The Prince's Bride Part 2 - J.J. McAvoy Page 0,112

I tried to get her to get back up. But she wasn’t. Searching around, all I saw was more chaos and people running, yelling. Eliza was already screaming beside us, and more people came to me.

“Sir, stand back! Stand back!” Wolfgang pushed me before stabbing her with something. Then a second time. It was only then that she inhaled. Turning to me, he said, “We need to get her to the hospital!”

That was all I needed to hear. Lifting Odette off the floor, she slumped in my arms, and I ran. I ran as fast as I could, pushing whoever I could out my way. “Odette? Odette?” I called out, but she didn’t wake.

“Get me an ambulance!” I hollered, rushing out into the corridor.

“Sir, this way!” Iskandar was already running, leading me toward the front of the palace where the in-palace doctor, as well as two nurses, were also rushing.

“What happened?”

“She’s allergic to peanuts!” someone I didn’t know yelled.

I just stared at Odette’s ashen face, going where they led me until the cold air slapped across my face as we stood outside, a stretcher and ambulance already there. When? How? I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t care less as they were trying to take her out of my hands.

“Your Highness, give her to us!”

I held on.

“Your Highness! She needs to go!” They ripped Odette from my arms and placed her body on a stretcher, immediately putting oxygen to her face, then put her in the back. I tried to get in, but they held back.

“Sir, let the doctor go! She needs the doctor!” Iskandar yelled at me.

“What is her BP?”

“Where is her pulse?”

I watched as the ambulance doors closed and tires screeched over the gravel, rushing out of the palace gates. It was all so fast.

“Thelma, get the car! We will follow from behind. Everyone shut down the palace! No one gets in or out! No one!” Iskandar barked out orders, still holding on to me.

However, I pushed him off.

“Sir?”

Stepping forward, I stared at the crown that was now on the gravel. It had fallen off Odette’s head and to the ground. I had seen her face. I’d seen her collapse, and I’d seen her get into the ambulance on a stretcher. Yet it never occurred to me. It never hit me. Only at seeing her crown on the ground did I realize—

She was dying.

“Ugh.” I gasped out, stumbling back.

“Sir!”

That familiar feeling of dread and pain that came over me at losing Arty returned once more.

“Odette!” I screamed.

“Sir!”

“Do not touch me!” I hollered, shaking him, looking around. “Where is my car? Where is my fucking car?”

“It’s here!” He pointed, and I was running toward it.

“We’re going now, sir. Get in!” Wolfgang already held the door open for me.

Odette. Odette, you better not fucking die. “Please don’t. Please.”

He hadn’t moved in an hour. He stood like he was held to the ground by invisible roots. His head down, his arms wrapped around himself, barely breathing as we waited in the private wing of the ER—just him, Thelma, and me. Iskandar was outside the ER with the other guards, speaking to the palace. It was just like when Prince Arthur had died. No one wanted to believe it had happened. Everyone was kicking themselves as they tried to think about what they could have done better.

The truth was I did not know Prince Arthur. I was sad, but I’d never spoken to him or had any of the deep connections that other people did. Everyone had some story about Prince Arthur, but he was just the Adelaar to me, my future king, whom I respected and wished well. So I was upset he was gone, but it didn’t gut me. Iskandar pretended as if nothing bothered him, but Prince Arthur’s death had hit him hard. He was much stricter with everyone, even himself.

I tried to think of how I would feel if Odette died, but I couldn’t even finish. It hurt too much. They were our rulers. We weren’t supposed to get to close, but we did. She was important to me. She was my friend. And I had stabbed that EpiPen into her as hard as I could. As her assistant, it was my job to know as much about her as I could, so when I had read that she had a severe peanut allergy, I carried two with me at all times. I didn’t think anything of it. I never expected to have to use it because everyone in the