DUSK'S POV
My hands flew to my mouth, and I tried my best not to scream.
Dalia, who was with me a second ago, lay on the floor in pieces, and her blood trailed across the grass.
Tears fell from my eyes rapidly as shaky breaths escaped me.
"Is she the only one? What about the second one? I knew something was up with them, but the Prince never listens," I heard. That was the voice of the scary man, and I ran.
I ran as fast as I could with my wolf powers at their fullest. My heart thumped loudly in my chest, and I couldn't believe what had happened.
My tears fell fast from my eyes, and I began to sob. I had only known Dalia for a little while, but I got to see that she was only misled by her choice of friends.
Ariadne hadn't allowed the goodness in Dalia to surface, and it was so horrible that I witnessed her last moments, and her last moments had been terrible.
I saw a large tree next to the castle wall and began to climb.
As I climbed, I heard the sound of the men and climbed faster.
Once I was high up in the tree, I paused so I wouldn't make sounds that'd alert them.
The scary man had a basket in his hands, and the basket dripped with blood. In it was Dalia's chopped body; I saw her head, and it seemed like her open eyes were staring at me.
"We'll get the other and chop her into this basket too!" He grunted, and I held my mouth tight to muffle any sound that escaped.
Immediately after they left, I climbed over to the other side of the tree carefully.
It was going to be a high and dangerous jump, but it was what I had to do.
I jumped down and landed on my feet, but immediately fell to the floor, almost screaming out in pain.
Nevertheless, I brought myself to my feet and started to run as fast as my legs could take me.
My horse was in the Palace, but I didn't even dare give it a thought.
I kept on running with the petals of the black flower clutched tight in my hand.
When I got to a stable, I stopped, took a deep breath, straightened my hair, and walked as normally as I could.
The last thing I needed was seeming suspicious.
"I need a horse," I said in a controlled voice.
"Where's a pretty lady like you going at such a time of night?" He said with a nasty smile.
"I'm gifting it to somebody, and I'm kind of in a hurry," I said, and he held out his hands.
I was really impatient; I had no time to waste.
I knew they'd realize I was gone and would come looking for me, so I needed to be far gone by that time.
"What do you want?" I asked, and he gave an annoying grin.
"Money. Or do you have something more enticing to give me?" He asked as his voice trailed lazily over my body.
I took off my earrings, necklace, and bracelets hastily and dropped them all in front of him.
His jaw fell open, and he stared at me.
"You've got a horse, Miss," he said and went to get the horse.
"You have a jar of some sort?" I asked, and he nodded.
After handing me the horse, he went inside and returned with a jar.
"Thank you," I said and straddled the horse immediately, kicking it into a walk. I put the petals into the jar and locked a bit of the sash of my dress into it so it could hang there safely.
Once I was out of the horseman's beady eyes, I kicked the horse into a run and rode as fast as I could dare to.
I rode throughout the night and didn't have the intentions of stopping.
Then all of a sudden, three figures jumped in front of my horse, making it rear up in surprise and throw me off.
I groaned and stood up immediately.
There were three beta wolves in front of me.
"Hey beautiful," one of them said.
"Let me keep the horse first before we get into business, shall we?" I said and tied the horse with a vine.
"Riding at this time of the night. Running from something?" The second asked, but I shook my head and didn't wait for their next sentence. I broke into a run as that was the only thing I could think of.
"Catch her!" The third screamed, and they came after me.
I knew they were a lot faster than me because I was just an omega, while they were men and betas.
But I spotted something that could be my saving grace.
Water.
Without knowing if they'd jump in or not, I threw myself in it and went deep down without bothering to swim up.
I swam far away, only raising my head when I was behind a rock.
I watched them search the water for me, blaming each other.
"She's dead. Let's go." They said and walked away instead of turning back the way they came.
It meant I could still get to my horse.
After making sure they were gone, I swam out of the water and went back to my horse.
"My petals!" I exclaimed but gave a sigh of relief when I discovered they were still hanging next to my sash.
I freed the horse and continued my journey.
I rode until morning, pushing the horse beyond its limits.
"I'm almost there!" I said the minute I saw the Palace. "You can do it! You can take me there." I said to the horse.
As I ran into the Palace, everyone was shocked and tried to talk to me, but I brushed everyone away rudely.
"Pave the way!" I exclaimed in agony of what I'd meet when I got to the Physicians' quarters.
"Make a potion!" I said to the Physicians the moment I opened the door.
But the sight was horrible.
Marcus was by Lucius' side with eyes red from crying, and gloom hung in the air.
Then the physician turned to me.
"He stopped breathing."