Cali grabbed onto the wall as all of the strength in her legs gave out. What the hell?!?

Anna’s mate Berinon was growing taller than King Kong. She sucked in a breath and hurried to the wall with her heart pounding as she looked up at the giant in disbelief.

His clothes had ripped away and his naked body was taller than the castle. Her stomach dropped when she saw Draven in his hand. His face was red and twisted in pain as he struggled to get out of the giant’s grasp, but he couldn’t budge. Berinon was too big and too strong.

“Cali?” her mother’s small voice said from behind her.

Cali was too absorbed in the shocking scene to look back.

“Oh, my gosh,” her mother gasped when she saw what Cali was looking at. She rushed out of bed and joined her side, squeezing her arm with a tight grip as she looked out the window. “Is that… Berinon?”

Cali didn’t answer. She was holding her breath as she willed Draven to break free.

Get out of there. Come on…

It wasn’t doing any good. He wasn’t able to move.

Cali gasped and her mother let out a scream, waking Anna up when the giant shifter slammed Draven into the ground with a thunderous punch.

No…

Cold chills raked through her as Berinon lifted his giant hand and she saw Draven’s crushed body lying on the ground below. He wasn’t moving.

No, no, no, no, no.

Why wasn’t he moving? Why wasn’t he getting up to fight back?

She had trouble breathing as she watched with an ache in the back of her throat. He looked dead.

Why didn’t I leave with him when I had the chance?

The renegade thought just popped into her head out of nowhere. Of course, I couldn’t have gone.

She couldn’t have left her mother and Anna. No matter how much she was tempted to leave with him.

Berinon’s huge body began to shrink as she looked out the window. Terrowin came running out of the castle down below and her eyes narrowed on him as her body tensed. She hated him more than anything for what he did to her and her mother, and now she hated him for what he was doing to Draven.

She watched with her pulse racing as he grabbed Draven’s limp arms and yanked them behind him. Berinon shrank fast, returning to his normal size as Terrowin pulled Draven up to his feet.

He came back for me. He’s here because of me.

Her chest tightened as she watched them drag the mysterious stranger into the castle. Guilt sank into her bones as she stared at the crater where Draven’s broken body had landed.

“Who was that?” her mother asked as she leaned out the window, looking around in shock.

“What happened?” Anna asked, rubbing her eyes as she sat up in bed.

Cali stayed by the window as her mother ran over to the bed and told Anna what they had just seen.

“You don’t know who it was?” Anna asked after hearing the story.

Cali’s mother shook her head. “I’ve never seen him before.”

“His name was Draven,” Cali whispered, feeling sick to her stomach as she turned away from the window. She knew how cruel Terrowin and Berinon could be and she wanted to puke from just thinking about the pain and torture that Draven was about to go through at their hands. All because of her.

Anna and her mother whipped their heads around, staring at her in confusion.

“How do you know his name?” her mother asked her.

“He was here,” she whispered as she walked to her bed. She sat down on it and pulled her legs into her chest, holding them tightly. “At the window.”

The two women just stared in shock as they waited for her to elaborate.

“He wanted to take me out of here,” she said, “but I said no.”

“You said no?!?” her mother yelled, exploding off the bed. Her face turned from anger to anguish in the blink of an eye. “Why would you say no?”

Cali swallowed hard as she looked up at her mother through teary eyes. “I didn’t want to leave you and Anna alone.”

“Oh, Caliburnus,” she said, sinking to the bed beside her. Cali melted into her embrace as she wrapped her arms around her. “All I want is for you to get out of here. I want you to live your life and be free.”

The tears started coming as Cali tried to squeeze her eyes shut against her mother’s comforting chest. The reality of what just happened hit her like a knockout punch. Her chance at leaving was over. Draven was caught. She would grow old and wrinkly in this tower, spending the rest of her life in here like Mary and Clara had.

She would never kiss a boy, she would never feel warm sand between her toes, she would never experience a man’s love, or go to college, or get a job.

Her life would only consist of the inside of this tower, and worst of all, now she had to live with the fact that she once had a chance to leave and didn’t take it.

“You shouldn’t be in here,” her mother said in a quivering voice. “I hate that I got into that limousine. This is all my fault.”

Cali squeezed her eyes shut as she felt her mother’s warm tears land on the top of her head.

“It’s not your fault, mama,” she whispered, squeezing her mother tight.

“It is,” she whispered back. “And I’m so sorry. The next time some handsome stranger comes to the window offering to rescue you, you take it. Okay?”

Cali nodded, not saying what her and her mother both knew.

There would be no next time.

* * *

Cali woke up a few hours later in her mother’s arms. Her eyes were heavy and she had a terrible headache as the afternoon sun shone down on the bed.

The sound of voices outside caused her to jerk up in bed beside her sleeping mother.

“What’s going on?” she asked Anna as she jumped out of bed. There was a commotion outside.

Anna was sitting on the couch knitting. “American tourists,” she said with a roll of her eyes.

That was nothing new. They were in a spectacular medieval castle and from time to time, tourists would show up trying to get a tour. Security would always escort them off the premises, explaining that it was a private castle and not open to tourists.

Cali still hurried over to the window and looked out. There were three muscular men arguing with a guard who looked like he was getting beyond frustrated with them.

“I told you,” the guard snapped. “It’s not open. Now leave!”

“Just one peek,” the man with the mohawk said. “We won’t touch a thing.”

They didn’t look like regular tourists who usually came with cameras hanging around their necks and maps stuffed into their back pockets. They looked like they had just come from a bodybuilding competition. They were huge.

“Look,” the one with the short cropped beard and brown hair said. “We just want to take a look around. That’s all.”

The guard turned to him with an angry huff of breath. “What part of private residence do you not understand?”

“Oh, we understand,” the third one with the wavy blonde hair said, nodding with a knowing look on his face. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some cash. “We understand very well,” he said as he stuffed a bill into the guard’s hand.

The guard opened his hand and looked at the bill with a frown. “This is only five quid.”

“Plenty more where that came from,” the one with the mohawk said as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a coin and added it to the man’s hand. “Now you have six.”

“Enough,” the guard said, tossing the money on the ground. His hand settled on the gun that was hanging on his hip.

What are they doing?

Cali had seen some obnoxious tourists before, but these three took the top prize. If they weren’t careful, Terrowin or Berinon would come out and she was sure that none of them wanted that.

She fought back the urge to warn them and tell them to leave. Terrowin had made it crystal clear that they were forbidden to scream, talk, or make themselves known in any way to the outside world.

“We’ll throw you in the dungeon under the castle,” he had warned, “and we’ll make you watch as we cut the throats of the innocent people you talked to.”

“Go,” the guard shouted, losing his patience. “I’ve had enough of you three.”

The flag hanging on top of the wall flapped as the wind changed direction. She noticed the three tourists raising their heads as they sniffed the air. Their eyes sparked in recognition as they turned to look at each other.

“Actually, we’re looking for a friend,” the bearded one said. “Red hair, red beard, tiny nipples.”

Cali’s back straightened as her stomach dropped. Were they friends with…

“You’d know him if you saw him,” the one with the mohawk said. “Answers to Draven, Daniel Boone, Chief, or Drav-anus.”

The guard stepped back and pulled the walkie-talkie off his belt. The blonde one grabbed his wrist before he could put it to his mouth.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warned in a fierce voice.

The guard opened his mouth to yell, but the bearded one threw a quick punch that landed on his chin, knocking him out cold. The guard collapsed to the ground unconscious as the guy with the mohawk threw his hands in the air with an ‘ugh.’

“I wanted to punch him!” he complained like a spoiled kid.

“You can punch the next guard,” the bearded one promised as he pulled the unconscious guard behind a bush. “You guys smelled that, right?”

“Oh, yeah,” the blonde one said, cracking his knuckles as his arms flexed. “He’s in there all right.”

“That’s what I thought,” the bearded one said. “Let’s go get him.”

Cali watched in shock as the three men rushed into the castle.