Royals Saga 3 Crown Me (22 page)

E
verything stopped. The world stood still and the only thing stirring was the sound echoing through the phone.

The scrape of metal.

The smash of glass.

Then silence.

“Clara!” But I already knew she wouldn’t respond. My stomach twisted and I lurched to my knees, heaving stomach acid onto the floor.

Flames blazed to life, surrounding me. I fell back and stared at my hands, but there was no blood even though I’d felt the glass in my palms.

“Alex!”

My gaze searched the fire, looking for the voice, but I was alone in the devastation.

A million questions raced through my mind, seeking answers. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t where I was meant to be. Something under my hand vibrated. I lifted it to discover a phone. The screen flashed.

Call disconnected.

Why would I have a phone? My eyes darted back to the accident, only to discover I was in my father’s office at Buckingham.

No,
my
office.

It was a fucking dream.

No, a memory.

No!

It was happening again.

It was happening
to her.

“Alex!” Shaking accompanied the voice and I looked up to find Edward peering over me.

He snatched the phone out of my hand and called her name.

I shook loose some of the fog. I had to tell him she wasn’t there.

Disconnected.

We’d been disconnected.

It was my fault.

Metal shrieked in my ears and my fists pounded against them. I had to make it stop.

Edward spoke. He was on the phone. I had to tell him. “Norris is on his way there now, but call the local police and hospital.”

Norris. Police. Hospital. It wouldn’t matter, she was already gone.

No, she isn’t
, a small voice told me.
It’s time to fight.

I pushed to my feet. I had to fight. There was time.

Clara.

Clara needed me. This wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t a flashback.

My stomach threatened to heave again, but I held it down. “Where is she?”

“Norris was already on his way, and we’ve contacted the local police. She’s about fifty miles outside of London, near Salford.”

“I need to get to her.” I was out the door without another word. Edward followed on my heels.

“Alexander, medical professionals are on their way.”

“Do they have a medivac?”

“I’m on that,” he promised. “You need to go now. Norris is too far away, but I’ll find a driver.”

“Get me a helicopter,” I snapped.

“Emergency responders are on their way,” he repeated, ignoring my request.

I spun and shoved him against the wall. Right now I didn’t care if he was my brother or if he was trying to help me. I only cared that he listened. “Get me a goddamn helicopter.”

“You can’t fly in this weather.” He pushed me away, shaking his head.

“Six years flying over war zones says I can,” I hissed.

“Killing yourself won’t save her,” he said softly, reaching for my shoulder, but I shook him away.

“Not saving her will kill me.” I strode through the hall toward the stairs that led to the helicopter pad, calling behind me, “Get me a helicopter.”

“I’m on it,” he said without further argument. His eyes met mine across the hall. “You aren’t going to lose her.”

No, I wasn’t.

“We repeat: flying in this storm is not advised.”

“Air control, this is an emergency,” I shouted into my headset as I buckled in and started the engine.

“What’s your pilot ID?” a frustrated, disembodied voice demanded through my earpiece.

“Alexander Cambridge, King of fucking England,” I snapped back.

“Sir,” the man’s frustration immediately shifted to panic, “you can’t go up in this storm. We can’t allow—”

“Then arrest me,” I shot back, “but first give me my goddamn flight clearance.”

The blades sliced through the air, sending rain ricocheting across the windscreen as I opened the throttle and pulled on the collective, pressing my foot to the left rudder petal. I’d flown in worse conditions, but I’d had a much cooler head. Partly due to my training with the Royal Air Force and partially because I hadn’t cared if I returned from any of the missions I flew. I tried to find that place of detachment now.

Focus on the mission objectives.

Work from your list.

Don’t think too far ahead.

In weather like this I needed to stay in the moment or I was fucked. The thought of Clara, bloodied and soaked on the pavement, swam to my mind and I shoved it deep inside me.

“Focus.” Fear couldn’t control me. Fear couldn’t save Clara. Only I could do that. Her life was all that mattered, even if she walked away from me after.

The helicopter shuddered when I shifted from ascent to forward motion, but I adjusted smoothly despite the rain. I knew that only good pilots could land in the dark. Only great pilots could land in a storm in the dark. For the first time in my life I thanked God that I’d been sent to Afghanistan. Had every moment of my life been leading me to her? Had my mistakes actually served a purpose?

Edward’s voice filled my ear, relaying information about the status of the rescue team with air traffic interrupting every few minutes to remind me that touching down was going to prove difficult—and that getting back up in the wind might be impossible.

I beat on against the rain, slicing a path through the storm. Of course she had to be in the middle of fucking nowhere with no true trauma center nearby. Not one that I trusted to treat her. I wanted to hold her and shake her and kiss her at the same time. I sucked in a deep breath, mentally preparing myself for the reality that I’d be unable to do any of those things immediately.

A burst of wind swiped at the side of the chopper, rattling the entire vessel. If my calculations were correct, I would arrive any moment, but there were no flares on the ground yet.

“I hope one of you bastards has the sense to put down some flares,” I muttered, forgetting my headset was on.

“Norris has been in contact with the local police,” Edward reassured me over my headset. “He’s given them strict instructions for handling the scene. He was about half an hour out from the scene and should arrive shortly after you.”

It hardly made me feel better. I should have sent him after her immediately. Then this would never have happened. But I hadn’t expected her to leave London, because I hadn’t realized until it was too late that she was really leaving.

“Hey, get everyone off this line,” I told him. “I want to talk to you.”

A few moments later, my brother spoke again. “Just me, Alex.”

“If I don’t make it out of this. Marry David. Two Kings aren’t going to destroy the monarchy.”

“I don’t think it works that way,” Edward said wryly.

“Who the fuck cares. You’ll get to make the rules.”

“Sorry, I’m not interested in the position,” he informed me. “You’re coming back after you take care of my sister. Get her and that baby back here in one piece.”

“Will do,” I said in a clipped tone, unwilling to allow the emotions brewing inside me to boil over. I shut off my headset and shut down my brain. No one could help me land this now. It was up to me. Wind caught the rudder and I clutched the cyclic, white-knuckled, fighting to maintain control as the helicopter threatened to spin.

A vision of Clara, her porcelain skin glowing, flashed through my mind. Sunshine fell in sheets over the room, brightening the tranquil space and lighting upon her. She smiled shyly and glanced down at the bundle sleeping peacefully in her arms.

I jerked back on the cyclic, regaining control but losing the image. A moment later I armed the brake for descent and began to lower the aircraft. “I’m coming, poppet. Just hold on.”

The helicopter touched down roughly and my head whipped forward. I might be a little out of practice, but I would take it. On the ground the storm had abated, lifting the cloud cover enough for me to get a handle on my position as soon as my feet hit the soggy ground.

Asphalt glistened in the moonlight and I slogged toward it, battling the wet, overgrown grass of the countryside. I couldn’t risk blocking the road for incoming emergency crews, but I was within a mile of the accident if all the information fed to me in the air was accurate. I was close to her, but the thought did nothing to soothe the savage fear flooding through me. Emergency lights blinked just over the hill.

Focus.

Don’t think too far ahead.

I locked my panic into the darkest recesses of my mind and forced myself forward.

When I reached the road I saw it. The 4x4 rested on its roof, completely flipped onto the shoulder, a pool of shattered glass surrounding it. It wasn’t tall enough. The frame had bent in the crash. Before, it had comforted me that she’d taken the Range Rover—but seeing it now I knew it didn’t matter. Bracing myself, I raced forward but the closer I got to the violent scene the harder I fought to focus as old memories seeped into the moment.

The other car burst into flames and I ran to it, pushing past a fireman, but when I reached it there was nothing but the crushed remains of an older four door. The entire driver-side had been peeled back like tin can. Sarah’s dead eyes bored into me from the driver’s seat. I stumbled back with a gasp but when I forced myself to look again, a stranger stared blankly at me. He was dead. There was nothing I could do for him.

Clara. Focus.

“Sir!” A police officer hauled me away from the car, but it only made the rift between reality and the past worse.

The scene bombarded me, overwhelming my senses with latent memories of the crash that killed my sister. The cloying smell of spilled petrol hung in the air and I fought a wave of revulsion. This wasn’t six years ago. This was now.

But the weight of the moment collapsed onto my shoulders—the acrid scent of blood and burnt rubber nearly proving too much.

There were going to be questions. How would I explain this to my father?

Jonathan tugged at me, but I held her tightly as if I could breathe life back into her. Why hadn’t I driven? They shouldn’t have been at the club.

A strong arm jerked me onto my feet, and I snapped out of the flashback to find Norris pulling me out of the street.

“Get yourself together!” But I didn’t wait for him to continue. I wrenched free and sprinted the last few meters to the 4x4.

“Hey.” A medic caught my arm, trying to hold me back, but I shoved him out of the way. It was surrounded by first responders, one of which was rushing forward with a hydraulic cutter.

Norris caught up to me as I reached the 4x4. “Don’t let the past come between you. Not now that you have promised ‘til death do us part.”

His words tore through me. I had promised her. And all I’d done was make her question the sanctity of my vow.

I fell to my knees at the side of the crushed vehicle, barely aware of the glass and metal I landed on. Behind me, Norris intervened on my behalf with the first responders as I crawled through the battered window.

Clara’s head hung like a rag doll. Blood ran jagged across her face. She wasn’t moving, but she was wearing her seatbelt

Good girl.

I squeezed inside and reached for the hand that rested protectively on her belly.

It wouldn’t look like this if she was… It would be limp.

But all the logic in the world didn’t make it any easier to press my thumb to her wrist. Clara uttered a soft cry when my fingers closed over her skin and the tiny shred of hope I’d tucked away inflated.

“Poppet,” I said softly. “Wake up.”

But she didn’t stir again.

“Don’t move her,” an impatient, unfamiliar voice admonished me from outside the car. I’d ruffled someone’s feathers. “We’re going to cut away the door.”

“How long?” I barked, knitting my fingers through hers.

“Not long. Please come out.”

“I’ll come out when she’s out.”

“Your Highness…”

“Exactly.” That put an end to it.

When they were ready for the saw, I reluctantly shimmied free and a rough hand closed over mine, helping me to my feet.