“Alright, let’s move,” I whisper to Snow, and she just nods at me and pulls her hood up. The night is silent, and there’s already a somber fog settling in — the capital used to be such a lively place, even during the night, but all that ended now that Moira has instituted mandatory curfew.

“Did it work?” She asks me as we walk down an alley, careful enough to keep our voices down. Even though none of St. Carlta’s citizens seems to be ready to side with Moira, I don’t want Snow to expose herself more than necessary. Which is kinda ironic, since this is exactly the way the gears in our plan start to turn — by exposing Snow.

I drove her into the capital today, and I made sure that she was seen by Moira’s spies just a few minutes ago. Right now, the palace is afire with word that the Princess is back in town — soon enough, the streets will be swarmed by the military, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they’ll go door to door.

Moira won’t be able of holding back, and she’ll push the population to their breaking point. Once the searches and arrests start, she’ll have war in the streets. And I fucking made sure of that — this morning I left Snow in the safehouse and visited each and every pocket of resistance I’m aware of. With their efforts coordinated, all they need is to see the military rolling down the main streets to give Moira a taste of her own venom.

“Yeah, I think so,” I finally reply, looking across the street. Our safehouse is right on the other side, but there’s already a police car parked out front. Shit! I should just turn around and leave, but I can’t let anyone get their hands on anything we have inside there — specially the list William sent me earlier this morning, the one with names and addresses of the men leading the revolution efforts in the capital. If the Queen gets her hands on that, then we’re all fucked.

“What do we do?” Snow asks me, and I turn on my heels to face her.

“I’ll be right back,” I whisper, pushing her back into the shadow of the alleys. With what I hope to be a confident smile, I lean in and kiss her. With the strawberry flavor of her mouth on my lips, I then cross the road with a few wide strides.

The moment the cops inside the car spot me, they open their doors and step onto the street.

“Hey theeere, officers!” I slur, taking an awkward step toward them. They look at each other, confused, and I think they believe I’m just a stupid drunkard that didn’t care about the curfew.

“Mister,” they start to say impatiently, one of them placing the palm of his hand on his gun. “You’re breaking curfew and —”

Without allowing him to finish his sentence, I close the distance between us as fast as I can. Holding his hand down, I stop him from taking his gun out and bring my forehead down, crashing it into his nose. He keels over from the pain, and I sidestep him fast — cocking my arm back, I then punch the other cop right in the face, and he falls back over the hood of his car.

And, just like that, it’s fucking done — and without breaking a sweat. I can’t help but feel sorry for these guys, though. They’re probably just following orders from some fucking higher-up, and I show up to ruin their fucking day. Well, at least they’ll only wake up with a broken nose and an headache, nothing more than that.

Waving at Snow, I smile as I see her walk out the shadows. Keeping her hood up, she crosses the street with that elegant strut of her, and I find myself biting my lip as I look at her.

Not now, idiot, I admonish myself, taking the reigns of my mind. As much as I’d like to step inside the safehouse with Snow and fuck her until I collapse from exhaustion, I have to keep my shit together right now.

“We gotta get out of here,” I tell her the moment she catches up with me. We enter the apartment building and, the moment I step inside the safehouse, I let out a sigh of relief. The place is exactly as we left it, and no one seems to have messed around with the laptop I left in the desk we set up in the living room.

“Do you think they found out about this place?” She asks me nervously, and I just look at her and smile.

“Doesn’t matter,” I reply with a shrug. “Even if we’ve been made, we got more of these safehouses around the city. We just need to stop using this one,” I continue, stuffing the laptop inside a backpack. Taking one last look around the apartment, making sure that we won’t leave anything behind, I grab Snow’s hand. “Let’s go.”

Leaving the building in a hurry, we head straight to the black van I’ve parked in an alley nearby. We get inside and, minutes later, we’re already rolling down the highway. My heart almost fucking explodes as we drive by a convoy of army vehicles, all of them heading toward the capital centre, but none of them seems to care about us.

By the time I drive inside the fortress’ large hangar, where we keep all our vehicles, Snow is already fast asleep. It’s been a four hour drive, and she was so exhausted that she spent most of the trip with her head on my shoulder. As for me, I spent these four hours with a fucking hard-on.

“Hey,” I whisper, gently nudging her. “We’re home.”

Lazily opening her eyes, she smiles at me and rubs her eyes. She looks so fragile and innocent, and yet...she’s the bravest woman I’ve ever met.

“Our plan...did it work?” She asks me.

“Let’s find out,” I reply, reaching for the radio and turning it up. I go through a few of the more standard stations, but none of them seem to be reporting anything — Moira really has a tight grip on the media. But, of course, there are always the outliers.

Tuning in on one of the pirate radio stations, I hold my breath as I hear the excited voice of the man on the other side of the radio.

“...marching in the street. The military has tried to crackdown on protesters, but the people finally decided to rise up against what they see as an usurper. Even though a large part of the military refused to raise arms against their fellow citizens, a force of loyalists to Queen Moira has already started to dispel the protesters through the use of violence.”

“This is it,” I tell Snow with a nod, turning off the radio. “Revolution is here.”