel room suddenly making her strain for a breath. She tried to inhale deeply to calm herself, but it wasn’t working. Her hands were shaking and sweat started dripping from her brow. It felt as though phantom hands were at her throat and they were slowly squeezing, chocking the life out of her. Ash took a corner of the shirt to wipe her face and the panic receded, the only sense surrounding her was that smell. Renzo’s smell. She inhaled deeply, filling her senses so that there was no longer room for fear or terror.

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